Shady Side uses stout defense to oust McGuffey from playoffs
CLAYSVILLE – Ben Michaels scored only four points for Shady Side Academy Tuesday night, but he might have been the most impactful player on the floor.
Michaels spent the night attached to the hip pocket of McGuffey standout Aydan Cunningham and was a key cog in a defensive masterpiece by the Bulldogs.
The ninth-seeded Bulldogs held No. 8 McGuffey to single digits in three of the four quarters and earned a 51-31 victory in the first round of the WPIAL Class 3A boys basketball playoffs.
“Ben’s guarded a lot of players similar to (Cunningham) if you look at South Park and other teams we’ve played that have players that are long and can play inside or outside,” Bulldogs coach David Vadnais said. “Ben’s done a great job when he hasn’t got into foul trouble. So you watch tape and some teams have done a box-in-one and some other defenses and we just said to Ben, ‘You go take him.’ (Cunningham) still made some contested shots, but you’ll live with that.”
The Bulldogs (10-12) advances to play No. 1 seed Aliquippa in the quarterfinals Friday. McGuffey finishes 16-7.
Another big factor for the Bulldogs Tuesday was health. They’ve been littered with injuries all season and for only the second time had their top eight players available to play.
“The other time we got five minutes,” Vadnais said. “Mark Bence, who comes in off the bench for us, got hurt in that game, so we’ve had five whole minutes all year with a full lineup, so tonight is the first time all year we’ve had our full top eight.”
Cunningham, a 1,000-point scorer for the Highlanders, had a team-best 13 points, but was held without a field goal until midway through the third quarter.
As a team, the Highlanders made 12 field goals all game.
“They had guys out early in the season, so (Shady Side is) much better than their record might indicate,” Highlanders coach Mike Fatigante said. “Personally I think they’re better than a nine seed. We knew that coming in, but we thought if we played well, we’d have a chance. Defensively we played OK, holding them to 51 points, but you can’t win a basketball game scoring only 31 points. We didn’t shoot the ball well. We didn’t make our layups and that’s not a recipe to be successful in basketball.
“Going in we stressed we had to do the little things, because (Shady Side) is talented and they’re bigger than us and we just didn’t do that tonight.”
Shady Side led by six at halftime and methodically pulled away over the final two quarters.
Seamus Riordan scored on consecutive possessions to put the Bulldogs in front 32-20. McGuffey never got within eight points again.
The Bulldogs outscored the Highlanders 29-15 in the second half.
“We’ve played strong third quarters all year, so with a six-point lead going into the half, if we could get it to 10 or 11 by the end of the third that would be good,” Vadnais said. “We were able to extend it out in the fourth quarter and maintain it from there. I was really pleased with how we played in the second half.”
Four of the five starters: Cunningham, Jacob Ealy, Mason Nemeth and Trey McGowan graduate. There’s six seniors on the team.
We’ve have seniors that have been here for four years and what they did in the program has been great,” Fatigante said. “We have a couple that were new to the team and they were a big addition and a big reason for our success this year. It was a successful season even if it didn’t end how we wanted.”