Jan 20, 2007 By Jim Wexell For The 3 min read

GREENSBURG – If Laurel Highlands didn’t know it after the first game, they know it now: Greensburg Salem’s pretty good. “I have to see the team that’s going to beat them,” LH coach Rick Hauger said after Salem waxed his Mustangs, 81-52, last night.

The win kept Salem perfect at 11-0 in Section 3-AAA and 16-1 overall. The team’s only loss this season was by one point at Quad-A Hempfield.

“My hat’s off to a team that’s going to beat Greensburg in Triple-A, because they’re outstanding,” Hauger said.

LH led only once last night, but at 3-2 it was a bit early.

GS quickly took a 10-3 lead and led 20-8 after a quarter. Its 6-foot-4 center Paul Matthews, its flashy 6-2 small forward Aaron Allen and its sophomore point guard Chris Klimchock formed a difficult triumvirate and GS took command and never looked back.

The GS lead reached 31-12 midway through the second quarter and 43-21 early in the third. A three-pointer by Matthews pushed the lead to 52-21 midway through the third.

When the GS lead peaked at 73-40, coach Paul Sapotichne emptied his bench with 5:36 left in the game.

Allen led all players with 24 points. Matthews was next with 21.

“They play well as a unit,” Hauger said. “They have very unselfish people. They’re well coached. They’re aggressive. They’re fundamentally sound. That’s a point we hope to get to at some time, but it doesn’t happen that fast with sophomores and freshmen.”

With Kaleb Ramsey not due back from his sprained ankle until next week, LH went with its two-senior lineup that played well for three quarters Tuesday against Hampton.

Even though LH couldn’t build on that game, Hauger isn’t worried that the loss will linger and be the root cause of a series of losses.

“I’m really not; not with this group,” he said. “Sometimes you do worry, but they’re resilient. They’re 7-9 after losing their first six games and at no point in the season did we have our lineup together. We still haven’t, and won’t, but they battled back. That’s one thing I have to give them: They’re young kids and learning on the job. They are learning and they do compete in most cases.”

Jonathan Eicher and Nick Thomas, the two seniors, led the way with 12 and 10 points. Sophomore Brian Grady also added 10. He and fellow sophomore forward, John Sholl, battled foul trouble throughout the game.

“Probably our two biggest games of the year are next week and I look for them to bounce back,” Hauger said. “We play Mt. Pleasant and Yough, and all three of us had four losses going (last night).”

The three teams are battling for the third and fourth playoff berths out of Section 3-AAA. LH is 5-5 in league play.