FOX CHAPEL — Finding itself in another dogfight at halftime Wednesday, Seneca Valley’s boys basketball team knew what it had to do.

And did it.

“Turn up the energy level a little bit,” Raiders coach Victor Giannotta said. “We turned it up a lot.”

Seneca Valley (3-4) led Riverside by a scant 28-25 margin at halftime before resorting to more of a pressure defense in the second half. That resulted in building a 10-point lead by the end of the third quarter. It continued with a 12-0 run in the fourth period that paved the way to a 61-40 victory at the Peter Sauer Memorial Tournament hosted by Shady Side Academy.

“We were a little tired to start this game,” SV senior guard Payton Skalos admitted. “Playing two straight afternoon games is a little different.

“We weren’t getting into rotations very well in the first half. We had to change that.”

The Raiders had just one turnover in the final two quarters — a meaningless one by the reserves with seconds left in the game — and forced 12 turnovers by Riverside (5-3).

“It was all about positioning,” Giannotta said. “When your players take the proper position defensively, this stuff can happen.”

Patrick Uher had six steals for the Raiders. Skalos had six steals to go with seven assists.

“We were playing without our point guard (Dylan Speicher, out with injury) and we missed him,” Riverside coach John Rorick said. “Their pressure swallowed us up. We couldn’t handle it.”

Marcus Might led Seneca Valley with 17 points and five rebounds. Uher contributed 13 points while Chris Hart had 11 points, four rebounds and three assists.

Seneca Valley doubled the amount of shots — 60 to 30 — that Riverside took. The Panthers had 23 turnovers overall to the Raiders’ 10.

The increased point production was a welcome sight for Giannotta.

“Pressure defense can result in easy buckets through transition,” the coach said. “When you’ve been struggling to score points like we have, that can jump-start you, for sure.

“We went to a bigger lineup in the second half. That helped, too. We’re all about section play. Hopefully, this effort will help us in section.”

Jesse Fornataro led Riverside with 10 points. Ty Thellman had five assists for the Panthers, who made only 13 field goals all day.

“Our offense never did get going,” Rorick said.

RIVERSIDE 40

Ty Thellman 1-4 2-2 5, Austin Dambach 3-8 1-1 7, Will Yasenka 1-1 0-0 2, Jesse Fornataro 3-5 4-4 10, Justin Baust 2-3 2-2 7, Gunner Boehm 3-6 3-4 9, Conner McQuiston 0-0 0-0 0, Brian Macmurdo 0-1 0-0 0, Daevon Williams 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 13-30 12-13 40.

SENECA VALLEY 61

Jacob Banovsky 0-3 0-0 0, Nate Trzeciak 0-3 1-2 1, Payton Skalls 3-5 2-2 8, Patrick Uher 5-10 0-0 13, Justin Koken 1-10 3-6 5, Marcus Might 8-9 1-1 17, Mark Smathers 3-4 0-1 6, Chris Hart 5-14 0-0 11, Dalton Peffer 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 25-60 7-11 61.

Riverside 9 16 8 7 — 40

Seneca Valley13 15 15 18 — 61

3-point goals: Thellman, Baust; Uher 3, Hart

JV: Seneca Valley, 51-25 (SV: Josh Rupert 12, Zac Zajacs 9; R: Lucas Glevicky 9)

Today: Seneca Valley vs. Butler, 3 p.m., Peter Sauer Memorial Tournament