Leopards deny Pergola 600th career win
Joel Brewton
Belle Vernon’s Noah Bukowski (2) wrestles for possession of the ball against Ringgold’s Dakota Browning (34) and Trevor Colucci (21) during Friday’s Section 4-AAA game at Ringgold High School.
Joel Brewton
Belle Vernon’s Noah Bukowski (2) goes for the lay-up against Ringgold, scoring the Leopards’ first basket of the night during Friday’s Section 4-AAA game at Ringgold High School.
Belle Vernon's Joe Gruber (31) is fouled by Ringgold's Jarid Yahnite (20) during Friday's Section 4-AAA game at Ringgold High School.
Belle Vernon's Derek Thomas (10) advances down the court against Ringgold's Trevor Colucci (21) during Friday's Section 4-AAA game at Ringgold High School.
Joel Brewton
Belle Vernon’s Logan Pfrogner (21) splits the defense of Ringgold’s Jarid Yahnite (20) and Ryan Varley (15) during Friday’s Section 4-AAA game at Ringgold High School.
CARROLL TWP. — Only nine WPIAL basketball coaches had won 600 games in over 100 years of competition, but it looked like two more were going to join the elite club on the same night Friday.
But Noah Bukowski said no.
Bukowski tipped in a rebound at the buzzer to give Belle Vernon a 48-46 win over Ringgold and deny Phil Pergola his 600th win.
Monessen’s Joe Salvino won his 600th last night to become the 10th all-time, but Pergola will have to wait until Tuesday — at the earliest — when Ringgold hosts West Mifflin. After that, the Rams are on the road for what likely will be the final three games of the season, because it doesn’t appear that playoff games are on the horizon for the Rams, who fell to 3-8 in Section 4-AAA and 7-10 overall.
Pergola sat at his office desk after the stunning loss and sighed.
“The game should’ve been over in the first quarter,” he said with a shake of his head.
Ringgold held Belle Vernon to only two points in the first quarter. The problem for the Rams was that they scored only four.
“We missed six layups in the first quarter,” Pergola said. “I really don’t have anything to say. I mean, they just hung around, hung around, hung around.”
Ringgold built leads of 12 points midway through the third quarter and 10 points late in the third quarter, but, as Pergola said, Belle Vernon hung around as sophomore big man Joey Sabulek and junior guard Tom Rodriguez began to heat up.
Sabulek’s basket inside the paint cut the deficit to six points with six seconds left in the third quarter, and Rodriguez’s fadeaway shot banked in to cut the lead to four to start the fourth.
Belle Vernon took its first lead of the game on a 3-pointer by J.J. Hartman with 3:40 left, but Dakota Browning and Anthony Pampena answered for Ringgold.
Rodriguez hit a 3-pointer to tie the game again for Belle Vernon, and his two free throws tied the game at 46-46 with 46 seconds remaining.
Ringgold appeared to take the lead on a court-length baseball pass by Pampena, but George Martin was ruled to have traveled before putting the ball in the hoop.
The basket was waved off and Belle Vernon held for a final shot. After a timeout, Griffen LaCarte missed a 3-point attempt, but Belle Vernon battled underneath and a third put-back attempt, this one by Bukowski, went through the net as the buzzer sounded.
Belle Vernon raced off the court with the surprise win as Pergola was left at the precipice of a milestone.
Was he upset about the missed opportunity to win his 600th game in his 46th season?
“No, no,” he said. “I would like to get it just so the people would quit talking about it. It just hurts. We play hard. We practice hard. And then we just can’t get it. I know we’re all juniors, but we’re juniors with three years experience.
“But, no, it doesn’t matter if it’s the 600th one or not. That really doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t.”
As would any coach, veteran or novice, Pergola was stung because he and his Rams were beaten at the buzzer in a game it had led most of the way.
“During the timeout at the end we said, ‘Hey, we’re not worried about getting a rebound and running down the floor and scoring. We’ll go into overtime. Just get the rebound,'” Pergola explained. “But they got three shots! They got three shots at the basket! And, we’re so much bigger than them.”
Pergola sighed again before complimenting Belle Vernon. “They played hard,” he said. “They kept coming back. They never quit. They did what they had to do and we didn’t do what we had to do.”
“Tough kid,” Belle Vernon coach Kyle DeGregorio said of Bukowski, the game’s hero. “A real tough kid.”
It was Bukowski who scored with 16 seconds left in the first quarter to make sure Belle Vernon didn’t get shut out. The hoop seemed to get the Leopards out of their shooting slump.
“We played four games last week and this is our third game this week,” DeGregorio said. “We had a really emotional game Wednesday at Monessen and played them really tough and kind of ran out of gas. I didn’t know how much of our legs we’d have, but I thought the kids played really hard and they grinded it out. But we couldn’t shoot, we looked sloppy, we were a little slow to our rotations, but to their credit they’re pretty tough kids and they hung with it and they grinded it out.”
The key player down the stretch was Rodriguez, who scored 12 of his team-high 14 points in the second half.
“We went to our Little Laker set and I thought we were getting the ball better into the high post to a guy who could make the play, and he was the guy most of the time,” DeGregorio said. “I thought he played really well in the second half.”
Section 4-AAA
Belle Vernon 2-12-15-19 — 48
Ringgold 4-14-17-11 — 46
Belle Vernon: Rodriguez 14, Sabulek 10. Ringgold: Browning 17. Records: Belle Vernon (4-7, 7-11), Ringgold (3-8, 7-10).