Mar 10, 2015 4 min read

GREENSBURG – The Monessen High School boys basketball team cleared another hurdle on the road to what the Greyhounds hope is a trip to Hershey and a PIAA championship.

Monessen, however, hit a few potholes Tuesday night.

Monessen overcame a dismal start by getting 27 points from point guard Lavelle Rush and using its defensive pressure to wear down and defeat Portage, 69-49, in a Class A second-round game at Hempfield High School.

The win was the 11th in a row for Monessen (22-6), the WPIAL champion. The road will get more difficult for Monessen as the Greyhounds advance to play District 10 powerhouse Kennedy Catholic (23-4) in a much-anticipated quarterfinal matchup Friday at a site and time to be determined. Kennedy Catholic defeated Cameron County, 53-29, in the second round.

“It always gets tougher the more you move on,” Monessen coach Joe Salvino said. “What it comes down to at this point is which team wants to win more. And I wondered if we wanted to win for a while tonight.”

That was when more Monessen players were falling than shots by the Greyhounds. Monessen reserve guard Dwight Moore injured his ankle in pregame warmups, Rush was injured during the first quarter, and Justice Rice also suffered a minor injury. All three managed to play after going to the bench for treatment.

“The way things were going, I was wondering if I was going to have to suit up a few JV players,” Salvino joked.

District 6 runner-up Portage (20-6), coming off the first state playoff victory in school history, could not have scripted a better start. The Mustangs bolted to a 10-0 lead and held Monessen scoreless for the first four minutes.

But once Monessen began making shots, the Greyhounds’ press overwhelmed Portage. The Mustangs committed 18 turnovers in the first half and 31 in the game.

“We felt like we were prepared,” Portage coach Travis Kargo said. “It’s just hard to replicate Monessen’s athleticism in practice. That speed and pressure will wear you down over 32 minutes.”

That was obvious in this game. The longer each half progressed, Portage’s turnovers came at a more rapid rate. After trailing 18-12 after one quarter, Monessen outscored Portage 22-6 in the second quarter for a 34-24 lead. Rush, who was held scoreless in the first quarter for the second consecutive game, scored 17 points in the second quarter on an assortment of drives, fast-break layups and three-point shots.

“The press just wears you down,” Salvino said. “We want constant pressure on defense. It’s a cumulative effect of the press that gets to the opponent. We tell our guys that, at this point in the season, we might not be getting turnovers right off the bat like we did in our section games, but teams don’t want to play at this pace and it eventually will wear them down.”

Portage ran out of steam in the third quarter, when Monessen outscored the Mustangs 18-9 to push the lead to 52-33. Jaden Altomore scored eight of his 15 points in the third quarter.

“We had 18 turnovers at halftime but were only down by 10,” Kargo said. “We weren’t in bad shape. But it’s that cumulative effect of the press. We gave them a battle, but Rush made a couple of baskets in transition to get him going, and it was hard for us to stay in front of him.”

Braedon St. Clair led Portage with 19 points. Mike Bryja, a 6-5 senior center, scored eight of Portage’s first 10 points and finished with 15. He struggled to score after Salvino brought Luke Beveridge off the bench to guard the Mustang’s most-talented offensive player. Bryja, however, was a force on the boards as he grabbed a game-high 18 rebounds.

Rice scored 15 points for Monessen, including 11 in the first half.

“It seems like every game we start slowly,” Salvino said. “When we weren’t turning the ball over at the start, we were letting them penetrate. (Bryja) is not a bad player. Luke is one of our better defensive players and he made the kid work hard for his points.”