Monessen gets revenge, wears out West Greene
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By Joe Tuscano
For the Observer-Reporter
newsroom@observer-reporter.com
ROGERSVILLE — In basketball, revenge is best served on the other team’s court.
Just ask Monessen, which was handed a dispiriting loss to West Greene Jan. 24 on its home court, turning the Class A Section 2 race into a knotted mess.
Fast forward to Friday night, when the Greyhounds served up a 66-55 win over West Greene in Rogersville to take control of first place in the section and earned a much-needed victory.
“They hadn’t beat us in 20 years (before the last meeting),” said Lorenzo Gardner, who led Monessen with 30 points. “So me, my teammates, coaches and everyone had to take this personally. We had to give them one back for the section.”
Both teams are playoff bound. Monessen is 7-1 in the section while West Greene fell to 6-2 in the section. Both teams have two section games remaining.
Dan Bosnic, the Greyhounds head coach, felt the defensive rebounding against a taller West Greene team made the difference in the game.
“I think we dominated them in that area,” Bosnic said. “It made a big difference in the game. We have a lot of respect for West Greene. They came into our place and got the win. I knew our kids would be ready to play.”
An 8-2 run by West Greene early in the fourth quarter closed the Monessen lead to 53-51. but West Greene went cold on offense after that, scoring just four points in the last 2:46 of the game.
Monessen, meanwhile, connected on nine of 10 free throws in that span to pull away.
“I think we wore out,” said West Greene head coach Jim Romanus. “It was a really physical game. They caused the turnovers. They are strong and really well coached.”
Lane Allison led the Pioneers with 21 points. Matthew Wassil scored 15 and Parker Burns added 11.
Rodney Johnson scored 12 points for Monessen.
Monessen jumped out to an early 7-2 lead, thanks to a 7-0 run after Matthew Wassil opened the game with a put back.
West Greene got back in the game and even took a 15-11 lead by outscoring Monessen, 13-4.
Monessen pulled ahead 30-22 by outscoring West Greene, 13-7, late in the seond quarter. West Greene matched Monessen’s six points before the half, taking a 38-29 lead.