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Laurel shoots down Waynesburg boys

4 min read

McMURRAY – The Waynesburg boys basketball team made their first WPIAL playoff appearance in a decade Saturday afternoon but the stay was a short one.

Laurel had too much Scott Siddall for the Raiders.

Siddall scored a team-high 25 points, making five three-point shots, and eight different Spartans scored at least four points as Laurel cruised to a 76-50 victory in Class AA preliminary round game.

Laurel, which finished the regular season in third place in Section 1-AA, advances to play Greensburg Central Catholic in a first-round matchup Wednesday.

“They shot the ball well early on,” Waynesburg head coach Dave Sarra said. “Even the shots that they missed, they got offensive rebounds. We didn’t box out well and didn’t play sound defense. We let them penetrate and gave up easy baskets on the blocks. Those were things we didn’t do all year.”

Siddall came out hot, scoring 15 of his 25 points in the first half. He scored the Spartans first five points of the game and then knocked down his second three-pointer of the first quarter to spark an 18-6 Laurel run, which gave the Spartans a 23-10 edge after one quarter.

That put Waynesburg in a big hole, one the Raiders couldn’t extract themselves from.

Laurel had success moving the basketball, getting several players touches on each possession.

“It’s something we are capable of,” said Laurel head coach Ken Locke. “We talk to the kids about spreading the ball around. We have the ability to put up some points really quicly. It was just one of those things where we wanted to get off to a fast start. We made some plays early on and were able to put together a big run. We just built on that from there.”

Waynesburg’s Dom Sarra matched the offensive output of Siddall, scoring a game-high 26 points.

Sarra scored six straight points to cut the Laurel lead to single digits at 27-18, but that was as close as the Raiders would get.

After scoring 11 points in the second quarter, the Spartans tried to make it tough on Sarra, often running double and triple teams at him.

“I thought Dom had a solid game,” Dave Sarra said. “He was able to penetrate and get to the rim and got to the foul line a lot. They adjusted and started running extra guys at him to get the ball out of his hands.”

Siddall hit his third three-point shot to spark a 13-7 Laurel run to close the half as the Spartans led 44-28.

Laurel built on its lead in the second half as Waynesburg never got closer than 12 points, which happened early in the third quarter when Sarra scored two quick baskets to cut make it a 44-32 game.

Each time the Raiders seemed to be ready to make a run, the Spartans had an answer. If it wasn’t Siddall, the damage likely came from Mason Mraz, who scored 16 points.

“They are a good team and basketball is a game of runs,” Locke said. “We knew they had a couple of runs in them. It’s how you respond after. Our guys kept battling so we were able to answer.”

In addition to the big game from Sarra, Waynesburg’s Mitch Warman finished in double figures with 12 points.

Though the season is over, the Raiders can look back at a successful year and start preparing for next year.

“Getting to the playoffs is huge,” said Sarra. “We haven’t been there in about 10 years. We finished with a 9-3 section record. Those are things that we can use to carry us into the offseason.”

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