Shorthanded Wash High tripped up by Seton LaSalle in quarterfinals
Observer-Reporter
Washington’s Zahmere Robinson (1) returns for his senior season for the Prexies.
washbasketball
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Seton LaSalle’s Michael Bigley knocks the ball away from Washington’s Chance Cohen
in the WPIAL Class 3A quarterfinals game Canon- McMillan High School on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Washington’s Quamar Patterson agsinst Seton-LaSalle in the WPIAL Class 3A quarterfinals game Canon- McMillan High School on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019.
CANONSBURG – It happened again.
Washington High School boys basketball coach Ron Faust has become accustomed to it, so much so that he tells his players on the opening day of practice, “the people that don’t expect to be in a big game end up being in one.”
Shorthanded because of ineligible players, fifth-seeded Washington couldn’t keep up with Seton LaSalle for all four quarters, falling to the No. 4 Rebels, 48-34, in a WPIAL Class 3A quarterfinal game Thursday night at Canon-McMillan High School.
“A basketball team is more than a couple people,” Faust said. “We preached from Day 1, because we’ve done this quite a few years and it has happened more than once, that everybody has to be ready. You hope they are prepared. We tried to prepare them throughout the year. Some of them were. Some of them weren’t.”
The Prexies were without leading scorer and rebounder Dan Ethridge and their only other senior, Isaiah Walton, who also started multiple games this season.
“It was a different game,” Seton LaSalle coach Mark Walsh said. “We were concerned going in and not having our post guy Trevor O’Donnell with the flu. (Washington) came into the gym and we didn’t see Ethridge. And our concern coming in was rebounding.”
Seton LaSalle (19-4) took full advantage of the battle on the boards in the second half, getting several second-chance opportunities with offensive rebounds. The extra looks allowed the Rebels to break free from a 17-17 tie after Wash High’s Ian Bredniak made a three-pointer on the opening possession of the second half. Dylan Preston ignited a 9-1 run in the middle stages of the third quarter to give Seton LaSalle a 26-18 lead.
“We spread them out on the offensive end and felt more comfortable in the second half because we were playing offense on the same side as our bench,” Walsh said. “The offensive glass was big for us. I don’t know how many second shots we got but were able to get a lot of put-backs.”
Wash High (14-9) immediately answered with a 6-2 run of its own, until the Rebels’ Jake Verner, who finished with a game-high 19 points, made a three with two seconds left in the third quarter to extend the lead back to 31-24.
The lead for Seton LaSalle was never threatened again, making two more threes and five foul shots in the fourth quarter to secure the victory.
The Prexies’ strategy of bleeding the clock on offense to force a low-scoring game worked. They rebounded after falling behind 7-0 from the start and kept the game close throughout the entire first half, trailing 17-14 at halftime.
Zahmere Robinson led Wash High with seven points, including five in the fourth quarter. Ian Bredniak and Tayshawn Levy each finished with six.
“We were right there,” Faust said. “We weren’t aggressive going to the basket. Anybody that has seen us play, knows we aren’t a very good perimeter shooting team. We orchestrated things the way we thought gave us the best chance to win the game.”
Struggling in the quarterfinal round in recent history, losing players only added to an uphill climb for Wash High. Since 2000, the Prexies are 1-9 in the WPIAL quarterfinals.
They still have an opportunity to qualify for one of the seven spots in the state tournament in the follow-the-winner formula.
“We played as hard as we could,” Faust said. “We executed our game plan to a tee but fell a little bit short.”