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Laurel Highlands squeezes past Hempfield, 43-41

By Josh Herman For The 3 min read

Hempfield nearly doubled its score in the fourth quarter with a 20-point effort, but the comeback fell just short as Laurel Highlands held onto to a narrow lead to edge the Spartans 43-41 in a heated Section 1-AAAA contest on Friday.

“Hempfield is very aggressive on the ball, and I have to give our kids all the credit in the world for coming out and playing with tremendous effort,” said Laurel Highlands coach Rick Hauger.

The Mustangs got a big lift early on, as Hempfield’s leading scorer Jordan Ruggiero committed his fourth foul with over three and a half minutes left to play in the first quarter and never returned to the floor.

There wasn’t much offense to speak of for Hempfield, as the Laurel Highlands 2-3 zone moved swiftly, and continuously shut down the Spartans who scored only 21 points entering the fourth quarter.

At the end of the first quarter the Spartans had eight points and had committed eight fouls.

“Our kids played tremendous defense tonight,” said Hauger. “Our perimeter guys moved really well in our zone and didn’t give them good shots, and our post players did an excellent job of securing rebounds.”

DiVonte Walton, who led LH with 14 points, made a layup with just over a minute remaining in the third quarter to extend the Mustangs’ lead to double digits, but Hempfield wasn’t going to be defeated without making things interesting.

Hempfield’s Lane Waltenbaugh made a basket with less than 40 seconds to play, and the Spartans’ press came up with a 10-second call to regain possession. Waltenbaugh came up big again with another shot to cut the lead to one, but after a Mustang free throw, there were only two seconds left on the clock.

Waltenbaugh paced the Spartans with16 points.

Hempfield inbounded, but wasn’t able to get the desperation shot up in time.

The Spartans defeated LH 62-55 last Saturday in a make-up game, but neither coach felt that the previous meeting played into the Mustang victory.

“Bottom line is that we made too many mental mistakes and didn’t put the ball in the hoop,” said Hempfield coach Jim Nesser.

Hauger added, “We didn’t change up our strategy too much, but what I did preach to the team this week was rebounding and defense.”

If Hauger preached defense and rebounding, then junior center Joe Yuhas heard the sermon. Despite being limited offensively, Yuhas came up with 10 boards to go with six blocks, as he anchored the Mustang zone.

LH is back in action on Tuesday when it travels to Connellsville.

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