PT boys trip on foul line in WPIAL final loss
PITTSBURGH – Two out of the three shooting categories were strong for the Peters Township boys basketball team Saturday night.
But there was one glaring weakness for the Indians.
Their foul shooting.
The Indians shot 60.5 percent from the field, 43.8 from three-point range, but had a disastrous night from the free-throw line, going 7 for 22.
That proved too much to overcome as Chartiers Valley maintained a solid cushion throughout and earned a 73-66 victory over Peters Township in the WPIAL Class 5A Championship at Petersen Events Center.
“I think if you look through the course of our season (free-throw shooting) has been a bit of a bugaboo for us,” Peters Township coach Joe Urmann said. “We’ve got past it a few times. I told the guys at the beginning of the season with the style we’re going to play we were going to be in a lot of close games. We talked about different things we had to be better at situationally – rebounding and free-throw shooting – and the guys came a long way in that. The ball didn’t bounce our way tonight and sometimes that happens at the free-throw line.”
The Indians (18-8) fell in the WPIAL final for the second time in three years and were denied their first title since 2009. Chartiers Valley (23-3) won its seventh title and first since 2015.
Another obstacle the Indians faced was a slow start.
Chartiers Valley opened the game on a 12-2 run and led 34-24 at halftime.
The Colts were equally strong from the field shooting 61.4 percent, but a separator was going 14-for-20 from the foul line.
Peters Township got to within five points in the third quarter when Jayden Greco nailed a three-pointer, but Chartiers Valley standout senior guard Jayden Davis made a layup and on the next possession found a wide-open Luca Federico, who canned a three-pointer to make it 45-35.
Peters Township never got back to within five points again.
“We talked with our guys about getting three stops in a row and it seemed like we could get two, but the third one would get away from us,” Urmann said. “We felt that uphill battle, but there wasn’t any quit in these dudes. They battled to the end.”
The championship game was a rematch of a nonsection game on Feb. 1, which Chartiers Valley won 71-57. Davis had 38 points in that win and had another exceptional night Saturday, scoring a game-high 28 points.
“That helped our guys get a full understanding of what they were trying to do,” Colts coach Corey Dotchin said. “It gave us film to learn from and go back and get better. We knew that we were going to have our hands full, because they could do the same thing. I think overall it helped us that we were able to play them earlier this season.”
Another tough moment for the Indians was when 6-8 sophomore forward Jake Wetzel went down with an injury early in the third quarter. Wetzel fell, along with a couple other players battling in the paint, limped off the court and didn’t return.
“I think he stepped on a foot and had an ankle turn,” Urmann said. “Our trainer worked on him for a while and we weren’t sure if we could rejoin us, but it didn’t seem like he could put any pressure on it without a lot of pain.
“We were able to get them into foul trouble a little bit in the first half by going to him and the plan was to get him more touches in the second half, but with him going down it wasn’t something we were able to do.”
Ben Miller came off the bench to score 18 points for the Indians. Nick McCullough had 17 points and Dylan Donovan scored 10.
Chartiers Valley plays Cocalico, the ninth-place team in District 3 in the first round of the PIAA tournament and Peters Township gets Spring Grove, District 3’s eighth place team. The first round of states is Friday.