Red Raiders don’t want it to end
Uniontown boys basketball coach Rob Kezmarsky got a first-hand look at Blackhawk and he probably had to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn’t watching his Red Raiders play.
Uniontown (14-6) takes on Blackhawk in the first round of the WPIAL Class AAA boys basketball playoffs at 8 p.m. today at Chartiers Valley High School.
Blackhawk (13-8) advanced with a preliminary round win over South Park last Friday and Kezmarsky was among the crowd.
“They are a very good basketball team and a good match-up for us,” Kezmarsky said. “Blackhawk is a guard-oriented team. Their big guys are role players.”
Guards Cory Ostach (18.2) and Nick Martin (15) lead Blackhawk in scoring, while guard Brian Alvani is next at eight points per game.
Uniontown will counter with guard-forward Marcus Thomas, who averages 18 points per game, and a strong supporting cast. Uniontown’s big man in the middle, Chris Hall, has been rounding back into form after suffering a knee injury.
“Blackhawk is a driving team, but they shoot a lot of threes,” Kezmarsky said. “They play a good man-to-man defense, plus a good 1-3-1 zone.”
Kezmarsky said his team is in the proper mindset for its playoff opener.
“We have a chance,” he said. “Our kids don’t want their season to end. Saturday was probably our best practice of the season. We felt after watching them that we matched up pretty well, then the way we practiced Saturday made it even better.
“We’re a young team, but we have really good senior leadership, mostly coming from Marcus Thomas. He has stepped up as a true leader for the whole group.”
Sites and times for Wednesday’s playoff matchups were released Monday and Uniontown’s girls team will play Central Valley (15-6) at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Canon-McMillan High School in a girls Class AAA first-round game. Central Valley beat Trinity, 60-27, to advance to this meeting with Uniontown (17-4).
Also in the girls AAA bracket, Belle Vernon (12-11) takes on top-seeded Hopewell (20-2) at 6:30 p.m. at Chartiers Valley. Belle Vernon eliminated Indiana, 59-47, to advance.
Frazier (15-7) takes on Shady Side Academy (17-5) in a boys Class AA matchup Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Yough High School. Frazier beat Riverview Saturday, while SSA was eliminating California.
In girls Class A, two games are on Wednesday’s docket, with Carmichaels (17-5) taking on St. Joseph (13-8) at 6:30 p.m. at Norwin and West Greene (12-11) meeting top-seeded North Catholic (17-4) at 6:30 p.m. at Moon High School.
The winners of these two games meet in the quarterfinals on Saturday.