Thomas puts exclamation point on Raider win with dunk
MT.PLEASANT — Uniontown’s Marcus Thomas exited Tuesday’s game against Mt.Pleasant following a breakaway slam dunk in the fourth quarter. He went to the bench with a game-high 33 points to lead the Red Raiders to a 62-34 win over the Vikings to remain unbeaten in Section 3-AAA.
Uniontown (2-0, 4-1) realized Thomas caused match-up problems for the Vikes early in the game and rode the hot hand to jump out to a quick lead in the first quarter with Thomas scoring 13 of the Red Raiders 16-points in the period to take a 16-4 lead after one.
“Marcus had the hot hand tonight and in my opinion, he’s one of the better players in the WPIAL when he’s on his game,” Uniontown’s Rob Kezmarsky said. “He’s an excellent student and an excellent basketball player. We were very excited for him tonight.”
Thomas scored to open the game. Luke Liplando tied the game for the Vikes. Thomas scored the next seven points that included the first of his four three-pointers on the night to give Uniontown a 9-2 lead.
Ryan Gumbita broke up the run with a basket for Mt. Pleasant. Thomas responded with two free throws and a basket sandwiched around a three-point play from Jordan Pratt.
Thomas opened the second quarter with two threes, giving the Red Raiders a 22-4 lead. Mt. Pleasant (1-1, 1-4) made a little run, scoring the next six points on consecutive baskets from Mitch Matlas, Ryan Hynek and Cody Monroe to make the score 22-10. Thomas scored seven straight to spark an 11-2 Uniontown run for a 33-12 lead at the half.
“Thomas kicked our butt tonight,” Mt. Pleasant’s Jeremy Yetter said. “Tonight I felt we were out-coached and outplayed. Give Uniontown credit, they did what the needed to do and made plays for 32-minutes. We just need to go back to the drawing board and clean ourselves up a little bit and we’ll be fine.”
The Vikings made a little better showing in the third quarter trying to take away Thomas. But the Uniontown press allowed them to force some turnovers, getting points from other players with Pratt leading the charge in the third with five points, including a trey. Uniontown outscored Mt.Pleasant 15-8 in the quarter to take a 48-20 lead after three. The lead swelled to 58-22 in the fourth with Thomas scoring the 58th point on the dunk before leaving the game and allowing the reserves to close it out.
“We’re 2-0 in the section with both wins coming on the road,” Kezmarsky said. “There’s a lot of teams that are going to beat each other in this section. Hopefully this is a stepping stone for us. We can enjoy Christmas with a 2-0 record in the section. We had a lot of work to do after the holidays, but right now I can’t be more happy.”