PITTSBURGH — For the second straight season, the Seneca Valley boys basketball team traveled to Central Catholic and had the Vikings on the ropes in the second half.

But, unlike last season, when the Raiders closed the deal with a 65-59 win, SV let a section win slip away Thursday night.

Trailing the Raiders 52-38 with 2:50 left in the third quarter, Central went on a 12-0 run to cut the deficit to 52-50 before a layup by SV's Christian Durbin at the third-quarter buzzer made the score 54-50.

From there, the Vikings outscored the visitors 13-4 in the final eight minutes to win the game, 63-58.

"We certainly mentioned last year's game in the pregame speech, the fact that this team beat us pretty good on our own floor," said Central coach Chuck Crummie. "But I don't think it was our battle cry. The only starter we have back from that team is (senior forward) Will Burgess."

SV coach Victor Giannotta said he saw several things that contributed to his team's poor second-half play.

"We had three turnovers in the final minute," said Giannotta, "but we lost this game in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter.

"We became real passive on the offensive end and our defensive rebounding was poor. Fifteen turnovers in the second half — that's inexcusable."

With five minutes left in the game, the Vikings (4-0, 1-0) led 57-56 before their offense took a total of 3:05 off the clock by simply holding the ball, with a timeout and just five passes in between.

That span ended with a Bryan Ward layup with 1:40 remaining for a 59-56 Vikings' lead.

The remainder of the game featured one basket by the Raiders — Evan Mitro's 2-pointer with 38.8 seconds left that cut Central's lead to one point — and three turnovers.

The Vikings received two free throws from Ward at 28.7 seconds and, following SV's last turnover, Tim Lackner's layup to seal the win with five seconds to go.

SV had a 24-17 edge in rebounds in the first half before the Vikings won the glass in the second half, 17-12.

"The difference in our play tonight was simple," said Crummie. "(SV) played harder than us in the first half and we played harder than them in the second half."

Thursday's game was the Raiders' fourth in six days.

"That's no big deal," said Giannotta. "We had two really good practices leading into this game. Our kids were fresh and ready to play."

Durbin led SV (3-1, 0-1) with 18 points and Mitro had 12.

Dylan Layton paced the Vikings with a career-high 17 points, including a trio of 3-pointers.

SENECA VALLEY 58Marco Corona 1 0-0 2, Evan Mitro 5 1-3 12, Christian Durbin 6 5-5 18, Nate Herrmann 3 2-2 9, Joe Belechak 2 4-4 9, Alex Maxfield 4 0-0 8.

Totals: 21 12-14 58.

CENTRAL CATHOLIC 63Tim Lackner 2 0-0 5, Ryan Fish 1 0-0 3, Dylan Layton 7 0-0 17, Christian Wasik 1 0-0 2, Mike Anselmo 2 0-0 6, Lincoln Davis 2 4-6 8, Will Burgess 6 2-5 14, Bryan Ward 2 4-6 8, Nolan Doyle 0 0-0 0, Steve Zappala 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 23 10-17 63.

Seneca Valley 22 15 17 4—58Central Catholic 18 14 18 13—633-point goals: Seneca Valley 4 (Mitro, Durbin, Herrmann, Belechak); Central Catholic 7 (Layton 3, Anselmo 2, Fish, Lackner).

Dec 29: Seneca Valley at Moon Christmas Tournament