USC can’t zone out PT
Peters Township’s Clayton Yeates attempts a layup as Upper St. Clair’s Gabe Houy defends in the second half of Friday night’s game.
Peters Township’s Kelson Marisa draws contact from an Upper St. Clair defender but gets off a shot during the first half Friday night.
MCMURRAY – It’s highly likely when the schedule was released for the boys’ high school basketball season, both Peters Township and Upper St. Clair circled Friday’s night Section 4-AAAA game.
What the two bordering school districts didn’t know at the time was how important the early January matchup would be.
With the Panthers’ contingent making the short trip and a large Peters Township student section wearing red, white and blue, it was evident how vital this game was for section supremacy.
Two missed shots from Upper St. Clair’s Zack Pateras in the last 6.5 seconds allowed Peters Township to survive a second-half comeback and walk away with a 40-38 win.
The Indians, who average 71.9 points per game, were stifled by a 2-3 zone, something that is not the norm for Upper St. Clair.
“I’ve been here for 21 years and I believe that’s only the second or third game that we ever played zone,” said Upper St. Clair head coach Danny Holzer. “In high school basketball, you have to adjust to your team makeup.”
That’s what Holzer did. The Panthers were outscored 10-0 before switching to the zone in the early minutes as Peters Township (4-2, 9-3) ran numerous isolation plays to get its scorers in space.
“We wanted to try and get players off the dribble,” said Peters Township head coach Gary Goga. “They had a great game plan by switching to the zone.”
Upper St. Clair (3-3, 8-5) continued to struggle in the second quarter as it got acquantied with the zone concep as the Indians were able to knock down four three-pointers, including one from Mike Johnson to extend their lead to 23-13.
Peters Township made four three-point shots and the Panthers only went 3 of 14 from behind the arc.
“The bottom line is (Peters Township) played really tough defense and it made it difficult to shoot the ball,” said Holzer. “We just couldn’t make shots.”
The remedy for the offensive strugles and slowing down the explosive Peters Township attack was longer offensive sets, including a 2:22 possession to begin the second quarter.
The Indians had to adjust to the zone, too.
An 18-point second quarter put Peters Township ahead 28-17 going at halftime, but it only managed 12 points in the entire second-half and the Panthers continued to crawl their way back. Trailing 30-20 after both teams traded three-point shots, Upper St. Clair scored 13 of the next 18 points to cut the deficit to two with 4:56 to play in the fourth quarter.
Both teams traded possessions until a steal put Peters Township leading scorer Nick Valentic on the line with 16.9 seconds left and Pateras missed two shots in the final seconds. The senior couldn’t connect on either attempt, capping a frustrating night for the Indians from the line, where they went 0 for 4.
“We played a little bit too cautious at the end,” said Goga. “We should have just kept shooting the basketball instead of trying to get them to expand their zone. But they came to play, that’s for sure.”
Senior leadership, intertwined with youth is something Upper St. Clair has had to balance all season. But Holzer was tasked with replacing two key players with sophomores who didn’t have much game experience.
“We fought hard and injuries will never be an excuse,” he said. “We just have to keep working on having balanced scoring. The effort and toughness are definitely there.”
Upper St. Clair was paced by senior Andrew Wheeler’s 17 points, seven of which coming in the fourth quarter. No other player for the Panthers scored more than five points.
The Indians fed off the home crowd with a balanced, yet seemingly ineffective offense, which only managed five field goals in the second half.
Leading all scorers for Peters Township was Valentic, who was the only player to reach double-digits for the Indians with 11 points. Kelson Marisa finished with eight, while Clayton Yeates and Johnson had six.
“Our crowd is fantastic, they have been all year,” said Goga. “The community always comes out, the student body is unbelievable and everyone has been extremely supportive. It’s good to get them a win like this.”