Win at the wire
Mustangs edge Red Raiders in thriller, 56-54
Kayden Smith looked for an opening as he dribbled while the final seconds were ticking down with his Laurel Highlands team knotted in a 54-54 tie at Uniontown.
Smith had already scored a career-high 27 points with five 3-pointers and looked to put the finishing touches on an outstanding performance when he found enough room to launch a 3-pointer from the top of the key with four seconds left.
The shot was off the mark. But the Mustangs’ Luke Martin was there for the rescue.
Martin grabbed the rebound and put in the winning shot just before the final buzzer to give the Mustangs a thrilling 56-54 victory in another classic of their historic crosstown rivalry at a soldout A.J. Everhart Memorial Gymnasium on Tuesday night.
“There’s no better feeling than hitting the game-winner at your rival’s school,” said Martin, who finished with 17 points. “They beat us at our place. It’s great to get our revenge.”
It was the 125th meeting between the two Fayette County rivals. Laurel Highlands snapped a five-game losing streak in the series which Uniontown still leads, 73-52.
The win jumbled the Section 1-5A standings, leaving the Red Raiders (6-7, 10-10), Mustangs (6-7, 11-8), Latrobe and McKeesport all at 6-7 and tied for fourth place. The top five teams after tiebreakers qualify for the WPIAL playoffs.
Both teams control their own destiny in that if they win their section finale on Friday – Uniontown at Franklin Regional and Laurel Highlands at home against Penn-Trafford – they’ll be in the postseason.
“That was a great high school basketball game,” Uniontown coach Rob Kezmarsky said. “Both teams played their hearts out and we came up two points short. No excuses.”
The game was close throughout with 16 lead changes and eight ties. The biggest lead was five points, twice by Laurel Highlands.
“What a game. Back and forth, back and forth all night,” Mustangs coach John Smith said. “We were blessed to get out of here with a big win.”
Isaac Ellsworth led the Red Raiders with five 3-pointers, including a pair of NBA-range bombs, and 19 points. Cam Dugan nailed a pair of 3-pointers in following with 13 points and Nolan Baker also made two treys in tallying 10 points.
Tyrone Burton followed Smith and Martin with 10 points and also had six rebounds and four steals for LH. The trio accounted for all but two (Damon Revak) of their team’s points.
Smith scored 10 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, including a 3-pointer with 3:45 left to give the Mustangs a 46-43 lead. They would not trail again.
There was still much drama to unfold, though.
Laurel Highlands held a 50-45 lead when Ellsworth hit his second-longest 3-pointer of the night to cut the gap to two points and Kezmarsky called a timeout with 1:38 remaining.
After Burton made one of two free throws and Smith sank a pair to put LH ahead 53-48, Dugan was fouled with 49 seconds left. He missed all three foul shots but the Red Raiders still managed to get three points out of the possession when Baker grabbed the rebound and found Ellsworth in the corner.
The 1,000-point scorer, who has made over 200 3-pointers in his career, drained the shot to bring Uniontown within 53-51 with 45 seconds left.
Smith was fouled with 41 seconds left and converted one of two to make it 54-51. With Ellsworth being hounded by the LH defense, Dugan stepped up and made up for his free-throw misses by nailing a clutch 3-pointer to tie it at 54-54 with 20 seconds remaining.
“Uniontown hit some big shots in this game to close the gap late,” said Smith, who called timeout with 12 seconds left to set up his offense.
“In that timeout I wanted to put a couple guys down on the block, I wanted Tyrone on top for a high pick and roll, and I wanted Kayden to attack the basket, and if they helped I wanted him to dump it or maybe he even draws a foul.
“One of the last things I said was Kayden don’t shoot the three,” Smith added with a chuckle.
Kayden Smith admitted as such.
“I was recommended not to shoot a three at the end,” he said with a smile. “I disobeyed but Luke happened to be in the right place at the right time. I’m grateful he was there.”
Martin confirmed the timeout strategy.
“During the timeout Coach said to get the ball to me or Kayden and said not to shoot a three,” Martin said. “But I saw Kayden’s man coming under the screen so I knew he was shooting that. I went through and saw there were three guys on the other side so I’m going to stay here and try to fight for the rebound. The ball came my way, I put it up.”
The ball went in and the Mustangs excitedly celebrated.
“I didn’t have too much of an issue with Kayden’s shot as long as we took it at the right time, which he did, with about three or four seconds left,” John Smith said. “It all worked out in the end. Great win for the team and for the LH community and our basketball fans.”
The game wasn’t over after Martin’s bucket as it was ruled Uniontown called timeout with 0.8 seconds left but Burton intercepted a long pass to end it.
Kezmarsky had nothing but praise for his team’s effort, especially the way it fought back to even at the end.
“Nolan gets a great offensive rebound and makes a great pass. Isaac hits a huge three. Then Cam hits a huge three,” Kezmarsky said. “The kids played hard for each other. Laurel Highlands made one more play than we did. Credit goes to them.”
The Mustangs came out in a zone defense and controlled play early on, taking an 8-3 lead after back-to-back baskets by Martin. Ellsworth hit two 3-pointers late in the quarter, including one extremely deep jump shot from the Uniontown logo, to get the hosts within 10-9 after one quarter.
There were five lead changes in the second quarter, the last coming when Baker made the second of two straight 3-pointers to give Uniontown a 19-17 advantage.
Revak’s lone basket came on a pass from Smith in the final seconds to get LH within 22-21 at halftime.
Neither team held more than a three-point lead in a third quarter that featured six lead changes and four ties. Martin scored to put the Mustangs ahead 35-34 with 26 seconds left, Dugan swished a 3-pointer to put Uniontown up 37-35 with 11 seconds left and Smith made a driving layup with three seconds remaining to tie it at 37-37 heading into the fourth quarter.
Dugan converted a three-point play with 5:15 left to give Uniontown its final lead at 43-41. Burton answered with a jump shot to tie it before Smith’s go-ahead trey.
Kayden Smith, who also had two steals and five assists, was ecstatic with the victory.
“It feels great,” he said. “They beat us the first time. We went hard in practice, stuck together and pulled one out here.”
Coach Smith lauded his son’s performance.
“Kayden thrives in these situations,” he said. “He’s the guy who wants the ball with the game on the line. I’m happy for him. He had a great game and I’m proud of him.”
Both teams turned their attention to Friday’s crucial section games afterwards.
“This was a great win but we have another big game Friday against Penn-Trafford so we have to focus on that now,” Kayden Smith said.
“If we beat Franklin we’re in the playoffs,” Kezmarsky said. “But we know they’re going to play hard at their gym.”