PINE TWP — You wouldn't have known Seneca Valley was without two starters in Tuesday night's boys basketball game at Pine-Richland, except for a four and a half minute stretch of the fourth quarter.

But it was during that span that the Raiders' fate was sealed.

With its top two scorers — Jack Cook and Chris Hart — on the bench with injuries, the Raiders held a 40-34 lead early in the final period when the Rams dropped a 17-0 run on their foes. A late SV rally fell just short as the Raiders suffered a 58-56 Section 3-AAAA loss.

“We're proud of the effort, but not satisfied with the result,” said SV coach Victor Giannotta. “We felt like we let one get away.”

During Pine-Richland's scoring spree, which ended with the Rams holding a 51-40 edge, the Raiders were hampered by five turnovers and attempted just one shot. The Rams employed a press defense during their run.

“No discredit to Pine-Richland, but I thought most of the turnovers were due to our mistakes, not the press,” said Giannotta. “We shot ourselves in the foot.”

It was a welcomed sight for Rams' coach Jeff Ackermann, who had watched his team go through the motions in the first half. In each of its previous 10 games this season, the Rams (7-4, 2-2) scored no less than 61 points. At the half against the Raiders, Ackermann's team trailed 21-16.

“It was a quiet night (in the gym) and we just didn't play hard in the first half,” he said. “We didn't share the ball well enough. We just needed to turn up the tempo and start playing with a lot of energy.”

The Rams' run was spurred by five points in a span of four seconds. A pair of SV turnovers allowed Adam Alexander to complete a conventional 3-point play and Evan Luellen sank a basket to give Pine-Richland a 41-40 lead with 6:26 left in the game.

Three minutes later, the Raiders began their comeback. Nate Trzeciak's personal 8-0 run brought the Raiders to within 57-55 with 28 seconds left.

After the Rams missed three straight free throws, Andrew Petcash finally made one for a 3-point lead. Trailing 58-55, the Raiders had Payton Skalos at the free-throw line with two seconds left. He made the first, then intentionally missed the second. Trzeciak grabbed the rebound, but threw up an off-balanced shot that did not fall as time expired.

“Vic did a great job coaching tonight,” said Ackermann. “He's willing to do whatever he needs to do offensively and defensively. To be down a couple of guys and have them play like they did tonight, it shows you how good of a coach he is.”

Seneca Valley's best chance at winning was to keep the game low-scoring and the Raiders (4-6, 0-4) did just that in the first half.

Skalos scored eight of his 11 points in the first period and the defense held the Rams to just 7-of-22 from the field in the first 16 minutes.

“We played tremendous defense and rebounded well in the first half,” said Giannotta, who is not sure when Cook and Hart could return from their undisclosed injuries. “We played a lot of guys tonight and they got some good experience.”

Petcash scored a game-high 19 points, 14 coming in the second half.

Trzeciak led Seneca Valley with 18 points and Jamir Carter had 11.

SENECA VALLEY 56

Jamir Carter 4 2-2 11, Nate Trzeciak 6 4-5 18, Payton Skalos 4 1-2 11, Jake Holl 0 1-3 1, Patrick Uher 3 0-0 6, Justin Koken 2 1-2 6, Marcus Might 1 1-1 3, Andrew Smathers 0 0-0 0, Mark Smathers 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 10-15 56.

PINE-RICHLAND 58

Nolan Rausch 1 0-0 3, Adam Alexander 3 3-6 9, Andrew Petcash 6 5-7 19, Alex Goitz 4 0-1 8, Evan Luellen 2 0-0 4, Phil Jurkovec 6 1-2 13, Charlie Tortorice 1 0-0 2, Kordell Kirkland 0 0-0 0. Totals: 23 9-16 58.

Seneca Valley 14 7 16 19 — 56

Pine-Richland8 8 18 24 — 58

3-point goals: Seneca Valley 6 (Trzeciak 2, Skalos 2, Koken, Carter); Pine-Richland 3 (Petcash 2, Rausch).

Friday: North Allegheny at Seneca Valley