Ramsey lifts LH to sixth consecutive victory
ROSTRAVER – Laurel Highlands won its sixth in a row Friday night with a convincing 77-60 victory over host Belle-Vernon in a section 3-AAA contest. The Mustangs were led by another solid performance from junior Kaleb Ramsey, who registered a double-double.
Ramsey finished with a team-high 23 points and a game-high 12 rebounds before exiting the contest with four minutes to go.
With the Mustangs trailing 9-8 midway through the first quarter, Nick Thomas hit the first of his four 3-pointers to give Laurel Highlands its first lead. Moments later, Thomas hit another 3-pointer to extend the Laurel Highlands’ lead to 19-11.
At the 5:30 mark of the second quarter, Belle Vernon coach John Dudzinski decided to use a full timeout to try toregroup his team.
Following the timeout, the Leopards received back-to-back 3-pointers from Jacob Dudzinski and Brian Luzanski to pull within two points. That margin would be as close as they would come the rest of the way.
Dudzinski finished as the game’s leading scorer with 29 points, including two 3-pointers, and was 9 of 12 from the free-throw line.
“It’s always nice to come on the road in the section and get a win like this,” said Laurel Highlands coach Rick Hauger.
“This is always a difficult place to play and Belle Vernon is always a tough task, I thought our kids responded extremely well tonight and played an excellent game.”
The Leopards made Ramsey the focal point of their game plan as he drew a double team most of the night in an effort to slow him down.
“I’m certainly glad that he’s on my team and I don’t have to try and prepare for him,” laughed Hauger. “Sometimes teams put two or three guys on him at a time, just like Belle Vernon did tonight, but he handles it well and is always ready to compete for us.”
Complicating matters even more for Belle Vernon was the absence of 6-foot-5 senior Brian Layhue who was out with an ankle injury.
“It probably would have been a lot easier to prepare for Ramsey if we would have had Brian tonight,” said Dudzinski “He certainly can make a big difference for us out there.”
The Mustangs began to pull away in the third quarter when sophomore Brian Grady drove to the basket for a lay-up and was fouled on the play. Grady went to the line and made his shot to complete the three point play and put the Mustangs up 58-41. On the ensuing Belle Vernon possession, Grady registered his first blocked shot of the night when he blocked a Jacob Cramer jump shot along the baseline.
Following the block, Dudzinski called another timeout only to have the bench called for a technical foul for arguing an officials call during the stoppage. Ron Fudala went to the line for Laurel Highlands and made one of the shots.
On the Mustangs next possession Thomas hit another 3-pointer to give them a commanding 62-41 lead. Thomas would finish the night with 18 points.
The loss for the Leopards is their fourth in a row and drops them to 2-5 in the conference standings. They have a chance to end the slide on Monday night when they travel to Ringgold high school.
The Mustangs will have the opportunity to extend their winning streak to seven games on Tuesday when they return home to take on cross town rival Uniontown with a 7:30 tip-off.