Pioneers鈥� stellar season ends with loss to Greyhounds
Rob Burchianti
MONESSEN – Monessen and West Greene split their two Section 2-A boys basketball battles during the regular season with each winning on the road.
Last Friday night in a WPIAL Class A consolation game, the Greyhounds protected their home court to stay alive in their bid to qualify for the PIAA tournament with a 64-44 win over the Pioneers.
“This was a tough win against a really solid, and young, team,” Monessen coach Dan Bosnic said. “Coach (Jim) Romanus does a great job, his kids play hard and he gets the most out of his guys.
“I think they will have another good year next year, and they gave us a fight tonight.”
West Greene, which finished second in the section to Monessen, has no seniors on its roster. The Pioneers opened the playoffs with a 58-47 home win over Avella before falling to top-seeded Imani Christian, 60-26, in the quarterfinals.
Romanus commended Monessen’s defense.
“I think their pressure got to us and I do think we wore out,” Romanus said. “Coach Bosnic does a really, really good job and they are tough. I am proud of our kids, though, and we will learn from this.”
Lorenzo Gardner (23) and Devontae Robinson (15) combined for 41 points to lead the Greyhounds (19-5), but it was their pressure defense that was the difference as they forced West Greene (16-9) into 29 turnovers.
“They pressure the ball and are athletic,” said Romanus. “I thought we did a real good job in the first half.
“What they do, they change enough that you have to adapt to their defense and there aren’t set plays. That is harder for younger kids.”
There were four lead changes in a hard-fought first quarter and the Pioneers took a 17-15 lead into the second.
Monessen used a 7-0 run in the second quarter to take a 23-21 lead on a Gardner basket with 1:45 to go in the half, and it never relinquished the lead.
Up 25-24 at intermission, Monessen forced West Greene into six turnovers in the first 75 seconds of the second half before the Pioneers got off a third-quarter shot. The Greyhounds were off and running.
“That second half, the pressure we put on them, the effort we got out of our guys was a huge difference,” said Bosnic. “We got into transition and were able to separate there. Our guards did a great job of making their guards play with their off hand.”
Bosnic noted the defensive effort of Robinson, Tyvaughn Kershaw and Matt Siwa.
“When they did speed us up, we actually had some good shots and started missing,” said Romanus. “That’s fatigue.
“We have to learn how to slow down a little bit and take the wind out of their sails.”
After the Greyhounds went on a 6-0 run to open the second half and take a 31-24 lead, West Greene’s Parker Burns hit a shot to stop the Monessen momentum, but Monessen closed the quarter on a 9-2 run to take command and a 43-32 lead into the fourth.
Lane Allison led West Greene with 18 points while Burns finished with 10.
Romanus is pleased with how his young team played this season and is looking forward to the future.
“They’ve accomplished a lot,” he said. “We’ve won our first playoff game since 1991, we were runner-up to Monessen in the section and beat them here. While I am disappointed, we lost tonight, I am very, very happy with the kids and our great coaches.”
Imani Christian 60, West Greene 26 – West Greene hung with top-seeded Imani Christian for a while in the opening quarter but once the Saints got rolling there was no stopping the defending WPIAL and PIAA champions.
Imani outscored the Pioneers 27-2 in the second quarter on its way to a WPIAL Class A quarterfinal victory at Bethel Park High School on Feb. 21.
The game began with West Greene (16-8) holding a 2-0 lead after a technical foul was called on the Saints (12-10) leading to a pair of free throws by Allison. The score was 6-6 when a basket with 3:15 left in the first quarter put Imani ahead to stay.
Down 43-9 at halftime, the Pioneers played the Saints to a 17-17 draw in the second half.
Allison led the way with seven points, including one 3-pointer, for West Greene, which defeated Avella, 58-47, in the first round on Friday night for only its second playoff win in program history.
The Pioneers also got six points from Patrick Durbin, five from Darren Knight and four from Burns who battled foul trouble most of the night, drawing four whistles in the first half including three in the first quarter.
Will Shipman accounted for the other two points for West Greene.