Eden Christian rallies past Pioneers, 46-35
WASHINGTON 鈥� The West Greene boys basketball team controlled things in the opening quarter with a 14-6 lead, but the Pioneers couldn鈥檛 keep up with Eden Christian蘑菇视频 overall speed and half-court trap in the second half, falling 46-35 in the first round of the WPIAL Class A playoffs at Trinity High School Friday night.
The Pioneers (13-8) were searching for their first playoff win since the 1991-92 season, a first-round victory over Avella.
Eden Christian trailed by four points at intermission, but took over things in the second half with a 31-16 scoring edge in the final 16 minutes of play.
鈥淲e have struggled all year long with zone defenses,鈥� West Greene coach Jim Romanus said. 鈥淚n the second half they extended their zone and that sped us up. We were throwing balls away and missing open passes. When we did break it, we were forcing outside shots and couldn鈥檛 get a lot of rebounds off of that. Their overall team quickness was a huge factor for them.鈥�
The Warriors (12-9) played top-seeded Monessen on Thursday in the quarterfinals. The Greyhounds won Section 2-A with West Greene finishing third.
Craig Weaver collected a double-double for West Greene with 13 points and 14 rebounds, while Nathan Brudnock scored 10 and Kolton Rush added eight points.
Eden was anchored by Chase Haring (15 points) and Drew Aiken (nine points).
鈥淭his is the type of game I kind of expected,鈥� Eden coach Todd Aiken said. 鈥淲e are pretty banged up and I was really proud of our guys for coming back in the second half. I think we threw every single defense we had against them. West Greene is a very good team and their size was difficult to match. We used our speed and forced some turnovers.鈥�
West Greene opened the contest with a 9-2 rally, aided by six points from Weaver in the paint and a trey by Zach McHenry.
The Pioneers closed out the quarter by scoring five of the final nine points, including a buzzer-beating layup by Rush for a 14-6 lead.
鈥淲hen teams play us man-to-man, we run a very good offense,鈥� Romanus said. 鈥淲e have sets that we run and that present mismatches in our favor. I liked what we did in the first quarter and we weren鈥檛 rush on offense. We passed the ball more effectively and made outside shots.鈥�
After Weaver scored a put-back hoop to start the second stanza, the Warriors responded with a 9-3 run that trimmed the deficit to 19-15 at halftime.
In the third quarter, Eden tallied nine of the initial 11 points of the frame and took its first lead of the night, 23-21, after an inside hoop by Dylan Kingan.
The Warriors ended the period on a 6-5 spurt and carried a 29-26 lead into the fourth quarter.
After the squads exchanged points to start the fourth, Eden got separation with seven unanswered points for a 40-29 lead.
Weaver hit two free throws to make the deficit single digits, but the Warriors made enough foul shots down the stretch and slowed down the Pioneers鈥� offense to secure the win.
West Greene struggled at the foul line for the game, making just 4-for-11, and turned the ball over too many times in the second half.
鈥淚 feel bad for our four seniors,鈥� Romanus said. 鈥淚 wish we could have ended it better for those guys. Those kids were great and we are truly going to miss them next year. Most of those kids are multiple year starters and have been with us the last four years. These kids have come a long way. Four years ago we didn鈥檛 win a game. Now we made the playoffs for two straight seasons.鈥�