Panthers adjust to win

Defensive shift fuels USC, 62-59

Upper St. Clair changed its defensive strategy in the second half of Saturday’s WPIAL Class 6A quarterfinal. The Panthers decided to stop trapping Pine-Richland offensive players so much.

Fewer traps equaled many fewer points for PineRichland.

Upper St. Clair limited Pine-Richland to 17 secondhalf points, winning 62-59 at North Hills.

The win puts Upper St. Clair (20-3), the No. 4 seed, in the semifinals for the first time since 2010. The Panthers like to play man-toman full-court defense and double-team the dribbler often. But Pine-Richland (15-9), the No. 5 seed, torched Upper St. Clair’s defense for 42 points in the first half and led by eight points at halftime.

“I think what changed is we got a little more pressure on the ball and didn’t gamble as much in the second half,” Upper St. Clair coach Danny Holzer said. “We picked our spots. The other big thing was defensive rebounding and that was what ignited our offense.”

Andrew Casey, a senior forward, led Upper St. Clair with 18 points. Junior guard David Pantelis and junior guard Luke Gensler added 13 each.

“We were kind of anxious in the first half and our defensive rotations were a little slow,” Casey said. “We started trapping less in the second half and that worked.”

Upper St. Clair trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half. The Panthers took their first lead since early in the first quarter when Ethan Dahlem hit a 3-pointer with 2:50 left in the third quarter. Upper St. Clair took a 52-49 edge into the fourth. After shooting 56% (15-27) in the first half, Pine-Richland made only 30% (6 of 20) of its shots in the second half in addition to committing some costly turnovers. Senior guard Kyle Polce led PineRichland with 18 points.

“We’ve been a secondhalf team all year,” Holzer said.

Upper St. Clair opened up a 58-51 lead with four minutes remaining before PineRichland cut the margin to 58-56 with 1:55 left.

Holzer was openly critical of the WPIAL that his team was seeded No. 4 and Fox Chapel No. 2, despite Upper St. Clair beating Fox Chapel by 15 points on one of the final nights of the regular season. Fox Chapel lost to No. 7 seed Central Catholic, 42-34, in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

When asked if he felt vindicated, Holzer deadpanned, “The results speak for themselves.”

Steph Chambers/Post-Gazette Upper St. Clair coach Danny Holzer does the “U-S-C” cheer with the student section Saturday after the Panthers defeated Pine-Richland, 62-59, in a WPIAL Class 6A quarterfinal.