Dec 9, 2006 By Adam Gretz For The Herald Standard 3 min read

GREENSBURG – Uniontown entered Friday night’s boys basketball game at Greensburg Salem in search of a road upset. Unfortunately, what the Red Raiders found was a Golden Lions’ feeding frenzy as the Red Raiders fell by a final score of 74-40 in their Section 3-AAA opener.

Greensburg Salem (4-0, 2-0) opened the first quarter with an impressive 14-0 run before the Red Raiders’ Kevin Sanders was finally able put them on the board.

By the time the first quarter had come to a close, Uniontown found itself in a deep 22-3 hole.

“Greensburg Salem is the No. 2 team in the WPIAL and they are returning their top eight players from last season,” said Uniontown head coach Rob Kezmarsky. “We happened to catch them early in the season and they are playing fantastic basketball right now.”

In the second quarter, Uniontown seemed to play its best basketball of the night as it managed to cut the Golden Lions’ lead to 10 points due in large part to four 3-pointers by senior Ryne Turner.

“I am proud of our kids,” said Kezmarsky. “They kept fighting when they fell, but when you fall down that early to a team that has that type of talent, it’s going to be tough to get yourself back into the game.”

The Golden Lions opened the second half the same way they opened up the first half, this time with a 12-0 run that pushed their lead to 48-23.

That forced Kezmarsky to use his third timeout of the night to try and settle his team and calm a frenzied Greensburg Salem students section.

“We had a lot of kids play well tonight,” said Kezmarsky. “But section play starts early and we are still fighting for playing time right now and still trying to figure out our rotation.”

Uniontown’s next game will be Tuesday as the Red Raiders return home to take on cross-town rival Laurel Highlands. Kezmarsky plans on starting preparation for that game as early as Saturday morning.

“We need to get into the gym right now,” said Kezmarsky. “And it’s going to start tomorrow morning. We are going to get in there bright and early, watch some film, and try to fix the mistakes that we kept making tonight.”

Among the things Uniontown looks to improve is the 35 percent mark from the field that it finished with Friday night.

“We’re pretty good with our stats,” said Kezmarsky. “And we missed nine lay-ups in the first quarter alone tonight.

“Again, when you play that type of talent, you absolutely have to capitalize every single opportunity that you get. And tonight, we simply did not do that, and that is something that we really have to work on.”

Greensburg Salem’s Aaron Allen led all players on the night with 19 points.

Ryne Turner led the Red Raiders with 16 points, including a game-high four 3-pointers. Senior Josh Thomas was Uniontown’s next highest scorer with nine points.