Tough in the middle: Raiders edge Chucks, 54-52

By Rich Rhoades

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

BROOKVILLE - For a span of 6:16 in Monday night's District 9 League showdown between the Brookville and Punxsutawney High School boys basketball teams, the Chucks outscored the Raiders, 24-4.
But in the rest of the 32-minute game, the Raiders won 50-28.
Do the math. The Raiders squeezed out a hard-fought 54-52 win over the visiting Chucks to keep their league title hopes alive.
The Raiders had to claw their way back from a 13-0 deficit to start the game, then sweat out a Chucks comeback at the end.
The win upped the Raiders to 10-3 overall and 2-2 in the league. The Chucks dropped to 9-4 and 3-2, leaving Bradford, DuBois and Elk County Catholic tied for first place in the loss column with one loss each.
For the Raiders, a third league loss could make it difficult to challenge for a league title it shared with ECC last year.
"It was critical we win tonight, but somebody with three losses could win it," said Raiders head coach Bud Baughman.
Only twice since the 1995-96 season has a team won the District 9 League with three losses - Bradford in 1996-97 and Elk County Catholic in 1999-2000 - but with just under half of the league games left to play, it's still open for business at the top.
The Raiders' league schedule resumes Friday night at home against St. Marys. Wednesday, they were scheduled to visit Kane in a non-league game. Last Friday's home game with Elk County Catholic was postponed to Feb. 11, giving the Raiders two games with the Crusaders in a five-day span. They travel to ECC Feb. 7.
Against the Chucks, the Raiders grinded a win out thanks to some tough defense that helped overcome a deep early hole. Offensively, they were so-so at best as Zane Hackett turned in another double-double performance with 25 points and 13 rebounds. His high-flying slam-dunk put the Raiders up for the first time in the game at 19-18 with 4:45 left in the second quarter.
Seth Connor was the only other Raider in double figures with 10 points, but Tighe Truman scored nine points with 11 rebounds and Austin Burney scrapped his way to eight points and nine rebounds.
"That's the way we play," Baughman said. "We just muddle along and make it exciting. I was real pleased with the boys, especially after the start we had. They fought back and played hard and hung together. It was a good night for Brookville."
The Chucks put three players in double digits as Dan Triponey scored 18 points, Brandon Mancuso finished with 15 points and Alex Fedigan scored 10 points. The big key for the Raiders though was doing a much better job with their perimeter defense, as Triponey needed 23 shots to score his points, going 8-of-23 from the field.
Still, it was Triponey at the end that could have won it for the Chucks, who trailed 50-41 with 2:25 left in the game following two Connor free throws. The Chucks rallied back and got to within two points when Triponey hit a three and was fouled to make it 52-50 with 22.9 seconds remaining.
Triponey missed the free throw - he was 0-for-3 from the charity stripe - and the Raiders would go to the line as Truman made one of two to put the Raiders up three with 13.8 seconds left. The Raiders fouled Mancuso to prevent a 3-point shot with 8.7 seconds remaining and he made both free throws to cut the lead to 53-52.
The Raiders then courted disaster when Sebastian Kerr's inbounds pass went off Hackett and out of bounds in the Chucks' corner of their frontcourt with less than 10 seconds on the clock.
However, the Chucks were out of timeouts and couldn't draw up a play effective enough to get a shot to win. Triponey, in heavy traffic in the corner, threw up a desperation shot that glanced off the back of the backboard and out of bounds with three seconds left.
From there, Truman hit one of two three throws with 1.7 seconds on the clock and the Chucks could only heave a long shot from near the Raiders basket as time ran out.
"I was uncomfortable the whole game," said Baughman when asked which part of the game was worse, the beginning or the end. "That was a typical Brookville-Punxsutawney game. Either team could have won. I just thought it was a lot like the first game. We had control early and they came back. Tonight, they had control early and we got back in the game and just about lost it because of some coaching gaffes."
"We worked on a little element of surprise coming out in that triangle and two and as a coach, you hope it works and it did work," Chucks head coach Dirk Neal said. "It caused turnovers, we were where we needed and wanted to be. Unfortunately, the time in between, you can only hope that rolls over into when we switch to other defenses.
"Is Brookville going to score? Without a doubt in my mind they're going to score. They're well-coached team and are going to score. You just hope the other defenses maintain the lead. We wouldn't change anything. The only thing I'd like to have seen was to have another timeout at the end."
The Chucks used three Mancuso 3-pointers in the first quarter to help build quick leads of 13-0 and 16-3. But the Raiders got back to within 16-11 by the end of the first quarter. Baughman electing to keep Hackett in the game after picking up his second personal foul with 1:38 left in the first quarter with his team down big turned out to be the right move.
Hackett scored 10 points in the second quarter as the Raiders led 27-26 at intermission. Following Triode's basket to open the second half to give the Chucks a quick 28-27 advantage, the Raiders finished the third with an 11-4 run to take the lead for good.
"The difference was our defensive intensity," Baughman said of his team's rally. "We didn't come out with enough focus and you can't let any team, let alone a well-coached team and one that shoots the ball well, to come out and play well."
NOTES: The Raiders continue their three-game week with a trip to Kane Wednesday, returning to league play Friday at home against St. Marys. ... Brookville outrebounded Punxsutawney, 38-21. Triponey led the Chucks with seven rebounds. ... Punxsutawney won the JV game, 40-16. Tate Canavan and Jack Huggins each scored four points.
In last week's game:
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 18
Ridgway 55,
Brookville 40
At Ridgway, the unbeaten Elkers handed the Raiders their third loss of the season and ended a five-game winning streak.
It was a season-low for points with the Raiders as Ridgway's cast of Alex Oknefski, Josh Mitchell, Sam Roselli and Tony Leithner contained Brookville big man Zane Hackett after he totaled six points in the first two minutes. Hackett finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
None of the Raiders had much of an answer for Ridgway's defense. The Elkers held Brookville off the scoreboard for over four minutes at the end of the third, where Ridgway used a 9-0 run to go up 40-21.
Leading 40-25 to start the fourth, Brookville challenged Ridgway's lead after two 3-pointers by Tighe Truman cut the Raiders' deficit to 10 with 5:17 to play.
But Eric Matheson and the rest of the Elkers were too strong down the stretch and never gave Brookville a chance to draw closer.
Matheson scored 14 of his game-high 18 points in the second half. Jordan Lundin finished with 12, with nine coming in the first half, and Jesse Reynolds added 11.
"That's a very good Brookville team," Ridgway head coach Tony Allegretto said. "Last year they got us on their court. This year we got them on our court. It was a tough win. We got that run late in the first half and by having the lead, we could control the tempo a little bit more in the second half. They do a lot of nice things. Hackett's a heck of a player."
The two teams were tied at nine after the first quarter and were even two more times in the second before Matheson gave Ridgway the lead for good with a jumper following a Brookville turnover, making it 17-15.
Matheson's jumper sparked an 8-0 run over the final 2:51 of the first half by the Elkers. After Josh Mitchell scored to extend the lead to four, Jordan Lundin drew a charge on Hackett who was driving to the hoop.
The Elkers answered in the other end as Matheson found Lundin underneath for the easy layin. Ridgway scored its final 10 points of the first half off Brookville turnovers en route to a 23-15 lead at the half.
Matheson banked a shot in off the backboard to make it a 10-point game to start the third. Then Reynolds and Matheson hit back-to-back treys, extending the lead to 31-17.
Brookville's Austin Burney answered with a runner in the lane, however the Raiders didn't score again for the next 4:55.
Ridgway rolled from there, taking a 19-point lead, its biggest of the night at 40-21 before Jordan Young made a short baseline jumper in the final minute of the third.
The Raiders lost the junior varsity game, 52-34. Jack Huggins and Aaron Ray scored 16 and 9 points respectively.
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Courier-Express sports writer Bryan Swan contributed to this story.