Dec 15, 2016 By Bill Hughes for The 3 min read

CARROLL TWP. — Connellsville picked up a hard-fought non-section win at Ringgold Wednesday night, 51-45, although it did not look like it would be difficult early.

“It is nice for us because we won a game where we felt that we had to handle some things that were different,” said Connellsville coach Andy Hedrick. “This is a good win for us considering.”

Ringgold coach Phil Pergola was not happy after the game.

“We are starting three seniors and a junior that all have experience from last year,” he said. “The mistakes that we are making should not be made at this time.”

The teams played even for most of the first quarter, but a 6-0 run by Connellsville to end the frame gave the guests a 16-9 lead going into the second quarter.

Ringgold had eight turnovers in the quarter, but not all of them were forced by Connellsville and Pergola pointed it out.

“Physical mistakes are one thing like throwing the ball away, but failing to catch it, not being at the right place, it confuses me,” said Pergola. “We turned the ball over 20 times and that’s not counting the mental turnovers in the game.”

Ringgold turned the ball over 20 times in the game.

Both the Falcons (2-2) and the Rams (2-2) had problems scoring in the second quarter. The guests held an 8-7 lead in the quarter and took a 24-16 lead into halftime.

Connellsville went on an 8-2 run to start the third quarter to make the score 33-18 and it looked as if the Falcons would run away with the game.

But Anthony Pampena scored 10 straight points for the Rams to cut the Connellsville lead to 35-28 with 2:09 left in the third quarter.

Leading 35-30 with three seconds to play in the third quarter, Connellsville ran an out-of-bounds play and when Ringgold had a defensive breakdown, Treyvon Clayton hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Falcons a 38-30 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Hedrick adjusted to a box-and-one heading into the fourth quarter.

“We had to try and shut down (Pampena) because he was hot,” he said. “Plus, we were in foul trouble and this allowed us to not make it worse.”

Connellsville scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to take a 43-30 lead, but the Rams made a furious comeback.

A Pampena three, his fourth of the game, to cut the Ringgold deficit to 43-40 with 3:18 to play, and with 1:32 to go, he hit a pair of free throws to tie the score at 45-45.

Clayton scored on a backdoor cut with 34 seconds to play to give the Falcons a 47-45 lead, and then Seth Younkin made a steal for Connellsville with 13 seconds to play.

It was Ringgold’s third turnover of the final 40 seconds of the game after not having one the entire fourth quarter up to that point.

“We quit taking care of the ball,” Pergola said.

Ringgold was called for an intentional foul, the Falcons drained both free throws, and then Jake Tzan scored to make the final score 51-45.

“We handled adversity, although I don’t know how well we played for the whole time,” Hedrick said. “It is better to win a game like this that to run away with it and we executed the last minute of the game.”

Pampena led all scorers with 22 points, while Clayton had 19 for Connellsville and Jake Tzan added 11.

Ringgold is at Elizabeth Forward Friday night in an non-section game, while Connellsville is off until Saturday afternoon at 3:30 when it hosts Hempfield in an non-section game.