Uniontown bench impressive in win over Greensburg Salem
Uniontown built a lead in the first half, maintained it through the third quarter and held on for a hard-fought 61-51 win over Greensburg Salem in a key Section 3-AAA boys basketball game Tuesday night.
Four of Uniontown’s five starters finished the game in double figures, but coach Rob Kezmarsky was as impressed with his bench as he was in anybody in this game that leaves the teams tied for first place in the section at 6-1. Uniontown is 15-2 overall, Greensburg Salem fell to 15-4. “We have great role players on this team,” Kezmarsky said. “If not for our bench tonight, we probably wouldn’t have won. Brian Grady and James Pratt were on the bench with foul trouble most of the second quarter, but we got great minutes and contributions from Cody Castor, Anthony Black, Avery Crenshaw and Lloyd Williams.”
Pratt played long enough to hit two of his four three-pointers and helped Uniontown stretch a 16-10 first-quarter lead to 33-18 at halftime. Castor and Williams scored Uniontown’s last four points of the first quarter, as the Red Raiders took the lead for good with an 8-0 run into the second quarter to lead, 18-10.
The home team extended its lead to 26-14 at the midpoint of the second quarter and Pratt’s second trey of the quarter made it 29-16.
“We didn’t shoot the ball well, we didn’t pass well and we didn’t rebound well,” Greensburg Salem coach Paul Sapotichne said. “Give Uniontown a lot of credit for making that happen, but we didn’t play very well tonight.”
Pratt and Doogie Sanner paced Uniontown with 14 points each, while Shawn Cicconi added 12 and Grady 10 for the Red Raiders, who host Derry Area Friday night. Greensburg Salem got 18 from Chris Klimchock and 10 each from Jake Matthews and Jerry Cooley. The Lions visit Southmoreland Friday.
The Golden Lions managed to cut Uniontown’s lead to 11, 45-34, with 1:52 remaining in the third quarter, but Uniontown scored the last four of the quarter, all four by Cicconi, to restore a 15-point Red Raider edge heading into the final eight minutes.
Sanner stretched Uniontown’s lead to 53-36 at the seven-minute mark, but the Red Raiders wouldn’t score another point until 2:03 remained and again it was Sanner, who scored eight of his 14 in the last quarter, including 6-of-8 marksmanship from the foul line.
The five minutes between Sanner’s scores were all Greensburg Salem, as the Golden Lions climbed to within four with a 13-0 run. But the visitors couldn’t buy a basket the rest of the way and Uniontown pulled out the win.
“We played pretty good defense from the middle of the third quarter until the end of the game,” Sapotichne said when asked how his team mustered its comeback. “We didn’t play very well defensively in the first half. We got some steals during that run and turned them into easy baskets.
“It was just one of those days where we played very poorly in the first half and dug ourselves a hole we just couldn’t get out of.”
“That’s a good basketball team over there,” Kezmarsky said of the Golden Lions. “We’re a young team and we need close games like this to get us ready. This game will help us down the road.”
Kezmarsky marveled at the type of kids he has on his team, regardless of the grade in school.
“We had a day off (Monday, Martin Luther King Day) and the kids called me and wanted a tape of our last game against them,” Kezmarsky said. “They all got together on their own and watched film of that game. That showed me a lot about these kids and how much they want to get better.”
Uniontown committed a lot of turnovers (22 to GS’s eight) and were only 50 percent from the foul line, “but we kept playing defense,” Kezmarsky said.
“Now, we have a piece of the section (title), but we have a long way to go until it’s over, including games against Yough, Southmoreland and, of course, Laurel Highlands,” Kezmarsky said. “But the kids are going to enjoy this win, no doubt about it.”