PINE TWP — Another close game. Another loss.

It's starting to wear on Seneca Valley coach Vic Giannotta and his boys basketball team.

“It's extremely frustrating,” Giannotta said.

This latest close call came against section foe Pine-Richland Saturday night as the Raiders fell 55-51.

A night before, Seneca Valley (7-7, 2-5) had climbed back into the race for a playoff spot with an overtime road win over Central Catholic.

But some of that luster was lost against the Rams as the Raiders couldn't pull out a win in a game that was within reach late.

“We felt that (Friday's) win was step one,” Giannotta said. “It was a two-step process this weekend. We had to beat both.”

Pine-Richland (10-4, 4-3), though, wouldn't let that happen on its home floor.

The game was close throughout as neither team led by more than six points. In fact, the game was tied eight times, including 43-43 midway through the fourth quarter.

But the Rams took the lead for good on a 3-pointer by Chris Rader — the last of eight hit in the game by Pine-Richland — and held off Seneca Valley late down the stretch with clutch free throw shooting.

Rams' coach Brian Gaetano was particularly pleased with the play of Rader, who had been struggling mightily coming into the game.

“I cannot be happier or prouder of Chris Rader,” Gaetano said of his senior point guard, who scored a team-high 13 points. “If there was a player on this team struggling more than Chris with his shot all year, I can't think of who it is. When he knocked down that first one, it was like a weight lifted off of him.”

Rader was 4-of-5 shooting in the game.

Christian Durbin and Alex Maxfield each scored 18 points for Seneca Valley, which only got 15 more points from the rest of the team.

Giannotta quickly downplayed the overtime game the night before as a factor in the Raiders' loss 24 hours later.

“Not at all,” Giannotta said of the affect of playing two games in a short period of time. “Not one bit. In fact, I thought it gave us an advantage. They're freakin' 16-year-old kids.”

SENECA VALLEY 51Matt Smith 1-3 0-0 3, Easton Bazzoli 0-0 0-0 0, Beau Barclay 0-0 0-0 0, Christian Durbin 5-14 6-7 18, Chad Albert 1-5 0-0 2, R.J. McCauley 0-0 0-0 0, Alex Maxfield 7-14 3-3 18, Jordan Brown 1-3 0-0 2, Austin Bream 2-7 4-4 8.

Totals: 17-48 13-14 51.

PINE-RICHLAND 55Eric Holmes 3-8 0-0 8, Brock Baranowski 1-4 2-2 4, Andy Andrle 2-4 4-4 10, Chris Rader 4-5 2-4 13, Ed Varanowski 5-9 0-0 11, Colin Jackson 3-6 1-2 7.

Totals: 19-40 9-12 55.

Seneca Valley 12 11 12 16—51Pine-Richland 14 12 13 16—553-point goals: Seneca Valley 4 (Durbin 2, Smith, Maxfield); Pine-Richland 8 (Holmes 2, Andrle 2, Rader 3, E. Baranowski).

Wednesday: Perry Traditional Academy at Seneca Valley