Seneca Valley tops Mt. Lebanon without its coach, earns 1st playoff win since ’13

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, March 2, 2021 | 11:29 PM

With about 30 seconds until half, Mt. Lebanon decided to hold for the final shot, but Seneca Valley wasn’t in a wait-and-see mood.

Connor Lyczek converted a steal near midcourt into a breakaway layup and teammate Caiden Oros followed with a steal and layup seconds later as Seneca Valley played like a team hungry for its first playoff win in eight years.

“One hundred percent, we were winning a playoff game before we graduated,” Cole Brooks said of him and Lyczek, the team’s two seniors.

Lyczek scored 24 points and Brooks had 18 as the ninth-seeded Raiders turned any lingering frustration into all-out aggression in Tuesday night’s 72-54 first-round victory at No. 8 Mt. Lebanon in the WPIAL Class 6A playoffs. The postseason win was Seneca Valley’s first since 2013.

“Our sophomore year, we were in the playoffs and lost the first round,” Lyczek said. “Last year, we had a rough year, only four wins, and we didn’t make the playoffs. … So, winning feels really good.”

Seneca Valley (11-10) visits top-seeded Upper St. Clair at 6 p.m. Friday.

This would’ve been Seneca Valley’s first postseason win under Kevin Trost, but the third-year coach missed Tuesday’s game for undisclosed reasons. Athletic director Heather Lewis said only that Trost “was unavailable” and couldn’t say whether he’d be back before the next round.

“This win means a lot to us,” said assistant Joe Frank, who coached in Trost’s place. “Where we started at the beginning of the year to where we are now, we feel really good about how we’re progressing.”

Oros added 13 points for Seneca Valley, highlighted by the junior’s steal and layup just before halftime. The Raiders finished the first half with an 11-0 run and headed to the locker room leading 34-24.

Mt. Lebanon then trailed the entire second half.

“I thought, ‘We’ll go in down by four,’ and they launched,” Mt. Lebanon coach Joe David said. “We end up down by 10, so you can imagine what that locker room’s like at halftime.”

Michael Pfeuffer led Mt. Lebanon (9-9) with 15 points on five 3-pointers, and Jake Reinke added 10 despite battling foul trouble.

Mt. Lebanon twice pulled to within five points in the fourth quarter. Two free throws by Evan Sentner cut Seneca Valley’s lead to 54-49, but the Blue Devils scored only four points in the final six minutes.

“Coach Trost always puts an emphasis on keep swinging, keep fighting,’” Lyczek said. “No matter what happens, you want to give your 100% effort. That worked in our favor tonight with us being aggressive.”

There were 10 lead changes and two ties in the first half. The last lead change came on a 3-pointer by Seneca Valley’s Connor Oros with about 2 minutes left to lead 26-24.

Oros made two 3s about a minute apart, key shots in the second quarter, but the Raiders focused much of their scoring efforts around the basket.

They made four 3s and 23 2s.

Lyczek went 11 for 13 shooting, largely on transition layups. His three-point play late in the third gave Seneca Valley a 52-42 lead.

“We feel we have some really good athletes,” Frank said. “We think one of the strengths we have is getting up and down, so we really wanted to push the tempo and make it an open game.”

Mt. Lebanon, a perimeter-shooting team, tried to stick with its game plan. The Blue Devils went 12 for 27 from 3-point range including 5 for 8 in the third quarter.

But they went 1 for 8 in the fourth and couldn’t catch up after spotting Seneca Valley a 10-point lead.

“To come out in the second half against a team like this — that’s a good team — down by 10, that’s a tough road,” David said.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Mt. lebanon, Seneca Valley