Some Westmoreland basketball teams enjoying quick turnarounds

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, December 24, 2018 | 2:47 PM

Watch a few quarters of Penn-Trafford boys basketball, and you see constant movement. Passes and cuts, screen-and-rolls, kick-outs and motion.

Standing around is not an option because it can disrupt the flow of things.

The Warriors are in quite a rhythm this season, just like coach Jim Rocco had hoped — OK, figured.

But one has to wonder if anybody, Rocco included, saw this kind of turnaround coming, even with the offense in gear.

Penn-Trafford is 5-2 as it gets set to host its holiday tournament Thursday and Friday. Just a season ago, the Warriors won a total of six games and ended the campaign on an eight-game losing streak.

Too much standing around maybe? Rocco just thinks his group needed time to get acclimated to his system and become more comfortable playing together. Now, with confidence and trust in place, the Warriors could once again be a factor, even in a tough Section 3-6A.

“It’s like a kamikaze pilot going down the lane,” Rocco said of his team’s offensive rhythm. “He draws the defenders in and does his job. That is what our kids are doing: playing for one another, doing what they can to get their teammates open and get us good shots.”

The Warriors are not alone. A number of local teams are reversing course with much better starts than a year ago.

Derry was 8-12 last year, an improvement over 6-15 and 0-22 the previous two seasons. But the Trojans are 4-2, halfway to last year’s win total.

“With each win, they bring a little more cash to buy in to our system,” Trojans coach Tom Esposito said.

Esposito, in his second stint as coach of the Trojans, said extra offseason work on fundamentals has been paying off. He’s blended that with a cognitive approach: detailed scouting reports on opponents and regular film study by his players.

“We’re an unselfish team, and we have shown we can play different styles,” Esposito said. “We can play styles that suit our players. And our overall basketball IQ has really improved.”

Another team perhaps punching above its weight is Yough. With coach Jim Nesser back where he started in 1988, the Cougars are 3-3 a season after they went 4-17.

Nesser brings a “Why not us?” thinking to the table.

“The kids here need to have belief that they can play with anybody,” Nesser said. “It starts with how they think about themselves and their confidence.”

Other area turnaround stories brewing:

• Like Penn-Trafford, Southmoreland began the year in the shadow of a losing streak, a 10-game one at that. But the Scotties reversed course with a 66-63 win over Mt. Pleasant on opening night and sit steady at 3-4. The Scotties were 4-18 in 2017-18.

“I’d have to say experience is the main thing,” Scotties junior swingman Riley Comforti said. “But we all worked really hard over the summer so that definitely helped.”

• Hempfield was 7-15 but already has five wins. The Spartans’ fifth win last year came Jan. 23.

• Greensburg Central Catholic struggled to a 6-15 mark last year and missed the WPIAL playoffs for the first time in 17 years. So far, the Centurions are 4-3 as they navigate through Class A.

Penn-Trafford, which started 4-0, something it had not done in more than 15 years, beefed up its schedule over the last couple of years and continued the trend this season with a trip to the Kreul Classic in Florida where it finished 1-2 and in eighth place in its division.

“We have played a lot of really good teams,” junior point guard Zach Rocco said. “That type of competition has made us better.”

Said Warriors senior forward Brayden Puskar: “We have six seniors that have been playing together forever, and the chemistry and desire both clicked at the same time.”

Bill Beckner is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Bill at bbeckner@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BillBeckner.

Tags: Derry Area, Hempfield, Penn-Trafford, Southmoreland, Yough