Hanging on: Mustangs survive furious AG rally in 69-66 win
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Laurel Highlands’ Rodney Gallagher shots over Albert Gallatin’s Nate English during Friday night’s game at Albert Gallatin. Gallagher scored a game-high 24 points in the Mustangs’ 69-66 win.
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Albert Gallatin’s Nate English puts in a driving shot against Laurel Highlands with 30 seconds left in Friday night’s game at Albert Gallatin. English’s basket pulled the Colonials within one point but the Mustangs hung on for a 69-66 win.
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Laurel Highlands’ Rodney Gallagher (2) blocks a shot by Albert Gallatin’s Dylan Shea (23) during Friday night’s game at Albert Gallatin.
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Albert Gallatin’s AJ Blyden (5) takes a jump shot as Laurel Highlands’ Nick Egnot defends during Friday night’s game at Albert Gallatin. Blyden scored 21 points but the Mustangs won, 69-66.
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Albert Gallatin’s Nate English defends Laurel Highlands’ Rodney Gallagher during a game at Albert Gallatin on Feb. 5. The Mustangs were seeded third in the Class 5A boys basketball playoff pairings released by the WPIAL on Tuesday. The Colonials were seeded ninth.
YORK RUN — Laurel Highlands coach Rick Hauger wasn’t pleased with how his team played coming down the stretch of Friday night’s game at Albert Gallatin.
While the Mustangs may have made some mistakes they still had Rodney Gallagher to turn to in the clutch.
Gallagher scored 13 of his game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter, including two pressure free throws with 20 seconds remaining, to help LH stave off a furious rally by the Colonials and secure a hard-fought 69-66 victory in a Section 1-AAAAA battle.
“Rod is just a special player,” said Hauger, whose first-place team improved to 5-0 in the section and 6-3 overall. “I feel happy for these kids. It was a game they were looking forward to playing in against their rivals. We were fortunate to get out of here with a win.”
Albert Gallatin trailed by 15 at halftime and by as much as 18 in the third quarter — 49-31 after a steal and layup by LH’s Caleb Palumbo and 51-33 after a floater by Keondre DeShields with 2:27 left — before beginning its comeback.
The Colonials (4-3, 6-4) whittled the gap to 52-42 by the end of the third after two free throws by AJ Blyden but were still down 67-60 after a basket by DeShields with 2:21 left in the game.
Blyden hit a jump shot for AG and teammate Dylan Shea rebounded a missed shot by the Mustangs which led to a Blyden put-back of a Ja’Shir Kean miss to make it 67-64.
After Shea drew a charge, Nate English sliced to the basket and hit a driving lay-up to pull the Colonials within one, 67-66, with 30 seconds left.
Albert Gallatin was forced to foul Gallagher with 20 seconds remaining and the sophomore calmly swished both ends of a one-and-one to push the margin back up to three.
“When he went to the foul line my mind just reverted back to the Peterson Events Center,” Hauger said, recalling Gallagher’s two foul shots there with four seconds left that gave LH the WPIAL title over Mars last year.
“There really wasn’t much doubt in my mind that he was going to make them.”
The outcome of the game was still in doubt, however.
After a timeout, the Colonials’ Hunter Sexton put up a 3-pointer that was off the mark. With the final seconds ticking off the clock the ball was headed out of bounds but English leaped and not only saved it but sent it back to Blyden who got off a 3-pointer just before the final buzzer.
The rim spit the ball out and the Mustangs had the victory.
“We were trying to get a double screen initially for Hunter Sexton coming off,” AG coach Shea Fleenor explained. “Then it was great hustle and awareness by Nate to save it and somehow get it to AJ. I thought his shot was in. That thing did everything but drop through the net.”
Blyden hit a trio of 3-pointers earlier in the game and led Albert Gallatin with 21 points, including one dunk, and three blocked shots. Shea followed with 18 points and English added 14 points.
“You’ve got to give Albert Gallatin a lot of credit,” Hauger said. “They didn’t quit and then they got hot. A couple times I thought we were in pretty good defensive position and they still made the shot.
“Offensively, we moved the ball well the first half. The second half it stayed too long in people’s hands. One-on-one capabilities is a blessing but sometimes it can also be a little bit of a curse. We made a couple bad decisions coming down the stretch. Two of our last three possessions we took a shot we weren’t looking to take and then we got a charge called on us. The clock was our friend but we didn’t treat it that way at times.
“There are things we need to work on but we also have to still keep in mind that we’re basically a sophomore dominated team.”
Palumbo, playing his first game after being sideline for a week, gave LH an offensive boost with three 3-pointers and 15 points to go along with two steals.
Brandon Davis hit a pair of 3-pointers in scoring 12 points and DeShields had eight points for the Mustangs, who also got nine rebounds and two blocked shots from Nick Egnot and six points on two 3-pointers from Tarrance Thomas-Brown.
Fleenor commended Gallagher, who scored 11 points in a row for LH at one point in the fourth quarter, including several on tough, well-defensed attempts.
“Rodney Gallagher made some amazing shots,” Fleenor said. “I thought Nate English played him well and couldn’t have done anything else on most of those. Nate made Rodney work for everything he got.”
The Mustangs controlled much of the first quarter, getting two 3-pointers by Palumbo and one by Thomas-Brown in shooting out to a 19-10 lead.
Thomas-Brown and Gallagher hit 3-pointers to open the second quarter, prompting Fleenor to call a timeout. His team responded with a 10-point burst on 3-pointers by Sexton and English sandwiched around two baskets by Shea.
Hauger then opted for a timeout and Laurel Highlands fired back as Davis made two 3-pointers and Palumbo hit one in a 14-4 run to close the half.
The Mustangs were seemingly well in control late in the third quarter but AG turned up the intensity and out-scored LH 33-18 over the final 10:07 of the game.
Fleenor is hoping to eventually see that version of his squad for a full game.
“If that team shows up for 32 minutes instead of 16 minutes, we’re not walking out of here with a loss,” Fleenor said. “If they can start figuring out how to be that unit instead of five individual players, they have special things in front of them. What I saw in the fourth quarter tonight is the same team I saw for three quarters at North Allegheny when we built a 13-point lead against one of the top-ranked teams in 6A, but then we didn’t maintain it in the fourth quarter of that game. And that team wasn’t there for the first half of this game.
“We can keep saying how much potential we have but at some point we’ve got to start realizing that potential and translate it into winning these types of games. At the same time, I understand this might be part of the learning process we need to go through to do that.”
English agreed with his coach.
“If we play the rest of the season like we did in the second half we can do a lot of damage,” he said.
Hauger was happy to escape with a victory.
“A win is a win, especially against a really good team like Albert Gallatin,” he said. “I thought the energy was good both ways. If this place was full with fans it would’ve been a wild scene.”
Laurel Highlands continues section play on Monday and Tuesday when it hosts Ringgold and West Mifflin.
Albert Gallatin hosts another nearby rival, Connellsville, in a section game Tuesday.