Red Raiders pull away from Leopards, 55-46
Despite trailing late in the second quarter and only leading by one point at halftime, the Uniontown boys basketball team led comfortably for most of the second half to defeat Section 4-AAA opponent Belle Vernon, 55-46, Tuesday night.
“To win a game like this and shoot the way we shot the ball, because we didn’t shoot the ball well at all, is huge for us,” said Uniontown head coach Rob Kezmarsky. “But the bottom line is, the only thing that matters is getting out of there with the win.”
Kezmarsky said he’s happy with his team’s progress so far this season, considering the Red Raiders lost all five starters from last season.
“To begin 2-1 [in section play] we’re off to a great start. We’re close to being 3-0. Right now in this section, there’s a lot of parity; everybody can beat each other,” Kezmarsky said. “If you want to be in the playoffs, or even to talk of the playoffs, you need to win on your home floor. We’ve won our first two section games at home, and to do that with a whole new starting five from last year, I’m very pleased with that.”
Uniontown (3-2, 2-1) led 13-9 after the first quarter, as the Red Raiders’ press defense forced seven Belle Vernon (0-4, 0-3) turnovers in the quarter. Senior Phil Mosley scored six of the Red Raiders’ 13 points in the quarter.
The 5-7 point guard was Uniontown’s second highest scorer with 14 points, but struggled shooting the ball all night. Coming off a late-game injury in crunch time just two days earlier in the loss to Thomas Jefferson, Mosley shot 5-of-18 from the floor, including 1-of-11 from behind the arc. The senior made five of six free throws, though, and was tied for the game-high in rebounds with nine.
“I played alright; it wasn’t my best [game]. I contributed, I helped out and did what I had to do to help my team win,” Mosley said. “My three ball wasn’t falling tonight. I’ll have to work on it tomorrow in practice. Since my three-ball wasn’t working, I decided to put the ball on the wood and drive it and get to the foul line.”
The Leopards struck in the second quarter, taking their first — and only — lead of the game, 22-21, with about 1:30 left in the half; Belle Vernon entered halftime trailing by only one point.
“I think we should have been up 10 or 12 in the first half,” Belle Vernon head coach Kyle DeGregorio said. “We don’t make shots because we don’t believe our shots are going in. We don’t make the plays we need to make.”
Belle Vernon was able to beat the press in the second quarter, though, as forward Noah Bukowski led the Belle Vernon surge by shooting 4-of-6 from the field and 2-of-2 from the stripe for a total of nine points, as well as grabbing four rebounds.
The 6-2 senior finished the contest with a game-high 17 points, while grabbing a team-high seven rebounds. DeGregorio said Bukowski is a great example of the way Belle Vernon plays basketball because of the intensity he plays with.
“Noah’s a tough kid; he played ridiculously hard,” he said. “But all my kids play hard; that’s not our issue. You can’t find a group of kids who play harder than my kids. We just have to become more productive.”
The Red Raiders came out in the second half without the press defense, which forced Belle Vernon to attempt to knock down perimeter shots. The new defensive approach was successful, as the Leopards shot 24 percent from the field in the second half.
“We beat their pressure in the first half, and they took it off; they didn’t press us the entire second half,” DeGregorio said. “Our turnovers were self-inflicted turnovers because of our apprehension. It’s nothing they did. We’re still skilled enough, and we have enough spacing and understanding that we shouldn’t turn the ball over.”
The lone big man in the starting lineup for the Red Raiders, 6-3 forward Ben Wilson, struggled most of the first half, but dominated the glass in the third quarter, scoring four points and snagging five rebounds. The senior tied Mosley for the game-high in rebounds with nine boards, while scoring six points.
Kezmarsky told his team in the locker room at halftime that playing bigger down low was something they needed to do if they were going to win the game.
“In the locker room, coach told us we have to get rebounds, box out and fight hard for the ball,” Mosley said. “We’re weak on big [men] inside, so guards have to fight with the big men. Our big man, Ben, we can’t leave him hanging.”
Three-pointers from Mosley and 5-11 sophomore guard Michael Jones gave the Red Raiders a comfortable cushion, as they cruised to the nine-point victory.
Junior guard Lorenzo Oden led the Red Raiders with 15 points, while junior guard Malaky Howard scored 12 points and snatched six rebounds.
Uniontown will travel to Ringgold next, while Belle Vernon plays the second game of its four-game road trip against Thomas Jefferson. Both games tip off Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.