CENTER TWP, Beaver County — Seneca Valley boys basketball coach Vic Giannotta normally would be thrilled to watch his team commit only nine turnovers in a game.

But on this night, the last two were very costly.

With under a minute to play and trailing Ambridge 53-51, the Raiders stole the ball at midcourt, only to turn it right back to the Bridgers underneath the latter's basket.

The Raiders received a 3-pointer from senior forward Kevin Mayberry, which was sandwiched between three Bridgers free throws, making the score 56-54.

The Raiders had the game's final shot in their back pocket. But the opportunity to force overtime or win the game with another 3-pointer disappeared after another turnover with eight seconds left.

Ambridge's Slade Unis drained two free throws and the Bridgers held on for a hard-fought 58-56 win Friday in the semifinals of the C.J. Betters Holiday Classic at the Community College of Beaver County's Golden Dome.

The loss knocks SV down to the third-place consolation game against Hopewell at 7 p.m. Saturday

Giannotta was disappointed with the loss but is taking several positives from the defeat.

"We've been playing really well since the (North Allegheny) game," he said of his team's 49-32 loss on Dec. 19. "We had four guys score in double figures (Thursday) night and three more tonight. And I think that's something we can carry into section play."

Leading the way for the Raiders Friday night was Mayberry with 15 points. Pat Heery added 12 and Shawn Eagle scored 10.

With 4:02 remaining in the game, SV's C.J. Brown put back a missed free throw to tie the game at 42.

But Ambridge answered immediately with Frank Karl's 3-pointer at the other end for a 45-42 lead. The Bridgers never surrendered the lead after that.

The fourth quarter was a back-and-forth flurry of points as both teams combined to score 45.

The Raiders scored 25 of them, in stark contrast to the three points they managed in the second quarter. They trailed 23-17 at halftime

One player who helped get the offense back on track in the second half was Heery, a senior guard who scored 20 points in Thursday's overtime win against Strong Vincent.

He had scored just 21 points in the three previous games combined.

"I think the biggest thing with Pat is that he's being more aggressive with the ball," said Giannotta.

Unis led Ambridge (9-2) with 18 points, including 12 in the second half. He drained three of his team's seven 3-point goals.

Seneca Valley (6-4) will hope to learn from the tough setback.

"We're playing some good teams right now," said Giannotta. "That's only going to help us once we get back into the section games."

Ambridge coach Ron Rowan was unavailable for comment.

SENECA VALLEY 56Gabe Grinder 2 0-0 5, Kevin Mayberry 6 1-2 15, Kevin Rohm 1 2-2 4, Pat Heery 6 0-0 12, C.J. Brown 3 2-3 8, Shawn Eagle 5 0-1 10, Jarrett Shotts 1 0-4 2, Sean Gress 0 0-2 0, John Bryant 0 0-0 0, John Fitzpatrick 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 24 5-14 56.

AMBRIDGE 58Chris Mylan 1 0-0 2, Slade Unis 5 5-6 18, Matt Morski 1 1-2 3, Frank Karl 2 4-4 10, Zach Delo 5 0-0 10, Jared Gibson 3 5-6 13, Travis Anderson 1 0-2 2, Bob Gaiton 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 18 15-20 58.

Seneca Valley 14 3 14 25—56Ambridge 10 13 15 20—583-point goals: Seneca Valley 3 (Mayberry 2, Grinder); Ambridge 7 (Unis 3, Karl 2, Gibson 2)

Saturday: Seneca Valley vs. Hopewell, Third-place game of C.J. Betters Holiday Classic, 7 p.m. at Community College of Beaver County