Charleroi bows to Carlynton in OT, 66-60
McMURRAY — Charleroi’s boys basketball team won a share of the Section 4-AAA title, but its WPIAL playoff run ended in the first round with a 66-60 overtime loss to Carlynton Friday night at Peters Township High School.
“I thought we had them and we did what we wanted to do most of the first half,” said disappointed Charleroi coach Bill Wiltz. “We had a bad four-minute stretch that let them get back into it because of careless turnovers.”
With the energy and emotion rampant early and Charleroi (16-7) trailing 5-4, it went on a 10-5 run to close the first quarter with a 15-10 lead when Zach Usher hit a three-pointer at the buzzer.
The shot jump-started an 8-0 run to give Charleroi a 22-10 lead two minutes into the second, but Carlynton (15-8) countered with a 19-5 run to end the half and it led 29-27.
Down 30-29 in the third, Charleroi went on a 10-0 run to take a 39-30 lead, but Carlynton clawed back to trim the Charleroi lead to 42-39 going into the fourth.
Carlynton tied the game at 49-49 with 4:02 to go in regulation, and both times Charleroi took a two-point lead down the stretch, Carlynton countered.
Charleroi called three timeouts in the last minute of regulation, but it turned the ball over with one second to go and the game went into overtime.
“We had them at the end of regulation but made a couple of costly mistakes,” said Wiltz. “We just wanted to make sure the kids were all on the same page, but we turned the ball over and got nothing out of it.
“They were able to get us to overtime and they dominated the overtime.”
Carlynton scored 11 of its 13 points in overtime from the foul line to put the game away and advance.
Joey Caruso finished with a game-high 29 points while Will Wagner had 11 points and 10 rebounds, Usher added 10 points and Legend Davis had nine rebounds, three steals and three blocks.
Wiltz spoke about his squad, led by a senior class that delivered four playoff berths and a section crown.
“This group is fantastic and one of my favorite groups,” he said with a smile before fighting off emotion. “This team is special to me.”