Wash High victorious in Faust’s return
After five years of retirement, Ron Faust, third from left, returned to his familiar seat on the Washington High School boys basketball bench Friday night.
After a year of fighting Ewing’s sarcoma cancer, Luke Blanock beat cancer and returned to play with his Canon-McMillan basketball team.
CANONSBURG – Washington High School head coach Ron Faust was away from the basketball court for five seasons, but when the Prexies began the season at Canon-McMillan Friday night against Trinity, it was as if he was never away from the game.
Faust sat in his chair wearing eye glasses, barking commands and play calls. It wasn’t always a happy or picturesque return. The play on the court took its toll on the Prexies’ longtime head coach.
Despite making just 9 of 32 free throws, Wash High defeated Trinity, 63-53, at the Canon-McMillan Tip-Off Tournament.
“I’m more exhausted than any of them,” Faust joked. “I’ll go to the bottle of Aleve a little bit later. I enjoyed being back. I enjoy working with them. I’m just a little bit frustrated because I want more from them, in some cases, than they want from themselves. We have to change that because we have the possibility of being a pretty darn good team.”
Senior forward DeQuay Isbell scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Wash High, but admitted it wasn’t his best 32 minutes of basketball. Isbell missed the start of preseason practices with a hip injury, but did not show much rust in the lane – grabbing rebounds, collecting passes and finishing underneath.
“I feel that it went OK. It wasn’t the best I could have played,” Isbell said. “I know I could have played a lot better than I did. It’s being able to transition from everything that is going on.”
The Prexies led 31-20 at halftime and by as many as 20 points in the fourth quarter, but Trinity (0-1) never let up. The Hillers finished the game on a 16-6 run – led by three three-pointers, two by sophomore Adam Raggi.
Senior guard Nick Moretti scored a team-high 16 points for the Hillers.
Though Trinity started three freshmen and five saw playing time, the Hillers competed with Wash High until the final buzzer.
“I wish my team played as hard as Trinity did,” Faust said. “That group of guys played down to the end of the game. They played tough, got down a couple times by 20 points and just stayed with their business. They worked hard and pushed us around. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Trinity head coach Tim Tessmer was slightly pleased with his team’s response to a large deficit, but he wasn’t about to settle for a 10-point loss.
“I thought some of them played like freshmen and some of them played like men,” Tessmer said. “As soon as we get all of the guys to play like men, we’re going to be alright. We’re not surprised. We knew coming in that starting three freshman and playing four or five of them, that there are going to be some growing pains.”
Behind Isbell’s play inside and the strong backcourt of senior Jonathan Spina and junior Markel Pulliam, Wash High dominated time of possession, found the open man and took what the Hillers’ defense allowed.
The Prexies’ defense, which was almost non-existent during the WPIAL playoffs last season, was playing technically sound throughout the first half – getting takeaways and capitalizing with points in transition – but free throws almost cost Wash High.
Of the 10 players who were in uniform for the Prexies, seven missed at least one free throw and Wash High missed nine layups during a mistake-filled third quarter.
“I’ve coached more than 700 basketball games and I’ve never won a game where people shot the ball so poorly from the free-throw line,” Faust said. “I hope that’s an exception to the rule, but again, it’s concentration, it’s preparation. It’s mind over matter and right now, we don’t prepare ourselves to play very well.”
Three other Wash High players reached double figures – Spina (13 points), Pulliam (10) and junior forward Anthony Popeck (10).
No one was less pleased with the victory than Faust – his 521st as head coach. He hopes his players agreed with his observations. Though Wash High is without two key players because of injury, Faust refused to call that a reason for the inconsistent performance.
“That’s an excuse. It’s time to play,” Faust said. “There are good athletes in that locker room, but they are not good enough to not play all the time and be successful – if they have the goals that I have. Right now, I don’t know that they do.”