Uniontown once again too much for New Castle

The Red Hurricanes' season came to an end in a PIAA Quad-A state semifinal.
By BRIAN RICHESSON
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
PITTSBURGH -- With a scowl on his face, Hoover Gibson looked to a packed Palumbo Center crowd midway through the third quarter and shouted.
"The game ain't over yet!" the New Castle High senior center declared.
The Red Hurricanes basketball team had chopped a mountainous deficit to Uniontown only slightly but kept their faith intact.
In the end, however, New Castle had to endure harsh reality: Its season was over, and there was nothing else it could do.
Uniontown defeated New Castle 65-47 in the PIAA Quad-A state semifinal Wednesday, stopping the Red Hurricanes one game short of a trip to Hershey.
"We lost two games to the same team," said New Castle coach John Sarandrea, whose team finished the season with a 30-2 record. "But we've had a tremendous year. I don't think we need to apologize for that."
In the WPIAL championship game March 2, Uniontown pinned a 60-57 defeat on New Castle. In that game, the Red Hurricanes fell behind but rallied before falling short.
Similar: Wednesday's game played out similarly. Only this time, New Castle's deficit was too large to overcome.
"I thought they may have been too tight when they walked onto the floor," Uniontown coach David Shuck said of his team. "But they've been in big games before. They knew what it took."
Uniontown (30-1) dominated, building a 20-5 lead with 1 minute, 18 seconds remaining in the first quarter, forcing Sarandrea to call a timeout.
The Red Raiders held New Castle to one field goal in the second quarter -- Gibson's dunk at 2:30 -- and three points as they took a 32-11 lead at halftime.
"We knew coming in that we'd struggle to score," Sarandrea said. "They presented problems for us that nobody else had, and that's the ability to choke the life out of you."
Zone defense: New Castle may have surprised some observers in the first half when it played primarily a 2-3 zone defense, rare for the Red Hurricanes.
Uniontown attacked by shooting over the top and sinking four 3-pointers in the first quarter to build its lead.
"We were hoping that, if we limited them to some perimeter shots early that they didn't make, it might cause some problems," Sarandrea said.
Uniontown's shooting nixed that philosophy.
Then, when New Castle went to a half-court trap in the second quarter, the Red Raiders calmly passed their way out of it.
"We watched a lot of film. We are what we are, and we knew what we had to do coming in," Sarandrea said. "We're not going to second-guess any of our decisions."
Tenacious: New Castle was tenacious in the third quarter as it cut the deficit to 14 points (37-23) on a 3-pointer by senior Dante Spino with 3:22 remaining, that sent Red Hurricane fans into a frenzy.
"We got [the deficit] to 14 three minutes earlier than we got it to 14 the last time we played," said Sarandrea, referring to the first game with Uniontown. "You're thinking some things could happen, but [Uniontown] handled it a lot better this time."
Senior Dom Joseph led New Castle with 15 points, while Gibson had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Spino 13 points. Senior Dierre Jenkins led Uniontown with 16 points.
richesson@vindy.com