Pine-Richland tops Allderdice

Allderdice (26-3), the five-time City League champion, took a 50-45 lead with 2:12 left when Bobby Clifford scored off an alley-oop pass from JacksonBlaufeld.

But these were not happy Dragons moments later, not after Allderdice turned the ball over three times in the final two minutesand missed a one-andonefree-throw situation.

The Dragons had only four turnovers before thosefinal two minutes.

The final turnover came against Pine-Richland’s press with 36 seconds left.

Pine-Richland then ran the clock down in a fourcorner offense before Shulkosky drove inside the 3-point line and threw a pass to Andrew Kristofic inthe short right corner

But Shulkosky kept cutting, and Kristofic gave the ball right back to Shulkosky, who scored in some traffic.

“Andrew made a great pass back to me,” Shulkosky said. “I said, ‘Oh, I have the lane.’ I just putit up and did my best.”

Petcash said, “I think [Shulkosky’s defender] thought the play was over when Greg passed. Then, he got it back, shot it and I said, ‘Oh, that’s going in.’”

Shulkosky finished withfour points.

“I scored two points in 31½ minutes,” Shulkosky said in a sense of disbelief. “Then, in the elite eight of the state playoffs, I make the winning bucket. I’ll never forget that.”

Pine-Richland coach Jeff Ackermann thought about calling a timeout when the Rams had the ball.

“But I’m good with us going right out of four corners to try and score,” he said. “You know, we’ve had four games this year that came down to the final shot, with either us having a chance to win or the other team scoring. That’s the first one we’ve won.”

Besides Petcash, PineRichland got nine points and 10 rebounds from Phil Jurkovec.

It was a tough loss for Allderdice, which saw its 23-game winning streak snapped.

The Dragons got 19 points from junior guard Blaufeld, who had three 3pointers along the way. Point guard Tyler Williamsadded 11.

The score was tied at halftime, and there were six lead changes in the third quarter. Pine-Richland took a 39-34 lead in the fourth quarter when Petcash, who was 9 of 12 from the field, made his fifth 3-pointer. But Allderdice went on a 12-2 run to take a 46-41 lead.

“I think whenever we brought pressure late in the game, the first couple times it was not good,” Shulkosky said. “Our traps weren’t good. Then we started trapping better and they started to turn it over.”