Jan 29, 2025 By Jonathan Guth 4 min read

Uniontown’s boys basketball team was already in good spirits as it boarded the bus to make the trip home following a 79-53 victory at McKeesport on Tuesday in Section 1-5A play.

As the Red Raiders were making their way back toward Wilson Avenue, the excitement on what is normally a mundane trip was turned up a notch, as Uniontown discovered it had clinched at least a share of the section championship.

“These kids are so in tune with the game of basketball,” Uniontown coach Rob Kezmarsky said. “When we were on the bus, they cheered louder than me when they knew we had clinched at least a share of the section title.”

With the win over the Tigers, the Red Raiders improved to 11-0 in section play with three games remaining, but with second-place Latrobe losing to Penn-Trafford, 54-52, the Wildcats fell to 8-3 in league action. Uniontown can finish no lower than 11-3.

The Red Raiders have already defeated Latrobe twice this season.

Uniontown has won 52 section championships in program history, and Kezmarsky has been at the helm for 13 titles.

“I am very fortunate to have won 13 section championships in my 23 years as head coach at Uniontown,” Kezmarsky said. “That is a credit to my players and assistant coaches, Warare Gladman, Ray Robinson and Calvin Winfrey Jr. We also don’t talk about the games ahead. We just focus on the next one.”

The Red Raiders (16-3) definitely didn’t look ahead against the Tigers (4-7, 7-12) in jumping out early and taking a 27-14 lead into the second quarter. Uniontown outscored McKeesport, 26-13, in the second period for a 53-27 halftime advantage.

The Red Raiders held a 20-14 edge in the third quarter for a 73-41 lead going into the final frame.

With a running clock and the game well in hand, Kezmarsky unloaded his bench. The Tigers had a 12-6 advantage in the fourth.

“We have been shooting the ball really well, and that is one thing we want to continue to do,” Kezmarsky said. “We were able to play all our reserves, and I am really glad about that because those kids work so hard. We were without Ayden Kiefer, and we missed his rebounding, but we are hopeful to have him back soon.

“I was very impressed with Cam Dugan and Anthony Sheffey tonight. They played really well, and are two of our sophomores that we will be counting on moving forward.”

Notorious Grooms led Uniontown in scoring with 23 points. The senior is second on the Red Raiders’ all-time scoring list with 1,547 career points. He is 174 points from tying Terrance Vaughns’ all-time record.

Fellow senior Calvin Winfrey III put in 20 points to increase his career mark to 1,280, which is seventh on Uniontown’s all-time scoring list.

The Red Raiders’ Kelan Milsom, who is also a senior, added 19 points. Junior Isaac Ellsworth dropped 10.

McKeesport was led in scoring by Matt Sebelia, who had 14 points. Teammate Lamont Perkins added 10.

Uniontown returns to the court Friday night when it hosts Gateway (8-3, 10-7) at AJ Everhart Memorial Gymnasium. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

The Uniontown Sports Hall of Fame will honor the program’s four state championship teams and its 1,000-point scorers in a pregame ceremony.

“It’s definitely an accomplishment to win the section title, but we want to make sure we finish the season strong to gear up for the WPIAL playoffs,” Kezmarsky said. “You can’t play the WPIAL playoffs on Jan. 28, so we will just keep working and striving to get better each game. Tori (Grooms) and Calvin (Winfrey) have been a part of three section titles and they were in a western state final and the semifinals of the WPIAL playoffs. Our kids play so much basketball in the summer, and they are ready to make another playoff run.”