Dec 20, 2022 5 min read

McMURRAY – Peters Township boys basketball coach Joe Urmann said it “felt like a playoff game.”

Even though the season is only a few weeks old, it’d be hard for anybody who saw Peters Township play South Fayette Tuesday night to argue that statement.

A putback by PT’s Cam Mills with more than a minute remaining ended up being the deciding basket, and the Indians held on for a 71-70 win over South Fayette at home.

“We made a lot of mistakes,” Urmann said, “but we found a way to win. Anytime you can get a win and learn lessons, it’s better than losing and learning those lessons. I was proud of our guys’ effort, especially in the second half.”

Urmann’s opposite, Dave Mislan, agreed that, as entertaining as the game was, there were still elements of early-season basketball.

“With just the execution,” Mislan said. “When a team is physically stronger than you, which they basically are at every position except our inside guy. So we still have some figuring out to do with execution and with relieving pressure. But in terms of a full game, I thought it was as good as you get.”

Peters Township got off to a hot start, scoring 12 of the game’s first 14 points. The Indians led 24-16 at the end of the first.

South Fayette came in hot to start the second quarter, beginning on a 10-2 run. The Lions held steady for the rest of the first have and went into the break up 32-29. South Fayette’s Michael Plasko was the only player on either team to crack double figures in the first half, scoring 10 points. But Plasko only had two points in the second half.

The game stayed even in the third quarter. At the end of the period, Peters Township had the slimmest of leads, up 53-52. The fourth quarter had more of the same. South Fayette took a 70-69 lead with 1:45 left on a 3-pointer by Gavin Orsoz, who finished with 18 points. Peters regained the lead on Mills’ putback. Mills finished the night with eight points and his last two made the difference.

In the final minute, PT’s Brendan McCullough missed a layup that gave South Fayette the ball with a chance for the last shot.

South Fayette took a timeout and the plan was to get the ball to Elijah Hill as fast as possible.

Hill played well on the inside, finishing with a game-high 21 points.

Peters Township had three fouls to give before putting South Fayette in the bonus, and Mislan knew the Indians would be looking to foul. So the goal was to try to get them to foul Hill while he was going up for a shot, thus creating a free-throw opportunity.

“We were trying to get it in the post as quickly as we could so they might foul him while he was going up for a shot. They got one foul in on him, and then they doubled him well on the second play, and he was pretty far down on the baseline.”

Urmann confirmed that Peters was focused on Hill.

“We were concerned about No. 15,” he said. “We thought they were going to get him the ball, and we talked about how we were going to try to.”

After the first foul, officials stopped play.

“The ref thought it was over and back,” Mislan said, “because, at that point, we kind of had the pressure off us, so I feel like we might have got a better look at that. But that’s here nor there. It was just an honest mistake.”

Once place resumed – with 6.2 seconds left – South Fayette got the ball into Hill.

Peters Township was ready.

Mills and Tom Aspinall double-teamed Hill and forced an errant pass.

The last shot South Fayette wanted never happened.

“To our guys’ credit, they executed it fairly well,” Urmann said. “We still (could) probably clean some of that stuff up, but they understood it, and they did it.”

PT’s Jack Dunbar led the team with 19 points. The 6-foot-2 junior has been improving, and his coach loves to see it.

“Jack has a lot of ability, as you see,” Urmann said. “He can really go. I think he had 24 last Friday. His focus, his ability to focus and refocus, has gotten tremendously better. He’s a big difference-maker. He just makes splash plays. Stuff you can’t even really coach; he just does them just because of all the ability that he has. So I’m happy to see him start to blossom.”

Despite the loss, Mislan is pleased with how the season has gone thus far. Aside from Hill, there were no seniors in South Fayette’s starting lineup.

“Oh, we’re excited,” Mislan said. “Our competition has been great. Our schedule’s been tough. But, again, we have a long way to go because our section’s brutal.”

Urmann is pleased with how his team has started as well. Although mistakes are still being made, the result is what matters most, and Peters came out on the right end of things Tuesday night.

“We didn’t play our best,” Urmann said, “but I’m happy we came out on top.”