Greensburg Salem boys basketball stays undefeated

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, December 19, 2017 | 10:00 PM

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High-riding Greensburg Salem overcame a scoring onslaught by Laurel Highlands guard Bryce Laskey and kept its poise late to hold off the visiting Mustangs, 78-68, on Tuesday night in an early-season nonsection game that had a playoff feel.

Laskey dropped in 46 points, including 17 in the fourth quarter to key a late rally, but the Golden Lions’ trio of Marvel McGowan, Rylan (Bumoskey) Crise and Dante Parsons combined for 58 points to pace the Golden Lions to a 5-0 start.

Greensburg Salem, which connected on 10 3-pointers, is averaging 79 points. The Lions never trailed against the Mustangs.

“We hadn’t been tested since that first game against Ligonier Valley,” Greensburg Salem coach Craig Mankins said. “Laurel Highlands is a good team. They took Woodland Hills to the wire and should have beaten McKeesport. We wanted to bag this one. It’s been a while since we beat them.”

McGowan finished with 25 points, 11 in the fourth, Crise added 17 and Parsons had 16. Parsons sealed it by going 4 for 4 at the foul line inside the final 50 seconds.

McGowan, who came in averaging 29.5 points, was looking forward to a matchup with another of the WPIAL’s top scorers. St. Francis (Pa.) recruit Laskey averaged 33 in the first four games for Laurel Highlands (2-3) and kept the points coming.

“He is that type of guy,” McGowan said. “If we could get him to miss, we just wanted to contest them as much as possible. We wanted to get him out of his rhythm, but of course that didn’t really work. He’s a D-1 player.”

Said Mankins: “We really don’t have guy to guard him. There’s a reason he is going to St. Francis. I am very proud of my guys. They stayed the course.”

The Mustangs, who got 22 points from the rest of the team, cut it to 57-48 in the fourth on a layup by Aarean Fitzgerald and crept within eight on a 3 by Laskey with 5:36 to play.

But an 8-0 run put the Golden Lions back up by 16 (72-56).

Greg Lancaster’s 3 with 1:23 left preceded a layup by Laskey that cut it to 74-68.

“We had some miscommunications on defense, and they were getting easy drives,” McGowan said. “We went back to the 3-2 (zone), and that was able to keep Lasket from driving a little bit.”

Crisp ball movement and quality looks led the Golden Lions to the fast start.

“When I put those starters out there, everyone knows Marvel can get to the hole,'” Mankins said. “But he does a great job making his teammates better. The guys all know: make the extra pass. We have a bunch of shooters. Whoever is open can step up and hit the big shot.”

Laurel Highlands had a cold shooting first half and could not provide Laskey much help as it quickly fell behind by double figures.

Laskey had 17 of his team’s 25 first-half points.

“They’re a good offensive rebounding team, and we tried to limit their second-chance points,” Crise said. “We went out and played good solid offense.”

Greensburg Salem buried five 3-pointers in the opening quarter, the fifth to give it a 20-5 advantage.

Parsons and Crise each made a pair from deep.

Laskey helped to shrink the lead to 10 in the second quarter, but the Golden Lions stretched the margin back to 18 by halftime, at 43-25.

“Tonight was a weird night,” said Laskey, who scored 45 last week against Elizabeth Forward. “Obviously it feels great scoring the ball like that, but the loss overshadows everything else.”

Crise had 15 in the first half, including a trio of 3s.

“Fast starts are the most important thing,” Crise said. “It sets the tone and puts them in their place and lets them know where not here to play around. It cuts their morale down immediately.”

Laurel Highlands made a mild comeback in the third but could only get the deficit down to nine, at 47-38.

Jack Oberdorf hit a pair of 3s to help get it back to double figures.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at bbeckner@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BillBeckner.

Tags: Greensburg Salem, Laurel Highlands