Dec 12, 2017 4 min read

CLAYSVILLE – A year ago, the McGuffey Highlanders boys’ basketball team made great strides under head coach Michael Fatigante, making a return to the WPIAL playoffs.

This season, the Highlanders are looking to improve on that.

It looked good after the Highlanders had two season-opening victories in the McGuffey Tipoff Tournament.

They weren’t so lucky Tuesday night.

Behind five double-figure scorers, the Uniontown Red Raiders came away with an impressive 64-59 overtime win in a Section 3 game in Class 4A.

“We didn’t execute tonight,” Fatigante said. “We have guys that usually step up that just didn’t play well tonight. The effort was there. We just didn’t make plays.”

The Highlanders trailed for most of the second half, but a steal by C.J. Cole with 20 seconds left led to a layup by Trent Belleville with three seconds remaining to send the game into overtime knotted at 56.

Belleville led all scorers with 22 points.

But the Highlanders (0-1, 2-1) came up empty on nine of their 10 possessions in the extra period, turning the ball over on four of them, as they watched their chances for a win slip away.

“We had chances,” said Fatigante. “Too many turnovers and missed shots.”

Uniontown’s Kameron Fitzgerald turned a McGuffey turnover into a layup early on in overtime. That was followed by a Ray Robinson layup after a turnover, which was all the Red Raiders really needed.

Fitzgerald led Uniontown (1-0, 2-1) with 18 points and Robinson added 11.

Cole knocked down his fourth three-point shot of the game with 36 seconds left to pull the Highlanders to within 62-59, but that’s as close as the Highlanders would get.

Uniontown was just 11-for-28 from the free-throw line, but they made them when they had to. The Highlanders only went to the line eight times.

McGuffey got off to a hot start, making five of their first eight field goal attempts, en route to taking an early 11-4 first-quarter lead with Belleville scoring eight of his 12 first-half points in the first quarter as the McGuffey lead stretched to 19-11.

That lead was down to four at the end of the first eight minutes, 19-15, and that was a sign of things to come in the second quarter.

Cole knocked down a three-point shot to begin the second to give McGuffey a 22-15 advantage, but the Highlanders wouldn’t make another shot from the floor for more than seven minutes when Belleville ended the scoring drought.

McGuffey’s struggles were due large in part to Uniontown switching from a man-to-man defense to a matchup zone.

That limited the Highlanders ability to drive the ball to the basket and there weren’t many open looks from the perimeter either.

Meanwhile the Red Raiders used their athleticism to get to the rim. When they weren’t making layups, they were kicking out to open shooters, knocking down a trio of three-pointers in a 15-1 run that gave Uniontown a 30-23 lead.

“We were able to do some things offensively after we were able to slow them down with the matchup zone,” said Uniontown head coach Rob Kezmarsky. “It was a hard-fought game. Both teams deserved to win.”

Belleville made a pair of layups right before halftime to pull the Highlanders within 30-27 at the break.

Cole, who finished the night with 20 points, drained a pair of three-point shots to start the third quarter as McGuffey put together an 8-0 run to take a 35-32 lead.

Uniontown scored the next seven before the Highlanders answered with seven consecutive of their own to take a 42-41 lead after three quarters.

The Red Raiders went back to the zone to start the fourth quarter and the turnovers and empty possessions piled up for McGuffey.

A couple of layups by Chase Miller kept the game close before Belleville tied it to send it into overtime.

David Chapman also finished in double figures with 10 points for the Highlanders.

Reginald Grooms (15), Trenton Uphold (10) and Giovani Marian (10) scored in double figures for Uniontown.

“Make no mistake about it, that is a very good team that is going to win a lot of games,” Kezmarsky said. “They are very well coached and their whole program buys into their system. We celebrated after the game. It was like getting two wins. That’s how good McGuffey is going to be.”