Feb 18, 2007 By Jim Wexell For The 4 min read

ALVERTON – It was low fruit hanging from the tree. Shiny, too. But Geibel couldn’t – wouldn’t – pluck it. Instead, defending WPIAL champion Clairton sleepwalked to a 59-44 win over the Gators in the first round of the WPIAL Class A playoffs.

“I just think that they probably looked at our record, and some of the teams that they beat that beat us, and I think they might’ve had their intensity level down a little bit and we surprised them,” said Geibel coach Ken Misiak. “If we would’ve ever tied that game late, or gone ahead even by a point, I think we might’ve seen a different outcome.”

Misiak pointed to “a golden opportunity” late in the third quarter that Geibel squandered as a turning point.

Down six with seven seconds left in the third, Tyler Ederly stood at the foul line for Geibel, but he missed both shots. Clairton’s Andrew Currington got the outlet pass, dribbled downcourt into the lane, but turned back to the top of the key, from where he spun, flung and banked in a 3-point shot to put Clairton ahead by nine at the buzzer. Geibel never got closer than six points in the fourth quarter.

“That hurt us,” Misiak said. “We had a chance to cut the lead to four going into the last period, but they hit the three and they went up nine.”

Missed opportunities crippled Geibel at seemingly every opportunity. For example, after pulling to within six points on a Josh Herman hoop with less than five minutes left, Clairton threw a long inbounds pass to match the basket as Chris Blackstone writhed on the floor with an injured knee. Clairton scored on its next possession for a 10-point lead with 3:46 left. The turn of events clinched the game, putting a close to a Geibel season that ended with eight losses in nine games.

“The kids, for some reason, they’re in ball games and then go through a period of time where we’d give points up,” Misiak explained. “Today there was a period we gave up seven points. It went from a tie game (in the second quarter) to a nine-point game. For some reason we do that too often and we get in trouble.”

Clairton (14-3) finished second in Section 3-A behind Serra, the tourney’s top seed, and believed – because of its status as defending champ – that it should’ve been named the No. 2 seed in the playoffs instead of California. And as the No. 3 seed, Clairton felt yesterday’s long trip to Southmoreland High School was a further sign of disrespect.

“I really think coming up here for a 3 o’clock game with no fans was a factor,” said Clairton coach Pete Logan. “The WPIAL tries to say they put the boys and girls together. How come we’re the only ones that don’t have them together? So don’t feed me that. We’re a No. 3 seed and we traveled further than Geibel. It’s just a lot of bull is what it is.”

Clairton’s girls team played at the same time at South Park, and Logan believes most of his town’s basketball fans went instead to that game.

“You get us in front of our fans and we’re able to come out and play with the intensity that you need to play in playoffs, which we didn’t have tonight, we’re a lot better team,” he said.

Yet, Clairton, even on an off day, displayed enough poise, discipline and talent to beat Geibel (8-12) by 15 points.

“We’re the defending champs,” Logan said. “We play top competition in our section. We have the best section. We understand that. We have to go out there and take care of business because our goal is to get into the states (playoffs). And if we get into the states, that means we have a chance to win the WPIAL championship. That’s all we want to do.”