JACKSON TWP - For Eric Mozzetti, it's all a matter of confidence.

And right now, his Shaler girls basketball team has it.

The Titans opened the season with an 0-4 mark in Section 3-AAAA, but thanks to a 17-6 third-quarter advantage against Seneca Valley on Thursday, Shaler pulled out a 34-32 victory to improve to 4-4, 10-6 overall.

"At the beginning of the season, the kids didn't know how to win," said Mozzetti. "In the last three to four weeks, they're doing things like taking care of the ball.

"We dug ourselves in a hole. We were 0-4 and now we're 4-4, but now we have New Castle and North Allegheny next," he added.

It was the fourth straight loss for the Raiders (8-8, 4-4).

"We had opportunities, but we didn't convert when we needed to," said Seneca Valley coach Todd Schoeffel. "We couldn't shoot from outside.

"I said at the half if we could hit one 3-pointer, we could explode," Schoeffel added.

Unfortunately, the Raiders didn't connect on any of their 3-point attempts, and, worse yet, Seneca Valley connected on just two of its final 11 free throw attempts after making its first 10.

Seneca Valley held a 16-11 halftime lead, but the Titans came out firing in the third quarter, getting a 3-pointer from Jill DiNucci and a basket from Erin Staniski to tie the game at 16.

The Raiders responded with a pair of free throws from Val Johnson and a score from Amanda Johnson to take a 20-16 lead.

The Titans then scored next nine points and 14 of 16 to surge to a 30-22 lead with 7:38 remaining in the game.

Shaler's Melissa McQuade took control of the game in that span, accounting for 11 of those points.

But the Raiders wouldn't fold as they countered with the next six points to pull to within two at 30-28 with 2:40 left.

"We were undisciplined with the ball when we were up by six or seven in the fourth quarter," said Mozzetti.

The Titans led 32-30 when Tina Mangola had a chance to tie the game from the free-throw line with 36.9 seconds left, but she misfired on both.

McQuade sank a pair of free throws with 9.7 seconds left for a 34-30 lead before the Raiders cut the deficit in half when Chelsey Pavlick scored on a putback with 1.1 seconds off a Courtney Grootegoed miss on a 3-point attempt.

The Titans' Shelly Grenesko was fouled on the inbounds pass but she missed both free throws with two-tenths of a second left, but SV had no time to get off a shot.

"We're just not converting in our offensive half-court," said Schoeffel. "We have to stay positive. All of our games this season have been close and, hopefully, they'll be close again and give a chance to try and pull it out."

Notes:

McQuade finished with 18 points and DiNucci was held to just nine points. The Raiders received 10 points off the bench from Pavlick. … Shaler had just one field goal in the first half.

SHALER 34

Erin Staniski 1 0-1 2, Melissa McQuade 3 11-14 18, Allison Holt 1 3-4 5, Julieann Harris 0 0-2 0, Jill DiNucci 2 3-4 9, Shelly Grenesko 0 0-2 0, Libby Soeder 0 0-0 0, Julie Stampfle 0 0-0 0. Totals: 7 17-27 34.

SENECA VALLEY 32

Val Johnson 0 3-4 3, Kelsey Spencer 2 2-2 6, Tina Mangola 1 2-4 4, Amanda Johnson 1 1-4 3, Ashley Turici 2 2-4 6, Chelsey Pavlick 4 2-3 10, Laura Ness 0 0-0 0, Courtney Grootegoed 0 0-0 0. Totals: 10 12-21 32.

3-point goals:

DiNucci 2, McQuade

JV:

Seneca Valley, 61-49

Monday:

Seneca Valley at Fox Chapel