California hopes for more production from big men
California boys basketball coach Phil Pergola is hopeful his Trojans will step forward when they meet Saltsburg in the first round of the PIAA Class A playoffs tonight.
More specifically, Pergola needs his forwards to step forward, something he said has been lacking for parts of this season. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. at Charleroi High School. The game will follow a Class AA girls game, featuring Beaver and Bishop McCort.
“We have to become a different team,” Pergola said. “Our guards have been the backbone of this team. They got us where we are; now our big kids have to step up. If you have a height advantage, you have to take advantage of it.”
Pergola is putting what may be perceived as a two-pronged challenge in front of his postmen, 6-8 senior Mike Hrivnak and 6-5 junior Travis VanOlst. The first prong is to stay in the game, which means avoiding the kind of foul trouble that hampered the Trojans in their WPIAL championship game loss to Leechburg.
The second prong is as obvious as Pergola stated. “If you have a height advantage, you have to take advantage of it.”
Saltsburg’s tallest player is 6-5 junior center Mark Feiling and coach Jeff Clawson’s Trojans (yes, the teams share the same nickname) start a pair of 6-3 junior forwards in Aaron Ulisse and Justin Reed.
So it becomes important for Cal’s guards, be it Donte Valentino or either Jon or Chris McVicker to pound the ball inside to Hrivnak and/or VanOlst and for those players to put it in the basket.
Defensively, Cal’s big men might not become much of a factor unless things go exceptionally well for Pergola and assistant coach Jim Williams.
“They can shoot the ball,” Pergola said of Saltsburg.
“They like to shoot the threes,” Williams echoed. “They are more of a perimeter team offensively.”
That would seem to play into California’s hands, given the strength and tenacity of the Trojans’ perimeter defense.
“It’s only going to play into our hands if they miss,” Pergola cautioned. “I’m hoping, but we did not play very well defensively against Leechburg. I’m not sure if it was the magnitude of the game or the size of the court. We were about two steps slow getting where we had to be.”
If California can limit Saltsburg’s success from three-point range, it would force the action inside, where Hrivnak and VanOlst would have to step up on defense.
The court size won’t be a problem for this game and Charleroi is a familiar site for California, which played in the Charleroi Federal Savings and Loan Christmas Tournament. Pergola noted that at Charleroi, he’ll be able to talk to players as they sit at the scoring table waiting to enter the game, something he could not do at Palumbo.
Defensively, Saltsburg plays mostly zone defenses, according to Williams. “They play a sagging 2-1-2, plus we saw some 1-2-2 and a 1-3-1,” he said. “We didn’t see any man-to-man in the films we saw.”
Pergola doesn’t expect there to be any lingering effect of Friday’s crushing loss, based on what he has seen in practice this week.
“I would have been worried if we had to play Tuesday,” he said. “We had a light practice Monday and took Tuesday off. We came in Wednesday and there was a little bit more of a lighter attitude toward practice. Thursday, we’ll really get ready to play this game.
“If we go out and play our game, we have a pretty good chance of winning this game.”
California vs. Saltsburg
Scenario: PIAA first-round playoff game.
Nicknames: California Trojans; Saltsburg Trojans.
Coaches: California, Phil Pergola; Saltsburg, Jeff Clawson.
Site and Time: Charleroi High School gym, 7:30 p.m.
Seeds: California is the WPIAL’s second seed (7-2), Saltsburg is District 6’s third-place team (6-3). The PIAA tournament is slotted, not seeded.
Getting there: California beat Wilkinsburg (57-42), Avella (60-41) and Clairton (68-63) before losing to Leechburg (60-59) in the WPIAL Class A championship game; Saltsburg beat Ferndale Area (84-46) before losing to eventual District 6-A champion Bishop Guilfoyle (55-40) in the semifinals. Saltsburg then beat Heritage League foe Northern Cambria (53-51) to grab District 6’s third and final PIAA berth. Northern Cambria had beaten Saltsburg twice in the regular season.
Records: California is 24-3, Saltsburg is 20-7.
Section: California won Section 2-A with a 10-0 record; Saltsburg was 14-4 in Heritage League games.
Non-section records: California is 14-3; Saltsburg is 6-3.
Offensive-Defensive Averages: California scores 62.9 point per game and gives up 45.1. Saltsburg scores 66.5 points per game and gives up 50.7.
Streaks: California had its 20-game winning streak snapped by Leechburg; Saltsburg had won eight in a row before splitting its last four games.
Common opponents: Leechburg. Both teams lost to the Blue Devils, California (60-59) in the WPIAL Class A title game, Saltsburg (74-69) in the Leechburg Tip-Off Tournament.
Next up: Only the winner get to play another game and it will be played Tuesday against the winner of tonight’s Kennedy Catholic-Coudersport game. Kennedy Catholic is District 10’s champion, while Coudersport is District 9’s third-place finisher.
Projected starting lineups: California, junior Travis VanOlst (6-5, F); junior Donte Valentino (5-8, G); senior Chris McVicker (6-1, G); senior Jon McVicker (6-1, G); senior Mike Hrivnak (6-8, F). Saltsburg, senior Jason Hays (5-11, G), junior Aaron Ulisse (6-3, F), junior Justin Reed (6-3, F), junior John Nepsha (5-9, G), junior Mark Feiling (6-5, C).