Bombs away
Red Raiders show off long-range shooting in rolling past rebuilding Falcons
BROWNSVILLE — Everyone knows Isaac Ellsworth is a deadly 3-point shooter.
The Uniontown senior had plenty of teammates joining him in a long-range barrage on Wednesday night.
Ellsworth made four 3-pointers in scoring a game-high 18 points in the Red Raiders’ 59-29 non-section boys basketball victory over a rebuilding Brownsville team and five other Uniontown players also sank a trey.
“We know teams are going to try to deny him but he distributed the basketball and shot well and did a great job overall tonight,” Uniontown coach Rob Kezmarsky said of Ellsworth. “We have other shooters. He’s not the only one.”
Cam Dugan, Donovan Coffey, Brayden Hinzy, Anthony Sheffey and Nolan Baker also connected from long range for the Red Raiders who improved to 2-1.
Uniontown put 10 players in the scoring column, including Payden Fitzgerald who followed Ellsworth with eight points. Dugan added seven points and Bakers chipped in with six.
“It was a team effort,” Kezmarsky said. “We subbed early. We played 13 kids.
“We distributed the ball well. Our six, seven and eight guys are really good and some of the other kids got in there, played hard and made some shots, too. We got great effort.”
Kezmarsky felt his team played well underneath the basket also.
“Our inside game was working well. The kids have worked really hard to get to this point. I love this team.”
Falcons coach Joe Hough lauded the Red Raiders.
“We were a little bit sloppy tonight but that’s a credit to Robbie’s team,” said Hough, the longtime coach who is in his first year of guiding his alma mater. “Uniontown’s pretty athletic and a really good basketball team. We just told the kids two years ago they gave up 100 points to Uniontown and tonight we only gave up 59.
“I’ll say this. We’re not disappointed about our effort. In fact we’re really excited about it. We’ve just got to start cleaning the fundamental basketball stuff up.”
Ellsworth made a pair of 3-pointers and Dugan had one in the first quarter when Uniontown opened up a 19-4 lead. Four different Red Raiders swished treys in the second quarter as the visitors bolted to a 39-9 halftime advantage.
“Robbie’s got good shooters,” Hough said. “Our game plan was to try to take Ellsworth away as much as possible, face guard him but we weren’t communicating well. One thing we have to work on is our basketball IQ. We’re trying to change things on the fly sometimes during the game and having some problems with that.
“It’s slow but it’s getting there. I told everybody this was not going to be rebuilt in a day.”
To the Falcons’ credit, they played Uniontown to a 20-20 standoff in the second half.
Jaiden Praster led Brownsville (0-3) with 12 points and Exzavier Vargas added five points. Seven different players scored for the Falcons.
“We don’t have a go-to guy right now where when you need a bucket you can get him the ball and he’ll create something for you,” Hough said. “I think we have a couple who can develop into that by the end of the year.”
Kezmarsky complimented Hough.
“I have great respect for Coach Hough,” Kezmarsky said. “I first started coaching as young guy down at Brownsville with Joe.
“He’s a great guy, great coach and you could see they have kids that are hard-working.”
Kezmarsky commended Brownsville’s gymnasium as well.
“The facility here is about as nice as I’ve been to,” Kezmarsky said. “It’s a beautiful place.”
Uniontown begins Section 1-5A play Friday at another Fayette County rival in Albert Gallatin.
“Every section game is important,” Kezmarsky said. “We’ve been scouting each other. We’re excited to go in and play them.”
Hough isn’t discouraged by his team’s start to the season.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do and we know it,” Hough said. “But there were things I saw that I liked tonight and over the weekend effort-wise. We’ve just got to keep at it.”