WPIAL drained too much from Cal
CHARLEROI – Saltsburg played well against California on Friday night, there’s no question about it. The District 6 Trojans held the upper hand over the WPIAL Trojans from the opening tip until the final buzzer in their 76-57 PIAA victory, save for a brief moment in the second period when California grabbed its only lead.
Don’t be fooled, however.
The California team that showed up at Charleroi High School was a hollow squad, one devoid of all the ingredients that led it to a section crown, a No. 2 seed in the WPIAL playoffs, a 20-game winning streak and a run to the WPIAL championship game.
Most of the heart, guts and enthusiasm of that team was left on the floor at the A.J. Palumbo Center last week when California battled through foul trouble and managed to fight off Leechburg until the final seconds before succumbing, thanks to a couple late turnovers and a questionable call or two.
The 60-59 defeat was so crushing that California simply couldn’t recover from it in time to be mentally ready for the state playoffs, even with a week off.
Even California coach Phil Pergola admitted it.
“There’s no doubt about that,” Pergola said.
Chris McVicker, who supplied over half of California’s offensive production, still had Leechburg in the back of his mind as his team played on Friday.
“I was thinking about it a little bit, but I don’t know if my teammates were,” McVicker said.
It was obvious that just about all of Pergola’s players were lacking that little extra ingredient it takes for a team to click together.
After all, they are high school kids. A professional athlete would have a hard time re-focusing after a heart-breaking loss like these kids suffered through.
They were out of sync almost immediately.
California won the opening tip, badly missed a shot and Saltsburg’s John Nepsha hit a 3-pointer at the other end while being fouled. He made the free throw to put his team up 4-0.
Before the crowd could settle it, in was 19-6.
California tried to get on track and pulled itself together for a second-period burst. McVicker hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 26-26, and then moments later hit another trey to give Pergola’s crew its only lead of the game, 29-27.
Saltsburg almost immediately tied the score, though, and then Nepsha made a lay-up off a turnover to put coach Jeff Clawson’s team back in front to stay.
“I thought that would spark my teammates,” McVicker said of his go-ahead shot, “but I guess it really didn’t. We just made too many mistakes.”
“At times we played strong and hard,” Pergola said, “but a lot more times, we didn’t.”
Besides McVicker, California could muster little offense against Saltsburg’s tough zone defense. At the other end of the floor, California frequently failed to cover Saltsburg’s sharpshooters on the perimeter.
Saltsburg grabbed offensive rebounds against the taller WPIAL Trojans, made crisp passes while California continually mishandled the ball, and clearly out-hustled Pergola’s squad.
Against Leechburg, California performed well in all those areas.
Saltsburg was the smarter team, too, while California made many questionable decisions.
Perhaps the key play of the game came at the end of the first half. California had the ball down by two in the closing seconds. A basket meant a tie and a 3-pointer meant a halftime lead for California, which would’ve been a monumental lift to a team that was so badly outplayed over the first 16 minutes.
Instead, California forced a quick shot that was well off the mark, resulting in a fast-break lay-up by Nepsha at the other end just before the buzzer to put Saltsburg up 35-31.
Pergola tried his best, but couldn’t rile his team up during intermission. It came out flat again at the beginning of the third period and the game quickly got out of hand.
Even an intentional foul followed by a technical foul by Waugh Carter couldn’t wake California from its doldrums.
“I was just frustrated,” Carter said. “No one was playing any defense.”
No, this wasn’t the true Trojans team that played for California up until the WPIAL final. Pergola knew it, and wanted his players to look at the big picture when it was all over against Saltsburg.
“I told them you’ve got to look at what you did this season and how many people you got excited about California basketball,” Pergola said. “There were young people, older people … a lot of fans came out to watch this team. A lot of them were here again tonight.”
It’s just unfortunate they didn’t get to see the real California team on its final game of the season.
Rob Burchianti can be reached at rvburchianti@hotmail.com