Slow 2nd half sinks SV against NA
JACKSON TWP — If Tuesday night's Section 1-6A boys basketball clash between Seneca Valley and North Allegheny was a race, the Raiders simply ran out of gas midway through.
The visiting Tigers walked out of SV's William Paul Gymnasium with a 75-51 victory, but what wouldn't show in the final score was how evenly matched the two teams were throughout the first half.
“We played pretty good in the first half and got dominated in the second,” Raiders' coach Kevin Trost said in succinctly summarizing his team's night.
Each of SV's starters, along with reserve guard Beaux Lizewski, scored buckets in the contest's first eight minutes, helping the Raiders keep up with the guests. Senior Jameson Grieco's corner trey leveled the scoreboard as the buzzer sounded on the opening frame.
The teams combined for 47 points in a frantic second stanza, with the Raiders' junior trio of Connor Oros, Luke Lawson, and Lizewski sinking five treys and the Tigers' Joey Dopirak coming off the bench to score 14 points.
Dopirak, a sophomore swingman, rounded out with 26 points and was the game's leading scorer.
The quarter featured all nine of the game's lead changes.
“I think that's fun basketball,” Tigers' coach Dave DeGregorio said. “It's awesome. I was enjoying watching the game.”
DeGregorio continued to watch happily out of the intermission. In front of the other bench, SV coach Kevin Trost saw his team make only three second-half field goals.“I thought we played better defensively in the second half and I thought that we stopped turning the ball over,” DeGregorio said.Through the first two quarters, the pace wasn't a problem for the Raiders (1-2, 0-1). Once shots stopped falling after halftime, though, the game got away from them.“The second half, we just got beat in every aspect,” Trost said. “They played harder than we did. They were more physical than we were.“We just didn't play good.”North Allegheny (3-0, 1-0) entered the game coming off a close victory over Penn-Trafford in the Hempfield Tournament. DeGregorio stressed the importance of the game being in-section more than he did a backyard rivalry.“It's a road section game,” he said. “I mean, the section is brutal. You've got to get games. This is one of them.”Trost understands the challenge the division presents as well. On Friday night, his group plays Butler, which will be looking to rebound from a 20-point loss to North Hills. He doesn't expect it to get any easier.“This is how our section is going to be,” Trost said. “If we don't get more physical and we don't get more fundamentally sound with some of our defensive assignments, we're going to be in for a few more nights like this.”
NORTH ALLEGHENY 75Joey Dopirak 13 0-1 26, Matt McDonough 7 2-3 18, Ty Iwanonkiw 3 0-0 9, Anthony Howard 2 0-0 6, Connor Casten 2 1-2 5, Robby Jones 2 0-0 5, Kolin Dinkins 1 1-1 3, Ben Lukitsch 1 0-0 3. Totals: 31 4-7 75. SENECA VALLEY 51Jameson Grieco 4 2-2 13, Luke Lawson 2 4-5 10, Connor Oros 3 0-0 8, Aiden Lyczek 3 1-2 7, Andrew Roy 0 5-6 5, Caiden Oros 1 1-4 3, Jackson Wetzel 1 0-0 3, Beaux Lizewski 1 0-2 2. Totals: 14 13-19 51. North Allegheny 15 25 19 16 — 75 Seneca Valley 15 22 6 8 — 51 3-point goals: North Allegheny 9 (Iwanonkiw 3, Howard 2, McDonough 2, Jones, Lukitsch); Seneca Valley 8 (Grieco 3, Connor Oros 2, Lawson 2, Wetzel) Friday: Seneca Valley at Butler
