Dec 26, 2018 4 min read

CHARLEROI – After not playing for five days, the Ringgold High School boys basketball team could have been rusty.

Instead, there were no signs of any sluggishness from the start.

Ringgold picked up right where it left off prior to the Christmas break as the Rams jumped out to an early lead, avoided a third-quarter collapse and downed Yough in the opening game of the CFS Holiday Classic Wednesday night at Charleroi High School, 69-53.

The win extended Ringgold’s winning streak to six games, improving its record to 6-1 overall and advancing to tonight’s semifinals.

“I think we got a lot of easier shots in the game,” said Ringgold coach Phil Pergola. “They took a lot of threes and we had more open shots. We did a good job on the offensive boards. When we grabbed them, we generally scored on them as our inside game generally improved.”

The Rams led by 10 after the first quarter and by 11 at the half, but Yough trimmed that lead to three points in the third quarter.

“We got a little sloppy and that happens when you aren’t used to winning,” Pergola said. “But the guys were able to turn it back around.”

Ringgold countered with a 15-0 run to give the Rams a comfortable cushion it maintained the rest of the way behind leading scorer Luke Wyvratt, who finished with 19 points.

Chris Peccon and Demetrius Butler each finished with 14 points. Jaden Taylor scored 12 points.

“From March until now, Luke has improved immensely,” Pergola said. “He put in a lot of work on his own and any kid who doesn’t take advantage of (playing in) the Bud Grebb League is wasting their time as a player. Luke is a great example of improving because of playing there.”

The Rams will advance to play Belle Vernon at 7 p.m. tonight.

Belle Vernon 84, Southmoreland 80: It might not have been pretty to Belle Vernon basketball coach Joe Salvino but the Leopards outlasted Southmoreland 84-80 in double overtime for their second win of the season.

“We’ve set basketball back 100 years,” Salvino said. “I don’t really know that either team wanted to win. Our stats guy said we had 24 turnovers, but I am almost sure we had more than that. We missed a lot of easy shots. I keep telling them to not let the other team go into the middle but we constantly let them do it and it leaves all the options open. These are things we will have to learn because we can’t keep on giving up all of these points and expect to win.”

Belle Vernon (2-6) controlled most of the game into the fourth quarter and limited Southmoreland to 18 first-half points, taking a 31-18 lead into halftime after four points from Tyler Kovatch in the final minute of the second quarter.

The Leopards then watched a 12-point advantage it had over Southmoreland (3-5) diminish when the Scotties closed the game on a 16-4 run to send the game into overtime.

The game was forced into a second overtime when Cam Nusser made a three-pointer in the closing seconds.

“We were lucky that Cam hit that shot but we should have won the game in regulation,” Salvino said. “We are losing sight of things we should be doing and trying to do things we shouldn’t be doing. We will go play tomorrow and see what happens.”

Mitch Pohlot led Belle Vernon with 24 points and 21 rebounds. Larry Callaway scored 21 points for the Leopards, while Jake Haney and Cam Nusser had 15 and 12 points, respectively.

Southmoreland’s Riley Comforti led all scorers with 28 points.