Red Raiders celebrate senior night, finish 14-0 in section
Uniontown coach Rob Kezmarsky, with his team stepping up a classification and losing three key seniors to graduation, didn’t foresee the Red Raiders sweeping through Section 1-5A this season.
“We lost three high-level players (1,000-point scorer Jamire Braxton, K’Adrian McLee and Jeremiah Hager) and most people didn’t think we’d be able to run the table in the section at 5A,” Kezmarsky said of his boys basketball team. “I even said I thought the first-place team would end up with two or three losses.”
That first place team is Uniontown and the Red Raiders did, indeed, romp to a 14-0 section record after rallying from an early 12-point deficit to defeat Franklin Regional, 73-54, on Senior Night at A.J. Everhart Memorial Gymnasium Friday.
Three of those seniors led the way for Uniontown. Calvin Winfrey III scored a game-high 24 points, Kelan Milsom followed close behind with 23 and Notorious Grooms added 19.
“To go 14-0 is a credit to our players,” Kezmarsky said. “The years that Calvin, Tori, Kelan and Isaac (Ellsworth) are having is amazing, and then you put our role players in there and they just complement the rest of them so well.”
The Red Raiders, who had already wrapped up the 52nd section championship of the program’s storied history, finished the regular season with a 19-3 overall record and now await the WPIAL playoff pairings which are to be released Monday afternoon.
“The next playoff game we play will be the 16th for Tori and Calvin,” Kezmarsky pointed out of his two 1,000-point scorers. “That’s a lot of postseason games.”
Kezmarsky lauded his senior class which was honored before the game.
“All seven are great kids,” Kezmarsky said. “Three of them have different roles but I couldn’t be more proud of each and every one of them.
“I wanted to start all seven but obviously you can’t do that so we started Trevor Uphold with our usual senior starters, Calvin, Tori, Kelan and Ayden (Kiefer) and then we put Gary (Smitley) and Leonard (Tucker) in early.”
Milsom said the senior ceremonies made him realize his final year is winding down.
“It kind of hits you,” Milsom said. “It’s a surreal feeling, kind of crazy, stepping out there on senior night.”
The shuffling of the lineup had the Red Raiders out of sync early on.
Franklin Regional, thanks to two 3-pointers by Connor Crossey and a 3-pointer and three-point play by Jonah Johnston, shot out to an early 14-2 lead.
Uniontown answered with a nine-point run, seven of those by Grooms, but still ended the first quarter facing a 19-13 deficit.
The Red Raiders surged in front to stay in the second quarter. Grooms followed a 3-pointer with a fast-break layup to give Uniontown a 24-23 lead with 2:15 left in the half during a 14-2 burst that gave the hosts a 30-23 advantage and they went into intermission up 30-25.
“I told them not to panic, chip at and chip at it, take what the defense gives you,” Kezmarsky said of his team’s comeback. “We didn’t settle for our outside shooting. We drove to the basket. We had a lot of transition points, too.”
Defense also keyed the turnaround, according to Milsom.
“It was just a matter of getting the defense going and that would lead our offense, which it did,” Milsom said. “We turned it up a notch and then once we got the lead I felt like we had the game under control.”
Milsom made sure of that in the third quarter when he scored 11 points, including nine in a row for his team during an 18-4 run that put Uniontown comfortably ahead, 50-32.
“Kelan is always good but that’s just two great games in a row he’s had,” Kezmarsky said. “Kelan is our rebounder inside, he guards the other team’s best player, he scores for us, he hustles … he does everything for us.”
“I always try to bring energy to the team and do everything I can to help us win,” Milsom said.
The Red Raiders ended the third quarter up 52-37 and were never threatened again, leading by as much as 23 at one point.
Crossey led the way for the playoff-bound Panthers (6-8, 11-11) who also got 12 from Webber Rankin and 10 from Johnston.
Kezmarsky credited Franklin Regional and coach Jesse Reed for the season they’ve had.
“Franklin had won four in a row and one of those was over Latrobe,” Kezmarsky said. “Jesse is a great coach. He had a really good team last year and everyone thought they lost so much and they’ll be down and struggle. Well he has them back in the playoffs again.”
Uniontown enters the postseason on an 11-game winning streak.
“Right now we’re going to focus on the playoffs, but this was a great night and it can also be emotional when you’re honoring your seniors, especially with what these kids have done,” Kezmarsky said. “They’ve had tremendous careers. They’ve reached the WPIAL final four and played in the PIAA Western final two years ago when they were one win from the state championship game.”
Uniontown’s senior class has an overall record of 65-14, including 42-4 in section play, and has won three section titles.
“Now we’ll do everything in our power when we find out Monday who we play to keep it going as long as we can,” Kezmarsky said. “Whoever we’re going to play we’ll watch them so many times we’ll be sick.
“I believe in these guys. I can promise you this, they’ll leave it all on the floor.”