JACKSON TWP — Victor Giannotta is tired of moral victories.

Seneca Valley's boys basketball coach would rather see one on the scoreboard, but the Raiders let another one slip from their grasp Friday night.

SV held a 40-38 lead with just under three minutes remaining in the third quarter at William Paul Gymnasium. That's when the Indians dropped an 18-4 run and went on to post a 66-57 Section 3-AAAA victory.

North Hills completed the season sweep of SV for the first time since the 2007-08 season.

It is the eighth consecutive defeat for the Raiders (4-12, 0-8) and their 12th loss in the last 13 games.

“The kids are working very hard, but you can only tell them that you're proud of their effort so many times,” Giannotta said. “It's a grind. We're facing good teams every night, whether it's section or non-section.”

North Hills' combination of Ishmael Waldron and Nick Smith was too much for the Raiders, scoring 21 and 17 points, respectively. Both players were part of the North Hills spurt that ran into the fourth period.

“We wanted to push the tempo and we forced Seneca Valley into taking some 3's and other quick shots,” said Indians' coach Buzz Gabos.

“That was the difference in the game,” Giannotta said. “We needed to slow things down, but the tempo went North Hills' way.”

In the Indians' 61-43 win over the Raiders Dec. 18, Smith led the way with 25, but Waldron had a more modest effort with 12.

Friday marked the third time in less than two weeks that Waldron, a 6-foot-6 senior forward, scored 20-plus points in a section win.

“He had 29 against Central Catholic (Tuesday) and 25 against North Allegheny (last week),” said Gabos. “He has the ability and is starting to factor more into our offense.”

The Raiders received a spark from junior center Mark Smathers, who bucketed 15 points, 10 of them coming in the first half to help keep SV close with just a 30-26 deficit.

“He was matched up against an all-section player (Waldron) and I thought he played well,” Giannotta said.

Chris Hart added 12 points for the Raiders in his first game back from injury and Jack Cook added 10.

North Hills (9-6, 6-3) entered the game in a 3-way tie for third place in the section with Butler and North Allegheny. Butler lost to Pine-Richland Friday and NA was idle, meaning North Hills has sole possession of third place with three games left.

“You have to play with urgency in this section,” said Gabos. “At times, we haven't done that this season.”

NORTH HILLS 66

Jon Stuckert 2 0-0 5, Nick Smith 5 7-13 17, Luke Chutko 3 5-5 13, Andrew Paulauskas 2 2-2 6, Kam Taylor 2 0-1 4, Ishmael Waldron 10 1-3 21, Owen Davis 0 0-0 0. Totals: 24 15-24 66.

SENECA VALLEY 57

Jamir Carter 2 1-3 5, Nate Trzeciak 1 0-0 3, Payton Skalos 2 0-0 5, Patrick Uher 2 0-0 5, Jack Cook 4 1-2 10, Justin Koken 1 0-0 2, Chris Hart 4 4-4 12, Mark Smathers 7 1-2 15, Marcus Might 0 0-0 0. Totals: 23 7-11 57.

North Hills 20 10 20 16 — 66

Seneca Valley11 15 16 15 — 57

3-point goals: North Hills 3 (Chutko 2, Stuckert); Seneca Valley 4 (Skalos, Uher, Trzeciak, Cook).

Saturday: Seneca Valley vs. Lakeview at Slippery Rock University, 3:30 p.m.