Blue Devils’ Glover has it covered in win
HOUSTON – Burgettstown boys basketball coach Rich Tranquill had a question.
Fortunately for the Blue Devils, senior forward Ryan Glover had already provided an answer.
“Glover,” Tranquill shouted early in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Section 4-AA game at Chartiers-Houston, “you OK?”
Glover, it turned out, was more than OK – a collision with guard Kurt Kowalski not withstanding.
With center Josh Mack in foul trouble for most of the afternoon, Glover picked up the offensive slack, finishing with 16 points and 15 rebounds during a 53-32 win for the Blue Devils.
“Some days I’m on, and he’s off. Other days he’s on, and I’m off,” Glover said. “Unfortunately, he was in some foul trouble, so today it was my turn to be on.”
Glover scored all but four of his points after halftime, as Burgettstown (4-4, 9-9) outscored Chartiers-Houston, 27-16, over the final two quarter to pull away.
He scored his 16 points on eight field goals, not one of them from more than a couple feet from the basket.
During the game’s decisive run, a 16-0 spurt that straddled the third and fourth quarters, Glover had eight points on three layups and a putback.
“Glover gave them energy and made things happen,” Bucs coach Eugene Briggs said. “He was the difference in the game.”
The win helped Burgettstown move to within a game of Bishop Canevin for third place in the section, while Chartiers-Houston dropped to 2-7, 5-12.
Besides Glover, Kurt Kowalski had 10 points, Mack finished with nine, and John Dugas contributed eight. Burgettstown’s starting guards outscored their Chartiers-Houston counterparts, 24-11.
“Our guards were on from the beginning,” Kowalski said. “John Dugas hit that opening three, and we just took off.”
The three-pointer Kowalski was talking about came 41 seconds into the game and was one of five the Blue Devils had during the opening half, two by Kowalski.
Back-to-back threes by Kowalski and Jonathan Sabo gave Burgettstown a 12-6 lead with 1:17 left in the first quarter before Kodie Hanley scored on a layup to make it 12-8 after one quarter.
Burgettstown built a 23-11 lead late in the second quarter – a 9-1 run that was punctuated by a layup from Glover – and led 26-16 at halftime.
The Blue Devils put the game away with their 16-0 run and Glover’s continued emergence inside.
“Glover really helped us,” Tranquill said. “Having him and Paul Lecker, another 6-4 kid coming off the bench, we don’t get hurt as far as rebounds, things like that when Josh is out of the game. Just a total team effort.”
Ben Shade contributed 10 points and nine rebounds for Chartiers-Houston, perhaps his best game of the season. Dylan Pounds had five. Hanley, Miles Williamson and Shayne Murphy had four each.
The Blue Devils host Brentwood (3-5, 8-8) for a pivotal section game on Tuesday, one they’ll need to win to hang on to the No. 4 seed.