Poor third-quarter costs Leechburg boys in PIAA loss to Elk County Catholic

By: George Guido
Friday, March 8, 2019 | 10:45 PM

After trailing by four at halftime, the Leechburg boys basketball team felt good about its performance against the state’s No. 2 Class A team.

But Elk County Catholic used a variety of back-door plays in the third quarter and rolled to a 65-41 win over the Blue Devils on Friday night.

The Crusaders, second in the Trib HSSN state rankings this week, are 26-0 with the Class A first-round victory at a packed St. Marys High School gym. Elk County will play Vincentian Academy the second round Tuesday at a time and site to be determined.

Junior forward Regis Wortman led the way with 24 points. Leechburg, in the state tournament for the second consecutive season, finished 13-11.

Elk County Catholic led 27-23 at the half.

“We made our shots, and that’s the bottom line,” ECC coach Aaron Straub said. “It was a combination of them not shooting the ball as well as they did in the first half, and we were able to get into their zone a little bit more, penetrate their zone defense and find some guys on the baseline and get some easier shots.”

Said Blue Devils coach Corey Smith about the team’s third-quarter struggles: “That’s been our mode all year. It caught up to us again starting out fast, but we just didn’t get it done.”

Though they trailed the whole game, the Blue Devils were down by a point four times in the first half.

A 3-pointer by Alex Breindel to conclude the first half set the stage for a 14-0 Crusaders surge in the third quarter.

Not helping the Blue Devils was sophomore guard Dylan Cook picking up two fouls in the first 3 ½ minutes and John Miskinis crashing into a defender under the hoop. Miskinis was called for an offensive foul and hurt his left shoulder when he hit the floor.

Miskinis returned in the fourth quarter, but a collision involving Connor McDermott also forced the junior guard to miss time.

“I’m never the coach to blame it on the refs, but we did not get the calls tonight,” Smith said. “There were a lot of bad calls. I think the kids and the coaches should dictate the outcome of a game.”

Said Straub: “The two charges we were able to draw were really big. They still beat us up on the boards, and I was a little bit disappointed in that, especially in the second half.”

McDermott led Leechburg with 13 points, and Jake Blumer had five rebounds.

The Crusaders committed just four turnovers in the first half while forcing Leechburg into 12 miscues.

“Carter (Lindemuth) handled the ball well for us tonight,” Straub said. “That’s a big part of what we’re trying to do. We tried to zone trap them in the first half, but the problem with that is you lose one of their shooters.”

Said Smith: “After a shaky first quarter, we settled down. The plan was to pound it inside. We started to do that and get the rebounds more and more.”

With four of its top six returning and some younger plays on the way, Smith said he would like the team to take another step next season.

Elk County was 17 of 21 from the free-throw line.

Tags: Leechburg