Springdale boys ousted by West Middlesex in PIAAs

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, March 10, 2018 | 11:00 PM

The Springdale boys basketball team hoped to make an impact Saturday in its PIAA 2A first-round game against District 10 champion West Middlesex.

The Dynamos, the No. 6 team from the WPIAL, kept things close early, but West Middlesex pulled away en route to a 70-37 victory.

The exclamation point was a 20-2 run in the third quarter.

“That team is the District 10 champion for a reason,” Springdale coach Seth Thompson said. “They're good. They're really good. This is certainly a case of where you have to give credit where credit's due. Not only were they better than us tonight, they were much better than us. Against that type of team, you can't make many mistakes. They capitalized on our mistakes.”

The Dynamos finished 13-10. The trip to states was the program's first since 1991.

West Middlesex moves into the second round, where it will face District 5 runner-up Conemaugh Township (16-9) on Wednesday at a site and time to be determined. The Big Reds are in the PIAA playoffs for the eighth consecutive season.

“It's about surviving and advancing,” West Middlesex coach Chad Mild said. “We're just looking forward to playing another day.”

Dynamos senior Nick Taliani hit one of two free throws, and junior Mike Zolnierczyk added a layup to trim an 11-point halftime deficit to eight with 6 minutes, 41 seconds to go in the third.

But that's as close as they would get.

“We really turned it up defensively during that run in the third quarter,” Mild said. “That allowed us to push the tempo. We talked at halftime about having to speed the game up a little bit.”

Zolnierczyk led Springdale with 18.

Casey Mild (20), Marshall Murray (14) and Jake Bowen (11) scored in double figures for West Middlesex.

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Mlove_Trib.

Tags: Springdale