Mustangs keep pace in Section 3-AAA
GREENSBURG – Laurel Highlands kept pace with the big boys in Section 3-AAA Friday night by holding off Greensburg Salem, 53-47, in a game matching two of the four section front-runners. The win kept Laurel Highlands tied with Yough and Belle Vernon at the top of the standings at 5-1. Greensburg Salem fell to 4-2.
“Anytime you win a game on the road, in the section, it’s extremely positive,” said Laurel Highlands coach Rick Hauger.
Laurel Highlands had to sweat out a Greensburg comeback from 11 points down with 2:45 to go. Laurel Highlands actually held a 14-point lead with 5:09 left, but Greensburg cut the lead to 3 on a 3-point basket by Brennan Marion with 57.8 seconds left. Greensburg didn’t score again until an instant before the final buzzer.
“They got hot, but I thought we held our composure,” Hauger said.
Dan Stefancin sank a pair of free throws with 52 seconds left, and with 31 seconds left point guard Chris Miller took an outlet pass off a Greg Forse defensive rebound and drove the court for a lay-up and a 52-45 lead.
It was a key basket, but Miller bypassed an opportunity to take precious time off the clock. It was one of those “no-no-no, yes-yes-yes” moments for a coach.
“I was in disbelief,” Hauger said. “Just before that I’d said unless we have a clear lay-up let’s take a little time off the clock. But, you know, that’s a confidence builder for him and it’s good to see he had the confidence to make a play in a crucial situation. So we will now chalk it up as a positive. At the moment it was happening I wasn’t so sure.”
Miller and Forse combined to score 17 points. The leader for Laurel Highlands was 6-foot-2 freshman center Kaleb Ramsey with 20 points. He scored 14 in the first half and fought through foul trouble in the second half.
“He just keeps getting better,” Hauger said. “He has an opportunity to be a real special player, but it takes more than one and certainly I thought it was a real team effort. Greensburg runs a real nice offense. They’re really hard to defend. When they have the ball, the pressure’s on. You have to defend them, and I thought we held our own in that regard. I thought we probably played our best defensive game of the year.”
Laurel Highlands confounded Greensburg into its poorest shooting night of its home season so far. Greensburg made only 15 of 52 shots, or 29 percent, from the field.
“This is one of the best shooting teams I’ve had in the last four or five years,” said Greensburg coach Paul Sapotichne. “We’re shooting 47 percent from the field and 43 percent from the 3-point line, and we were 3 for 20 from the three (last night). I’m not saying we just shot poorly. Laurel Highlands played well and played hard.
“Thank God we played good defense because if you shoot 15 for 52 you should lose by 30, but we were down three with 57 seconds to go and it was pretty amazing considering how we were shooting.”
Sapotichne praised Laurel Highlands, particularly the inside play of Ramsey, who led all players in scoring and rebounding (11), and the defensive work of Forse, who limited Paul Matthews to 7 points. The Greensburg coach didn’t have too much good to say about his team’s production.
“We were equal opportunity missers – threes, drives, short jumpers, foul shots,” he said. “Your execution looks a lot better when you finish your shots. I tell people all the time good shooters make my plays look a whole lot better.”