Local fans real winners at FCCA tourney opening night
The winners on the court were Uniontown twice and Connellsville and Albert Gallatin once each, but the true winners were the Fayette County basketball fans, who got to see opening night of the basketball season a reasonable distance from home.
Uniontown beat Albert Gallatin, 86-54, and Connellsville topped Laurel Highlands, 55-50, Friday night in the Fayette County Coaches Association’s annual lid-lifter to the basketball season at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus. Regardless of the weather, it’s a good idea for the local teams to stay close to home.
Friday’s rain-turned-to-snow weather made the going a bit tricky, but the Christmas-like setting made the shorter trips home almost as enjoyable as the basketball display put on by Fayette County’s bigger schools, thus the name Quad A-Triple A Challenge.
“It’s a great way to start the season for the county,” LH coach Rick Hauger said. “We have to do all we can to hold up this county. There was a nice crowd out here tonight and I think we gave them a good show of physically competitive basketball and good sportsmanship. A lot of the credit goes to Mark John (LH athletic director and the man who runs the FCCA) for hanging in there with this event and keeping it going.”
“It’s always nice to get the local teams together,” said Connellsville coach Dan Bosnic. “It’s great to let the community come out and get excited for the season ahead.”
Saturday saw Albert Gallatin earn a 55-53 win over Laurel Highlands. The Colonials erased a 2-0 LH lead by scoring 11 consecutive points and really never looked back.
The Mustangs chipped away in the fourth quarter and got the deficit down to a single point when Andrew Cavinee scored with 10 seconds remaining to make it 54-53, but AG’s Michael Lewis made a foul shot to bring about the final score.
Brandon Paroda paced AG with 14 points and Christian Goletz added 11. Nick Lancaster paced LH with nine.
In the nightcap, Uniontown battled back from an 11-1 deficit to beat Connellsville, 70-59.
Jordan Pratt poured in 31 points for the Red Raiders after leading the way with 21 Friday night. Lyric Ellis scored 15 Saturday and Jeremy Perkins scored 11. Jimmy Leichliter led the Falcons with 16, Jade Maher added 14 and Caleb Pittsment 12.
After the weekend, Uniontown is 2-0, Connellsville and Albert Gallatin are 1-1 and Laurel Highlandsis 0-2.
As for Friday’s games, Connellsville built a comfy 12-point lead midway through the fourth quarter, only to let Laurel Highlands climb back into the game. The Mustangs, however, dug too big a hole to climb all the way out of.
“We were throwing the ball all over the place for a while there,” Hauger said. “Their height and length was certainly more than anything we’ve seen in practice. But, we battled our way back into the game and we played 11 guys, so those were good things. We were overmatched by their physical size, but a play here or a play there and we could have won the game.”
Bosnic was happy his team built its lead and hopes giving it up becomes a lesson learned.
“The last couple of years, we were often on the other side of that,” he said. “So, it was good for us to build a lead and hold off an opponent. But, we still have to do a better job of maintaining a lead. As well as we played in building the lead, we played just as poorly in letting LH back into it. We got away from the good solid passing and protecting the ball that we were doing.”
The Falcons got 24 points from 6-10 center Trent Bauer and 18 more from 6-4 forward Jimmy Leighliter. Those two, plus 6-4 forward Caleb Pittsment, made life miserable in the paint for the Mustangs. LH didn’t have a starter in double figures, but got 13 points from David Rusko and 11 more from Michael Cooper off the bench.
The first game saw Uniontown run out to a 23-9 lead through one quarter, but AG chipped away in the early stages of the second quarter and got to within seven, 28-21. The Red Raiders got back to basics and sped to a 45-26 lead at halftime with a 17-5 run.
“Uniontown’s good. When you only lose two players off a team that won a playoff game last year, you know they are good,” said AG coach Shea Fleenor. “We played hard. My guys will play as hard as they possibly can. We just gave up too many offensive rebounds, too many transition points and we missed too many free throws. If we had been better in those three areas, it would have been a more respectable game.”
Uniontown opened the game a little tight, but overcame its issues to win going away.
“Our kids have played a lot of basketball, but there are still a lot of butterflies for the first game of the season,” Uniontown coach Rob Kezmarsky said. “Give AG a lot of credit. They did play hard and created a lot of turnovers early in the game. Once we settled down a little bit, we did a better job of executing.”
Jordan Pratt led all scorers with 21 for Uniontown, while Joe Campbell added 17. Lyric Ellis scored 14 and Nate Guerriere had 11 off the Uniontown bench.
The Colonials got 16 from Logan Wrona, 13 from Christian Goletz and 12 from Josh Zidek off the bench.