Raiders taste defeat twice on home floor
JACKSON TWP — Seneca Valley boys basketball coach Vic Giannotta will take four of his players reaching double figures in points.
The defensive end of the court was another story.
The Raiders were unable to get enough stops against Central Catholic's balanced offense in a 71-63 section loss at SV's gym Friday night.
The Seneca Valley girls fell to Oakland Catholic by a score of 48-29.
In the boys' game, the Vikings (3-0) made seven 3-pointers, five of them coming from Liam Halferty, and SV allowed Central Catholic seven offensive rebounds in the final period.
"Our kids played hard tonight against a good team," said Giannotta. "They played well enough to win and basically took the game down to the wire."
"It was just that we wanted to play zone tonight," he added. "But it's tough to stay in a zone when you're down by nine or 10 points. We stayed in it too long."
SV's defensive scheme made it difficult for the Raiders to keep someone on Halferty, who drained four of his trifectas in the second half and led his team with 21 points.
"We've been shooting the ball well from the outside," said Central coach Chuck Crummie. "But we'll take an good old-fashioned layup any time."
<table width="300" height="275" border="0" align="right" valign="top" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><embed src="/assets/mov/BE612951213.MOV" width="320" height="250" autostart="true" loop="false" ></embed></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/" target="_blank"><span class="style11">Requires Quicktime Media Player </a><br><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Times New Roman">Video by Brandon Gerthoffer</font></span><td></tr></table>Nate Herrmann, who led the Raiders with 16 points, scored on back-to-back possessions to cut the Vikings' lead to 65-60 with 24 seconds remaining in the game.But Central responded with a conventional three-point play. Halferty made a layup and was fouled and left the game with an injury.Anthony Horne entered to shoot the free throw that gave his team a 68-60 lead before Herrmann's second 3-pointer made it 68-63 with 12.1 seconds left.That was as close as the Raiders (1-3) would get.Also scoring in double figures for the Raiders were Evan Mitro (13), C.J. Brown (11) and Christian Durbin (10).The Raiders were outrebounded 31-26, including 19-12 in the second half.Girls Basketball Oakland Catholic 48, Seneca Valley 29Failing to do a lot of the little things in a game can lead to a lopsided result on the scoreboard.SV's loss to Oakland Catholic is a prime example.The Raiders were outrebounded 25-12 in the second half and tallied 29 turnovers and a 12-of-23 performance from the free throw line.All three contributed to the team's fourth loss of the season."I'm frustrated right now," said SV coach Kelly Mathews. "I can live with the turnovers if everybody is doing the other little things right, like boxing out."I'm trying to find out which kids can go in and do the little things," she added.The Eagles (2-1) were outrebounded 13-9 in the first half, but dominated the boards in the final two quarters."Rebounding, that's what we talked about at halftime," said first-year Oakland Catholic coach Jim Dudas. "In the second half, it was just a commitment from everybody that made the difference."SV had no answer for Eagles senior guard-forward Colleen Kiss, who led all scorers with 20 points.Kiss has signed to play at St. Bonaventure following graduation.Aly Eagle led SV with eight points
<B>BoysCENTRAL CATHOLIC 71</B>Brian Rajakovich 1 1-1 4, Tim Lackner 1 0-0 3, Liam Halferty 7 2-2 21, Anthony Horne 0 1-1 1, Dylan Layton 1 1-1 3, Lincoln Davis 1 0-0 2, Lucas Mickens 4 2-4 10, Evan Tsudis 3 3-4 9, Will Burgess 2 0-0 4, Bryan Ward 1 0-0 2, Dan Schnelbach 4 4-5 12, Ben Mickens 0 0-0 0, Ryan Fish 0 0-0 0. <B>Totals: </B>25 14-18 71.<B>SENECA VALLEY 63</B>C.J. Brown 4 3-5 11, Dan Rohm 1 0-0 3, Matt Vogt 2 0-0 4, Nate Herrmann 7 0-0 16, Joe Belechak 3 0-0 6, Evan Mitro 6 1-1 13, Christian Durbin 3 4-4 10, Dustin Anewalt 0 0-0 0, Pat Kulp 0 0-0 0.<B> Totals: </B>26 8-10 63.<B>Central Catholic 18 11 18 24—71Seneca Valley 12 15 11 25—633-point goals:</B> Central Catholic 7 (Halferty 5, Rajakovich, Lackner); Seneca Valley 3 (Herrmann 2, Rohm).<B>JV:</B> Seneca Valley 32-30 (SV-Alex Maxfield, 11 points)<B>Saturday:</B> Seneca Valley vs. Aliquippa at Ambridge<B>GirlsOAKLAND CATHOLIC 48</B>Clare Berenato 3 1-2 8, Ally Schmidt 2 0-2 5, Colleen Kiss 7 4-4 20, Caroline King 3 1-1 7, Kayla Walczak 2 0-0 5, Robbie Cain 1 1-5 3, Gina Tudi 0 0-0 0, Marissa Polk 0 0-0 0, Iffie Uwazie 0 0-0 0, Caty Kumar 0 0-0 0, Bobbi Baker 0 0-0 0, Maria Tassari 0 0-0 0, Farryn Jones 0 0-0 0, Fisher 0 0-0 0. <B>Totals: </B>18 7-14 48.<B>SENECA VALLEY 29</B>Aly Eagle 3 1-4 8, Beth Talarico 1 0-0 2, Karlei Fronzaglio 0 2-3 2, Alyssa Miller 0 2-4 2, Kara Moyer 2 0-1 4, Alex Karika 1 2-2 4, Catherine Messmer 1 5-9 7, Gabby Allen 0 0-0 0, Brianna Sieminski 0 0-0 0, Paige Tretter 0 0-0 0, Dani Fitzgerald 0 0-0 0.<B> Totals:</B> 8 12-23 29.<B>Oakland Catholic 13 12 11 12—48Seneca Valley 6 9 5 9—293-point goals:</B> Oakland Catholic 5 (Kiss 2, Walczak, Berenato, Schmidt; Seneca Valley (Eagle).<B>Thursday:</B> Seneca Valley at North Hills
