WPIAL New Castle regroups to record 12th win
The Red Hurricanes bounced back from a loss to rally past Pine-Richland.
By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Coming off Monday night's 11-point loss to Mount Lebanon, New Castle boys basketball coach John Sarandrea wasn't sure how his team would react.
Less than 24 hours later, the resilient Red Hurricanes recorded a 54-36 victory over Pine-Richland in WPIAL-AAAA Section 3 play to stay in the hunt for a playoff spot.
"I was concerned tonight for several reasons," said Sarandrea. "Long bus trip, getting home late, big day today for the kids opening the new school and a lot of distractions as far as basketball was concerned for me. That was a big win for us because it was a team that beat us the first time around."
Regrouped
During the first 14 minutes, the Canes looked like they never got off the bus from Monday night's game. They fell behind by 11 points (20-9) before outscoring the Rams 11-2 during the final two minutes of the half to trail by two.
"We struggled in the first half," said Sarandrea. "But we were able to put together a big run to end the first half and wound up outscoring them big the rest of the way."
New Castle (12-7, 5-3) led just 33-32 at the end of the third quarter, but Devin Taylor began rebounding and scoring, Chris Cain continued to sweep the boards and Keenan Moore tallied 12 of his game-high 28 points as the Canes used a 21-4 margin to pull away.
"In the second half, Devin Taylor made some super drives and came up with a number of big rebounds," said Sarandrea. "In addition to the job he did on [Pine-Richland's leading scorer] Kyle Opitz, Keenan Moore made some great shots and I thought Cain did an excellent job on the free throw line, playing with a lot of inspiration.
Key 3-point goal
"David Richards had gone seven quarters without a basket until he hit that 3 in the fourth quarter and that was huge," Sarandrea added. "That pushed our lead from nine back to 12 and we took it from there."
With the win, the Canes can now control their own destiny.
They have four section games remaining, three of which are at the NeCaHi Field House. The road game is against North Hills (53-46 win first time), while the home games are with North Allegheny (43-67 loss), Shaler (62-67 loss) and Butler (60-47 win).
"We had to win this one, but then we can say that every time we play," added Sarandrea with a smile. "What a bottle neck in the section. Shaler has one loss and now North Allegheny, Butler, Pine-Richland and New Castle all have three losses. All four teams are fighting for the remaining two playoff spots.
"We have a leg up on Butler and can't lose the tiebreaker to Pine-Richland so that is why Tuesday's game [against North Allegheny] is so crucial," Sarandrea added, "because if it comes down to a tiebreaker, you can't let anybody beat you twice or you are going to go home."
Taylor had 16 points and Cain added 11 for the Hurricanes.
For Pine-Richland (12-6, 4-3), Kyle Opitz had 10 points.