Southmoreland boys basketball ready for busy week

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, February 4, 2019 | 6:39 PM

Some teams prefer to stroll into the WPIAL basketball playoffs.

Southmoreland’s boys team hopes to go in with a full charge.

The Scotties are in the midst of a hectic final week of the regular season with four games in five days. It’s not like they are casual postseason tune-ups, either. Three of the four are Section 4-3A games in a close section race.

“It’s going to be a jam-packed week. We have some important section games, but we have to take them one at a time and go from there,” Southmoreland coach Frank Muccino said. “Right now, the section is wide open. We could end up tied for first or in fourth depending how things play out.”

Southmoreland (11-7 overall) entered the week fourth in the section with a 6-3 mark. Washington (8-1), McGuffey (8-2) and Charleroi (7-3) were just ahead in the standings. The one certainty for the Scotties, though, was that they clinched a playoff berth — a definite turnaround from last year’s 4-18 finish.

“It’s a great feeling to be in this position now,” Southmoreland senior guard Cade Richter said. “All the work we put in through the offseason and summer, Coach Frank has been there for us, staying late at practice and helping us do whatever we can to get better. Last year, we really didn’t win that much. This year, we’ve made huge improvement on everything just by listening to him and following his defense and offense and scouting reports. I really think we can win this whole week.”

The Scotties put themselves in a strong position for the final week with a 7-2 run in January. The team opened the month with a 63-61 loss at Charleroi, but responded for a 47-43 win over Washington.

“It’s just coming down to team chemistry. At the beginning of the season, we really weren’t bonding,” Richter said. “When we came out and beat Washington, which has been our worst enemy and we’ve struggled against them, things started snapping around. We knew we could come out and compete for a playoff spot and battle the best teams in the section. We’ve been clicking ever since.”

Southmoreland won six games in a row, but McGuffey snapped that streak with a 55-47 victory. Nevertheless, Muccino has been pleased with the team’s progress.

“We’re playing well at the right time. We kind of found a style of play that fits us, and we’ve had a lot of improvement since Christmas,” he said. “With us, it’s a shooting thing. If we take care of our foul shots and layups, we’re good. The games we’ve struggled in, we haven’t taken care of those things.”

Riley Comforti, Brett Glowacki, Isaac Trout and Zach Cernuto join Richter in the starting lineup. Ronnie Robinson has provided a spark off the bench. Brandon Peterson and Zane Montgomery see minutes as well.

“Ronnie Robertson is our first off the bench and he gives us a lot of firepower off the bench,” Muccino said. “We kind of lacked that early, so we switched Isaac and Ronnie. I think that’s been really important for our success. Every day, we want to get a little better and get that consistency for playoffs because everybody is 0-0 and you can take your shot.”

The Scotties hope to generate momentum as the regular season concludes.

“We made a huge improvement on everything we did last year. This year, we’re just out here having fun and playing the game like we should,” Richter said. “We’ll see what we’re made of this week.”

Joe Sager is a freelance writer.

Tags: Southmoreland