SR boys edge Union, 51-49
CHERRY TWP — A back-and-forth final quarter was settled with a basket and a turnover.
Slippery Rock’s Levi Prementine got a runner to fall with just three seconds left and the Rockets forced a turnover on the ensuing inbound pass to topple Union, 51-49, in the opening boys basketball game of the Moniteau Christmas Tournament on Tuesday.
“We try to put our kids in position to score and Levi was in position for that last shot,” said Slippery Rock coach A.J. Motta. “We played down at Butler on Friday (and lost) and to come back the day after Christmas, a day after the guys are relaxing at home for the holiday, this is a tough day to play.”
Union (4-5) led for much of the second half. When Owen Bish drained a 3-pointer with five seconds left in the third quarter, the Golden Knights lead was pushed to 40-35.
Prementine gave the lead back to the Rockets (5-3) briefly when his basket with 2:12 to go made it 47-46. Two points from Dawson Camper and a free throw from Trey Fleming put the Knights back up 49-47 with 1:32 left on the clock, but Union would score no more.
Josh Book tied the game with a pair of free throws, Union turned the ball over with a minute to play and the Rockets drained the clock before calling a timeout with 11.4 seconds left.
After Prementine’s basket, the Knights inbound pass at midcourt bounced off the fingertips of two players, first Slippery Rock and then Union, before going out of bounds. Possession was awarded to the Rockets, who easily ran out the final two seconds to ice the victory.
Union coach Eric Mortimer was impressed with his team’s effort.
“We’re a small school, going up against a 4A team like Slippery Rock,” he said. “I thought we handled it well tonight, except for the (19) turnovers. They’ve been our Achilles heel all season.”
Camper tallied 18 points to pace the Knights and Trey Fleming added 15.
Max Kovacik scored 16 points and dished out six assists for the Rockets. He drained four treys in the game, including a pair in the final quarter that were part of SR’s 10-0 run that gave the team a 45-40 lead.
“He hasn’t scored as much in the early going as we expected,” Motta said of Kovacik. “But Max is a great point guard who controls the game for us. His passes set a lot of guys up to score.
“We wanted to focus tonight, execute and finish. I thought we were aggressive with our shots.”
Prementine scored 13 points in the win and teammate Josh Book added 12.
SLIPPERY ROCK 51
Levi Prementine 6 0-2 13, Max Kovacik 6 0-0 16, Josh Book 4 4-4 12, Anderson Franco 4 0-0 10, Braden King 0 0-4 0, Casey Darr 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 4-10 51.
UNION 49
Dawson Camper 8 2-6 18, Trent Fleming 2 0-2 4, Owen Bish 1 1-2 4, Trey Fleming 6 3-6 15, Gage Jordan 3 0-0 6, Christian Salizzoni 1 0-0 2. Totals: 21 6-16 49.
Slippery Rock 15 11 9 16 — 51
Union 12 12 16 9 — 49
3-point goals: Slippery Rock 7 (Kovacik 4, Franco 2, Prementine); Union 1 (Bish).
Wednesday: Union vs. Sharpsville, 5:30 p.m.; Slippery Rock vs. Moniteau, 7 p.m.
