New-look Pine-Richland boys basketball team learning ropes

By: Jerin Steele
Sunday, December 11, 2022 | 11:01 AM

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The Pine-Richland boys basketball has a much different look this season.

All five starters from last year – Luke Shanahan, Joey Dudowski, Andrew Alexander, Andy Swartout and Jameson O’Toole — graduated, as did sixth man Nate Zavasky, from a team that made the WPIAL Class 6A quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Fox Chapel.

That’ll leave the Rams with some new faces on the court, but the goal of being competitive night in and night out stays the same.

“We’re a very young team, but they’ve been working really hard and seem very focused,” Rams coach Bob Petcash said. “We have really good team chemistry and the team culture is strong. They’re very unselfish and hold each other accountable. I think we can hold or own and hopefully we can perform at a high level on a big stage.”

Three players who saw varsity time last year return in Owen Luellen, Josh Gimbel and Andrew Lamendola. All three are seniors and are in the starting lineup.

Luellen comes from a long line of siblings who played for the Rams. Evan Luellen was on the 2017 team that was the state runner-up, Colin Luellen was on the 2019 team that made a deep run and Meghan Luellen played on the Rams girls basketball team.

Juniors Emery Moye and Carson Baer have also been in the starting lineup. Moye is the team’s point guard.

The Rams were waiting on several players from the football team, which was scheduled to play in the Class 5A state championship on Friday.

Petcash said the football players will bring depth and toughness to the group.

Pine-Richland opened the season by splitting two games at the Upper St. Clair tournament. The Rams dropped the opener, 50-38, to Fox Chapel, but rebounded to win 66-61 over Seton LaSalle the next day.

“We struggled a little bit offensively in the first game against Fox Chapel,” Petcash said. “We did a lot of good things, but we saw many, many things we need to get better with. Our inexperience showed a little bit.

“We’re going to play a lot of younger guys, so our goal was to get as many of them in and feel what it’s like to play 6A basketball at the varsity level. It’s completely different from what most of these guys have ever seen. It’ll be a process, but we’re going to try and do it the right way to put these kids in position to succeed.”

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer

Tags: Pine-Richland