SV out-hustles rival North Allegheny in 64-42 win
JACKSON TWP — From the start, the Seneca Valley Raiders out hustled the North Allegheny Tigers in their 64-42 victory on Friday night. The matchup was a crucial one between two squads that are still fighting to stay alive in the race to make it to the 6A WPIAL playoffs.
Seneca Valley recognized the importance of the game immediately. In the first quarter, it almost felt as if they could do no wrong. On the other side, North Allegheny just couldn’t figure things out. The first period of play saw the Raiders jump out to an early 22-6 lead. The Tigers only points in the quarter came from two three-point field goals, one of which was made by Anthony Sciote and the other was hit by Jack MacMurdo.
The game had all the makings of a blowout win for the Raiders, but the Tigers weren’t going to go away quietly, at least not yet. North Allegheny was led by Joey Dopirak, who scored seven of their 14 points in their 14-4 run in the second period of play.
When play resumed after halftime, North Allegheny cut the lead down to just seven. But thanks to a 23-3 run by Seneca Valley, a game that was within just three scores turned into a lopsided affair.
Down the stretch, the Tigers only scored 11 points. A lot of that was due to Seneca Valley’s domination on defense. Because of that, by the time the Tigers got on the scoreboard again after the large run by the Raiders, the game had all but been decided.
“For us, we always focus on defense and rebounding, because we always feel if we can do those two things we’re always going to be in the game,” Seneca Valley head coach Kevin Trost said.
Their play on the defensive end and control of the boards made it seem as if the two teams on the court were simply playing at different levels. One side loves to see that, the other side tends to get frustrated beyond belief when that happens. It was no different in this case.
“I just thought they were moving at a much different pace tonight,” North Allegheny head coach Dave DeGregorio said. “We were playing at two different speeds.”
With three minutes left, both teams threw in the players that had been on the court just a couple hours before. For the Raiders, the win gets them back on the right track after their loss to Pine Richland just a few days ago and it doesn’t get better than beating a rival.
“We lost a tough one to Pine, so we definitely wanted to bounce back, and our kids played hard tonight,” Trost said.
NORTH ALLEGHENY 42
Joey Dopirak 12, Anthony Sciote 12, Jack MacMurdo 9, Joe Marquis 5, Paul Rubish 2, Varun Kaveti 2.
SENECA VALLEY 64
Connor Oros 6 2-2 15, Tyler Pepin 3 6-7 14, Andrew Roy 6 2-2 14, Luke Lawson 3 4-4 11, Kai West 2 4-4 10.
Seneca Valley 22 8 22 12 — 64
North Allegheny 6 14 11 11 — 42
