PT comes back to beat Wash High
Peters Township’s Conor Pederson goes up for a layup Wednesday night during the first half against Washington.
Peters Township’s Vincent Cortese, at right, celebrates with teammates Wednesday after defeating Washington.
Washington’s Matt Popeck pulls up for a first-half shot Wednesday against Peters Township.
Washington’s Jordan Swart passes to Prexies teammate Tariq Wilson in the first half of Wednesday against Peters Township.
McMURRAY – Though it was not the start they wanted, the ending was just fine for the Peters Township boys basketball team.
Trailing by as many as 13 points to Washington in the first half, the Indians were able to get to their game and eventually defeat the Prexies, 64-59, in the final game of the Peters Township Holiday Basketball Tournament Wednesday night.
Peters Township upped its record to 7-2 while Washington fell to 4-2.
“I think our kids did a great job,” Indians coach Gary Goga said. “We did a better job rebounding in the second half. We knocked down some shots. We moved the ball better. We did a nice job coming out in the second half in attacking their zone.”
The Prexies, who fell to Upper St. Clair the previous evening, appeared poised to atone for that loss by coming out hot in the first quarter. Washington scored the game’s first 10 points and took a 21-12 lead into the second quarter. Matt Popeck and Isaiah Robinson did much of the damage, scoring 16 of the team’s 21 first quarter points.
Popeck hit a three-point bucket in front of the Peters Township bench to push the Prexies lead to 32-19 late in the half. But from there, points would be much harder to come by.
“Matt is such a great player,” Goga said. “We started to pick him up man for man at half court. (Matt) Thelk did a real nice job face guarding him and making him really work from there.”
Peters Township began chipping away in the third quarter as Dax Ploskina got loose for consecutive three-point buckets that cut the Prexie lead to 38-36 midway through the third. Two Grant Mocharko foul shots eventually gave the Indians their first lead at 43-42 later in the quarter. Peters Township would outscore Washington 20-9 in the frame.
A Popeck layup midway through the fourth would give the Prexies the lead at 54-52, but Ploskina answered that score with a three-point dagger with two minutes remaining, giving the Indians a lead they would not relinquish.
Washington coach Ron Faust said he hopes his team develops more scoring depth as only four Prexies dented the score column.
“We have to realize that everyone on this team has different roles,” Faust said. “Whenever we find success, we have a hard time sustaining it.”
Popeck led the Prexies with 24 points. Jacob Swartz added 16.
Ploskina also scored 24 for the Indians. Seven total players for Indians scored.
Upper St. Clair 88, South Fayette 44
Game 1 Wednesday night saw the Upper St. Clair (7-2) blow open a tight game and rout the South Fayette (3-2) 88-44.
Kyle Meinert paced Upper St. Clair with 24 points. He was joined by double-digit scorers Matt Kissinger (11) and Gabe Houy (10).
South Fayette battled the bigger Panthers to a near stalemate in the first half before falling behind 32-27 at the break. Upper St. Clair used their zone trap defense to go on a 28-7 blitz in the third quarter and never look back.
“I didn’t like how we played defensively in the first half so we turned it up after halftime,” Panthers coach Dan Holzer said. “We turned them over and got some easy buckets and took off from there.”
Upper St. Clair forced 23 turnovers for the game and outrebounded the Lions 22-15.
Camron Garland and Noah Plack led the Lions in scoring with nine and seven points, respectively.