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Red Raiders roll past TJ, 60-22

By Paul S. Brittain for The 3 min read
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Uniontown's Lyric Ellis (left) looks to pass against Thomas Jefferson's David Lee during Tuesday evening's game at Uniontown Senior High School.

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Uniotown's Joe Campbell (33) passes the ball as Thomas Jefferson's Steve Dunlap defends during Tuesday evening's game at Uniontown Senior High School.

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Uniontown's Rodney Harris (00) drives towards the hoop against Thomas Jefferson during Tuesday evening's game at Uniontown Senior High School.

With a pre-Christmas tournament at Walt Disney World on the horizon, the Uniontown boys’ basketball team could have been looking past Tuesday’s Section 4-AAA home game with winless Thomas Jefferson.

As it was, the Uniontown continued to hit on all cylinders in rolling to a 60-22 win over the Jaguars.

The Red Raiders are on a bus headed to Walt Disney World as you are reading this article, and getting ready for three games at the Wild World of Sports complex.

For all of perhaps 3½ minutes on Tuesday, Thomas Jefferson slowed the Red Raiders, as the teams were tied at 2-2 on baskets by Uniontown’s Lyric Ellis and TJ’s Frank Gentille. Then the dam burst as expected.

The Red Raiders went on a 15-2 run led by five points from Joe Campbell and six points by Ellis. TJ’s Nick Feiwald had the only basket for the visitors in a span of 4:30 that ended the first quarter with a 17-4 Uniontown lead.

Campbell opened the second period with a 3-point basket, followed by a basket by Jeremy Perkins and a trey by DeAundre Winfrey for a 25-4 lead.

The teams played on fairly even terms for the rest of the quarter until the Red Raiders opened up a 40-14 halftime lead.

Uniontown (2-0, 5-0) sent the game into the 40-point mercy rule in just over half of the third quarter when Campbell hit a trey, Ellis scored twice, Campbell made a three-point play, Ellis scored and Campbell added three points before Russell Seiss ended the quarter with a TJ basket as the Red Raiders led 55-16.

The Jaguars didn’t get consecutive baskets until Adam Pierce and Brendan Kelly each sank treys to close out scoring at 60-22.

Campbell scored 21 points to lead the Red Raiders and Ellis added 13. Russell Seiss scored six points to lead Thomas Jefferson (0-3, 0-6).

Uniontown coach Rob Kezmarsky said the Florida trip was a concern going into the game. “We’ve wanted to take this trip for some time, but we didn’t want to make it a losing (bus) trip. I’m very pleased with our kids. We have high expectations building off last year’s (WPIAL) semifinals.

“We have great respect for Thomas Jefferson. The last four or five years, their program has been among the most in winning,” Kezmarsky said.

When asked about Campbell’s performance, he said, “Joe is one of the better players in the WPIAL. He and Lyric and all the guys played well and they’ll continue to get better. Right now I’m really looking forward to taking this group to Disney.”

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