Belle Vernon earns long-awaited PIAA tournament victory

By: Jeremy Sellew
Friday, March 6, 2020 | 10:38 PM

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For the first time since 1981, the Belle Vernon boys basketball team will play in a PIAA second-round game.

The Leopards finished with four players in double figures and held on for a thrilling 65-60 win over District 9 champion Clearfield on Friday night at St. Marys High School.

After trailing 25-10 at the end of the first quarter, the Bison (15-9) clawed their way back and cut the lead to 61-60 with 40 seconds remaining, just three minutes after trailing by 10.

But Belle Vernon’s Daniel Gordon stepped to the line and calmly drained two free throws, and following a steal on the defensive end, Thomas Hepple followed a Devin Whitlock missed layup with a dunk to seal the win with seven seconds to go.

“This is a very big step for the program,” Belle Vernon coach Joe Salvino said. “We were just in the WPIAL championship and now we won a state playoff game. Other good things are going to happen if we continue to do the things we want to do.”

Friday night’s win was due in large part to a gigantic start for the Leopards (20-7), something Salvino was looking for coming off the disappointment of the championship game loss.

“The first game is always the hardest,” Salvino said. “We haven’t played for a while, so I was really glad we came out the way we did. We really started well, but things cooled off a bit.”

The Leopards jumped out to the big lead thanks to five 3-pointers in the opening eight minutes. Jake Haney and Daniel Gordon each hit a pair and Jared Hartman hit one.

Whitlock, who finished with a game-high 15 points and 11 assists, had seven of those helpers in the first.

“They played a weird match-up zone and kind of clogged up the middle and took away some of Devin’s penetration,” Salvino said. “But he was able to find the open guys and Jake and Daniel hit some big threes.”

Haney finished with 12 points for the Leopards, Gordon added 10.

Hepple scored half of his 14 points in the second quarter. He added 10 rebounds to finish with a double-double.

But the Bison started to chip away, outscoring the Leopards by four in the second behind Cade Walker.

Walker finished with 18 points for Clearfield.

In the third quarter, it was more of the same as Clearfield was able to cut the Belle Vernon lead to 43-41 with 3:23 remaining in the quarter.

Karson Rumsky, who led the Bison with a game-high 20 points, found himself open for a pair of 3-pointers.

“That was the negative in this game. We didn’t play good defense, at least it wasn’t consistent and we weren’t recognizing where their shooters were,” Salvino said.

Matt Pallo scored on a drive to the hoop making it 43-41, but the Leopards buckled down and didn’t allow the Bison another point in the frame.

Belle Vernon scored the final five of the quarter on a Hepple drive and a Whitlock basket. Hartman hit 1 of 2 from the line with less than a second to go, on the first foul called against the Bison in the quarter. The officials whistled Belle Vernon for six up to that point.

“Hepple was excellent in this game. He played really well,” Salvino said of the senior forward. “Most importantly, he was playing smart. He really rebounded the ball well and was getting shots from the area of the floor he can make them. That’s all we need him to do.”

The Leopards jumped out of the game in the fourth after Haney’s fourth 3-pointer. After Rumsky answered with a trey of his own, the Leopards went on a 7-0 run to take a 58-46 lead.

Rumsky hit another 3-pointer before Ryan Gearhart picked up a steal off Whitlock. Whitlock chased him down the floor and committed a hard foul sending both players to the floor, but Clearfield’s Nick Ryan had some words for Whitlock to earn himself a technical.

Whitlock went 0 for 2 before Walker scored to make it 60-54.

The Leopards did themselves no favors, missing a couple of opportunities from the line late. They finished only 8 of 21 from the line.

With 1:37 to go, Bison freshman Cole Miller hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to make it 61-59.

The Bison had a chance to tie it with 40 seconds left, but Walker went 1 of 2 from the line to keep Belle Vernon’s advantage.

“The biggest thing for us was they were never able to get the lead,” Salvino said. “Who knows what happens then.

“But a positive thing I saw from us was we never stopped. We never wavered and we were engaged. We never stopped and said, ‘Well the (heck) with it. This game’s over.’ We hung in there.”

The Leopards move on to face District 3 champion Lancaster Catholic, which beat Ringgold, 59-56.

“We have to be more consistent on defense,” Salvino said. “That’s my biggest takeaway. And these other guys, I mean, any time you have four guys in double figures, that’s a good spot for you to be in. We’re going to need that.”

Tags: Belle Vernon