WEEKEND SPORTS
After frustratung end to football season, USC flips script on court
Ethan Dahlem, David Pantelis and Luke Banbury were three standout football players for Upper St. Clair who felt their football season was disappointing, as the Panthers lost in the WPIAL quarterfinals.
Coming up short in football irked all three and motivated them in the next sport. Then they fueled Upper St. Clair to a WPIAL basketball title.
Dahlem, Pantelis and Banbury made just about every key play in the fourth quarter Friday night in the Class 6A final and Upper St. Clair went on to defeat Pine-Richland, 5653, at Peters Township in a game that came down to the final seconds. Pine-Richland missed two 3-pointers in the final 10 seconds.
The win gave Upper St. Clair (20-1), the No. 1 seed, its first WPIAL title since 2005 and coach Danny Holzer his third championship.
“I can’t explain the feeling right now,” Dahlem said after the game. “It’s so surreal. It’s amazing to be in this moment.”
It was a moment the football players wanted dearly, like the rest of the team.
“We thought the football team was pretty good, but we had injuries and we fell short,” said Dahlem, a Post-Gazette Fabulous 22 quarterback in football. “We wanted to make it happen in basketball and we got our goal.”
Dahlem, the team’s point guard, was key to the win, scoring 16 points mostly on drives to the basket. Pine-Richland (14-6) had trouble keeping the 5-foot-9 senior out of the lane as Dahlem made 7 of 9 from the field. Banbury, a senior forward, scored 14 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. Pantelis, a senior guard, scored all seven of his points in the fourth quarter. “Dahlem was tremendous,” Holzer said. Dahlem, Pantelis and Banbury scored 15 of Upper St. Clair’s 18 points in the fourth quarter. Pantelis hit a big 3-pointer and scored on a rebound off of his own missed shot.
“They’re tough as nails,” Holzer said. “In our situation, we have really good basketball players, but three football players in the senior class who are pretty darn good and special. They’re skilled, strong basketball players … and they have a high basketball IQ. They mix in great with the other guys.”
Pantelis scored with 1:22 left to make it 5346, but Pine-Richland came back, thanks to some errant Upper St. Clair free-throw shooting. Andrew Alexander, who finished with 15 points, scored seven points in 25 seconds to bring Pine-Richland within 54-53 with 26 seconds left. Banbury made two free throws with 23.7 seconds left to give the Panthers a three-point lead.
On Pine-Richland’s final possession, Joe Dudkowski, who led the Rams with 16 points, used a nice shot fake to get open for a 3-pointer from the right wing with 9 seconds left, but it bounced off the rim. PineRichland got the rebound, made two passes
and Dudkowski got another 3-pointer from the right wing. It fell short, Banbury grabbed the rebound and the buzzer sounded. Upper St. Clair’s players then stormed the court.
“Those two shots at the end, it was breathtaking looking up at them,” Dahlem said.
A key to the game was Upper St. Clair’s on-the-ball, man-to-man defense. The Panthers didn’t trap defensively as much as they normally do. But they made it hard on Pine-Richland drives to the basket. PineRichland, trying to win a title under firstyear coach Bob Petcash, shot only 34% (19 of
58) for the game and just 25% percent (4 of 16) from 3-point range.
Senior guard Luke Gensler helped USC’s cause with 12 points.
“The No. 1 key was ball pressure,” Holzer said. “We felt they had great shooters and we didn’t want to trap as much and potentially give up open shots. And for the most part, we were in the lead the whole and that helped.
“In the second half, even though it was close, I felt really good because I could just sense with our seniors, we were going to win. I could just see it in their eyes.”
Especially the football players.