Battle-tested: Waynesburg flourishing in section play after 0-7 start
BROWNSVILLE — Waynesburg Central began its boys basketball season with seven consecutive non-section losses and coach Michael Juliano was concerned, not about the defeats but of his team’s mental state as the Section 4-AAA slate was set to begin.
“Credit to our guys,” Juliano said. “They stuck with it and battled through the adversity.
“They could’ve come into the section schedule kind of frustrated and discouraged and ready to just kind of pack it in but they didn’t. They just started to work harder and give a little bit more. That’s helped us get to where we’re at right now.”
Where the Raiders are right now is alone in second place with a 5-1 section record, just one game behind front-running Southmoreland.
Waynesburg reeled off its fifth win in a row Friday night, knocking off host Brownsville, 68-59, with a well-balanced attack that included five players in double figures, led by Dane Woods with 15.
Cole Headlee followed Woods with 13 points and handed out eight assists, Alex VanSickle added 12 points, Alex Eck contributed 10 points and eight rebounds and Jack Ricciuti also scored 10 points for the Raiders (5-1, 6-9).
“We’ve proven that we’re pretty versatile in terms of the way we can score the basketball,” Juliano said. “When we are willing to share the ball and play team basketball, we’re capable of being a nice well-rounded team to go up against.
The Falcons (1-4, 3-12) dropped their third in a row but still sit just one-half game behind Charleroi for the fourth playoff spot in the section.
Brownsville coach Rob Ramsey, whose team has been hampered by injuries and suspensions, felt his team battled to the end against the Raiders.
“I thought we had a great effort today,” Ramsey said. “We played hard.
“If we play like that in our three section games next week I think that will give us a shot at making the playoffs.”
While Waynesburg’s scoring seemed to come from everyone on the floor, Ramsey noted Headlee as the catalyst.
“Waynesburg’s pretty good. No. 0 (Headlee) played a really good game,” Ramsey said. “He just beat us to the basket and created a lot of good opportunities for Waynesburg. I thought he was the difference in the game. He was that good tonight.”
The score was tied 13-13 after the first quarter but five different players scored for the Raiders in the second, including seven points by Woods and 3-pointers by Austin Surber and Rucciuti, as they used a 21-11 advantage to take a 44-34 halftime lead.
Brownsville battled back to within 51-45 after three quarters and got within five at one point in the fourth before Waynesburg bumped the margin back up to nine.
The Falcons had whittled the lead to 57-50 when Riccuiti made his second 3-pointer from the corner to give Waynesburg a 10-point lead and Headlee scored a drive to the basket to make it 62-50 with four minutes left.
Brownsville pulled within seven again after a three-point play by Kaden Wimmer with 1:37 left and again on a basket by Jaiden Praster with 50 seconds left but could get no closer.
“We played well enough to get the job done,” Juliano said. “At the end of the day when we can get stops at crunch time that’s very important. We have the ability to play defense at a really high level. I don’t know that we did that for significant stretches of the game tonight, but when it mattered most we got the job done.”
Praster scored a game-high 20 points, including three 3-pointers, to lead Brownsville which also got 13 points from Cameron Phillips, 12 from Wimmer and five from Maxime Dieodonne.
Surber just missed giving Waynesburg six players in double digits as he wound up with eight points.
The Raiders swept the season series, having also defeated the Falcons in Waynesburg on Dec. 20 for their first win of the season.
“It’s hard to win on the road in the section. Credit to their guys,” Juliano said of Brownsville. “They’ve matured a lot throughout the course of the season. They’re starting to round into form and they made it as difficult on us as they could.”
Juliano feels his team’s challenging non-section schedule helped it get ready for the Section 4-AAA battles that loomed..
“One hundred percent. We put together a pretty tough non-section schedule for a reason,” Juliano said. “We felt like we were going to have a chance to compete in the section so we wanted our non-section schedule to prepare us for section play.
“So far I think that’s worked out. I don’t think I ever would’ve imagined that we wouldn’t have won any of those games in the early part of the season. But we played some really tough opponents and we did some things really nice for significant stretches in some of those games but we were playing some really tough teams.”
Assembly game rescheduled
The Falcons and Frazier were originally scheduled to play a 12:30 p.m. assembly game at Brownsville in front of its student body and faculty on Wednesday, Jan. 22 but frigid temperatures forced the game to be postponed.
It has been rescheduled for Monday, Feb. 3, again at 12:30 p.m.
“We’re excited. We’re happy we were able to find another date that worked for both of us,” Ramsey said. “We’re going to try to make it a great experience. Really this is for the players. We want to make it something they’re going to remember.”