Seneca Valley's Evan Mitro tries to drive away from Pine-Richland's Andy Andrle in the Raiders' 61-48 loss Tuesday.

JACKSON TWP — The Seneca Valley boys basketball team is searching for points, defensive stops and, most of all, an identity.

In Tuesday night's Section 3-AAAA clash against Pine-Richland, the Raiders watched the Rams jump out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead.

Despite battling back and holding two brief leads in the third quarter, the Rams pulled away in a 61-48 decision.

In the night's first game, SV's girls fell to Chartiers Valley 55-32.

SV boys coach Victor Giannotta, disappointed in his team's play after the Rams closed the third period on a 14-5 run, sent in reserves for the remainder of the game.

When SV's Matt Smith got a 3-pointer to fall with 2:11 left in the game, it cut the SV deficit to six points.

But the Rams got a bucket from Eric Holmes before Brock Baranowski hit two free throws to put their team up 55-45 with 1:42 to play.

"That was a tough situation for kids that usually don't see that many minutes to come in to," Giannotta said. "It was a section game and we were down, but we were in it until late. I liked their effort."

When asked if there will be any changes to the starting lineup in Friday's game at North Allegheny, Giannotta replied, "I can't answer that."

The Rams were fast out of the gate, scoring 14 unanswered points before SV got on the board with Christian Durbin's baseline drive and layup with 4:05 left in the first quarter.

"We've gotten off to some slow starts and we talked about starting fast before the game tonight," said Rams coach Brian Gaetano. "Did we expect to be up 14-0, especially in this place? No. And we knew Seneca Valley would get back in it. They always do."

The Raiders (6-3, 1-3) made their own run and trailed just 26-22 at halftime, and led 27-26 and 29-28 in the third period.

But a subpar performance in the last few minutes of the third quarter prompted Giannotta to send fresh bodies onto the floor.

"We got outworked, outplayed, outcoached tonight," said Giannotta. "What else can you say?"

Holmes led all scorers with 25 points for the Rams (3-7, 1-3).

Girls Basketball Chartiers Valley 55, Seneca Valley 32Seneca Valley coach Rob Lombardo was prepared for a bit of a letdown, but he wasn't expecting this.A night after the Raiders notched their first win of the season with a 36-35 victory over Pine-Richland, the team found itself in a huge first-half hole against the Colts (7-4).Chartiers Valley was up 25-0 before Brooke Clifford's two free throws with 6:14 left in the second quarter put SV on the board."I told the girls before the game, 'Last night was an emotional win against a section opponent. Now we're playing a nonsection game. There's going to be a letdown to start the game. Weather the storm and then just play basketball,'" said Lombardo."Little did I know we'd be down 25-0 at one point."There was one major benefit literally right in front of the Raiders (1-9)."Chartiers Valley plays the exact same style of basketball that we want to play," said Lombardo. "I told the girls who were not in the game at the time to watch this team because in two or three years, that's going to be us."<B>Boys Boxscore</B>PINE-RICHLAND 61Andy Andrle 2 7-8 11, Collin Ryan 4 1-1 11, Eddie Baranowski 1 2-3 4, Ben Brown 2 0-0 4, Brock Baranowski 2 2-3 6, Eric Holmes 8 9-13 25, Chris Rader 0 0-2 0. <B>Totals:</B> 19 21-30 61.<B>SENECA VALLEY 48</B>Nate Herrmann 2 2-2 8, Joe Belechak 3 0-0 7, Eric Davis 3 1-2 7, Marco Corona 1 0-0 2, Alan Heery 1 0-0 2, Evan Mitro 3 2-2 8, Christian Durbin 2 4-5 9, Ryan Thomas 1 0-0 2, Matt Smith 1 0-0 3, Alex Maxfield 0 0-0 0, Pat Kulp 0 0-0 0, Beau Barclay 0 0-0 0, Pete Vicente 0 0-0 0. <B>Totals:</B> 17 9-11 48.<B>Pine-Richland 16 10 16 19—61Seneca Valley 7 15 12 14—483-point goals:</B> Pine-Richland 2 (Ryan 2); Seneca Valley 5 (Herrmann 2, Belechak, Durbin, Smith).<B>JV score: </B>Pine-Richland 38-37<B>Friday:</B> Seneca Valley at North Allegheny<B>Girls BoxscoreCHARTIERS VALLEY 55</B>Mariah Wells 2 0-2 4, Rebecca Braithwaite 1 0-0 2, Kayla Dames 1 0-0 2, Lexy Herron 7 0-0 15, Erica Restich 4 0-0 11, Kristina Coyne 1 1-1 3, Alex Coyne 1 2-2 4, Paige Aleski 3 0-0 7, Alyssa Mazzarini 3 1-2 7, Lindsay Richardson 0 0-0 0. <B>Totals:</B> 23 4-7 55.<B>SENECA VALLEY 32</B>Julia Vandrak 1 0-0 2, Beth Talarico 1 0-0 3, Karlei Fronzaglio 1 0-0 3, Gabby Allen 1 0-0 2, Kara Moyer 1 0-0 2, Alyssa Miller 1 0-0 2, Brianna Sieminski 1 0-0 2, Angie Lalonde 1 0-0 2, Alex Karika 5 0-0 10, Paige Tretter 1 0-0 2, Brooke Clifford 0 2-2 2, Dani Fitzgerald 0 0-2 0. <B>Totals:</B> 14 2-4 32.<B>Chartiers Valley 20 11 22 2—55Seneca Valley 0 11 13 8—323-point goals:</B> Chartiers Valley 5 (Restich 3, Herron, Aleski); Seneca Valley 2 (Talarico, Fronzaglio).<B>Friday:</B> Seneca Valley at North Allegheny

Seneca Valley's Dani Fitzgerald ignores the defense of Chartiers Valley's Kristina Coyne, right, and Lindsay Richardson Tuesday in the Raiders' 55-32 nonsection loss.