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Monessen grinds down Saints, advances to PIAA semifinals

By Rob Burchianti rburchianti@heraldstandard.Com 7 min read
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Eleanor Bailey

Monessen’s Devin Whitlock (3) grabs the rebound away from Nazareth Prep’s Tre Harvey (3) and then scores a key bucket in Friday night’s PIAA Class A quarterfinal playoff game at Keystone Oaks High School. Whitlock scored 15 points in the Greyhounds’ 50-46 victory.

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Monessen's Marquell Smith (13) attempts to shoot over Nazareth Prep's Jaden Gales (21) during last season's PIAA Class A quarterfinal playoff game at Keystone Oaks High School.

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Monessen's DaWayne Howell (10) and Taylon Lowe (11) battle Nazareth Prep's Jeden Gales for the rebound during last season's PIAA Class A quarterfinal playoff game at Keystone Oaks High School.

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Monessen fans celebrate the Greyhounds’ victory over Nazareth Prep Friday night at Keystone Oaks High School.

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The Monessen bench celebrates as it watches Dishon Howell knocks down a pair of free throws to seal a 50-46 victory over Nazareth Prep in Friday night's PIAA Class A quarterfinal playoff game at Keystone Oaks High School.

DORMONT — Defense ruled when Monessen and Nazareth Prep clashed in the PIAA Class A boys basketball quarterfinals on Friday night.

It was the Greyhounds’ stifling man-to-man against the Saints’ active zone in a low-scoring battle that went down to the wire.

When the dust had cleared, Monessen was the team still standing, thanks to an intense 50-46 victory that ended the season for the WPIAL champion Saints at Keystone Oaks High School.

Freshman Devin Whitlock led a well-balanced offense with 15 points and snagged nine rebounds, and the Greyhounds hit four consecutive pressure free throws in the final 30 seconds to help propel coach Dan Bosnic’s squad into the state semifinals.

Monessen (18-9) will face Vincentian Academy, the team that defeated the Greyhounds in the WPIAL semifinals, 7 p.m. Monday at Mount Lebanon High School with a trip to Hershey on the line.

Bosnic didn’t want to look that far ahead just yet.

“We’re just extremely proud of them and I want them to take this and enjoy tonight,” Bosnic said. “We’re going to refocus ourselves tomorrow and make sure that we prepare to be successful in this next basketball game.”

Both teams were held 20 points under their season average in the hard-nosed clash.

“I think it’s a credit to both team’s defensive effort,” Bosnic said. “They’re moving in their zone, they’re extremely active, challenging our shots and we’re challenging everything in our man-to-man and making it hard to get to the basket. That’s why the score was what it was.”

Foul shooting was also a factor, especially in the fourth quarter.

With Monessen clinging to a one-point lead and 27.7 seconds left, senior Elijahwa Payne made two free throws to put the Greyhounds lead at 48-45.

“They were big shots,” Bosnic said. “Elijahwa’s a senior and that was a big moment for him to step to the line and make those shots for us.”

Nazareth Prep’s William Taylor was fouled with 12.4 seconds remaining and sank one of two to make it 48-46, and Bosnic called timeout.

The Greyhounds got the ball inbounds to senior Dishon Howell who was fouled with 9.1 seconds remaining. Howell put in both free throws to seal it.

“It just reminded me of the last game,” said Howell, referring to two late free throws he made in a 63-62 win over Bishop Carroll on Tuesday. “Just try to focus. Don’t listen to the crowd, don’t listen to anything, just block everything out and just shoot them how you shoot them when you’re practicing.

“And they fell.”

Monessen converted six of eight foul shots over the final eight minutes while the Saints missed six free throws in a row before Taylor’s make.

“We’ve struggled throughout the season with free throws,” Nazareth Prep coach Nehemiah Brazil said. “We’ve gotten better at key moments, but today, just how intense the game was and how much energy it took to battle those guys, we kind of were wore down and a couple free throws fell shot.”

The game was tied, 37-37, after three periods. Darnel Howell made one of two free throws at the 6:01 mark of the fourth to put the Greyhounds ahead to stay.

Both teams were deliberate on offense in trying to break down each other’s defense, especially Nazaraeth Prep which took almost a minute off the clock in one failed possession.

“We’ve gotten better throughout the season with our man-to-man defense,” Bosnic said. “I believed that we were going to present them with a different type of pressure and different type of intensity that they might not have seen on defense.

“We were able to do that. I thought our kids did a great job of staying in front of the basketball and making them shoot challenged shots. As the game wore on we kind of wore them down.”

Brazil preferred a lower-scoring game, but didn’t count on his team struggling so much on offense.

“They’re long and athletic, so they cover a lot of ground and they took up a lot of space, and they get to spots really fast,” Brazil said of the Greyhounds. “That alters your shots.

“Sometimes you’re used to getting around a guy and having a clean shot, but these guys, you get around one guy, there’s another guy there. A lot of those shots that we didn’t finish was because there was a guy there that we weren’t expecting to be there.”

With points at a premium, Dishon Howell swished a 3-pointer, his first basket of the game, with 4:12 remaining to put Monessen ahead 41-37, and Darnel Howell’s drive and pass to DaWayne Howell for a layup put the Greyhounds up by six, their biggest lead.

Tre Harvey, who tallied a game-high 16 points, scored inside for the Saints, before Whitlock made one of two free throws to make it 44-39 at the 3:03 mark.

Nazareth Prep cut the lead to one again on baskets by Harvey and Eugene Goodwine, after a steal, although both had chances at three-point plays and missed the free throw. Hassan Ismaeli rebounded Goodwine’s miss and then drew Darnel Howell’s fifth foul but he too misfired on both his foul shots with 2:20 left.

The Greyhounds’ defense hung tough the rest of the way with key plays from Whitlock and Dishon Howell.

Whitlock forced a jump ball that gave possession to Monessen.

Howell blocked a shot, then came up with a steal and passed ahead to Marquell Smith who missed a layup, but Howell followed, collected the rebound and calmly dropped it in to boost the Greyhounds’ advantage to 46-43 with 55 seconds remaining.

Ismaeli’s driving basket cut the margin to one again with 36 seconds left, but Payne and Howell put the game away with their clutch free throws.

Goodwine followed Harvey with 12 points. The Saints’ next highest scorer, 6-foot-6 center Jabriel Johnson, was limited to six points and only one field goal thanks to Monessen’s stout play inside, most notably by Payne.

“I was trying to put pressure on the big man so he couldn’t get the ball inside the paint,” Payne said. “I tried to play in front of him and box him out so he couldn’t get rebounds.”

Payne, DaWayne Howell and Dishon Howell each scored eight points for Monessen, Smith chipped in with six and Darnel Howell had five, including a 3-pointer.

The Greyhounds held Nazareth Prep off the scoreboard for the first 3:48 of the game and took an 8-3 lead before the Saints fought back to tie it at 10-10 after one period.

Nazareth Prep never trailed in the second quarter and took its biggest lead, 18-12, after consecutive treys by Harvey, before settling on a 28-25 halftime advantage.

Whitlock opened third-quarter scoring by grabbing a rebound and going coast to coast for a layup, and Payne scored off a rebound with 5:19 left for a 29-28 lead.

The Greyhounds would never trail again.

When the final seconds ticked off, Monessen’s players swarmed each other at midcourt.

“We were confident coming in,” Whitlock said. “It was exciting because they won the WPIAL championship and that could have been ours. It was emotional.”

Brazil wasn’t down on his team after the loss.

“I told the guys there’s no reason to hang your heads,” Brazil said. “We made history. Three years into the WPIAL and to say you’re WPIAL champs, that says a lot. We had to beat some really good teams in order for that to happen.

“Monessen, hat’s off to them, they were the better team today.”

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