USC hangs on to reach semifinals

Seneca Valley rally comes up short in closing minutes

Due to Seneca Valley’s advantage in size and muscle, Upper St. Clair boys basketball coach Danny Holzer thought his team had to do one thing well – shoot.

For three quarters Friday night, Upper St. Clair showed true marksmanship. Then the Panthers had white knuckles from holding on so tight for their playoff lives in the fourth quarter.

Upper St. Clair took an 18point lead into the final quarter, but walked out of their home gym with only a 45-43 victory in a WPIAL Class 6A quarterfinal.

Seneca Valley nearly pulled off a remarkable comeback, holding Upper St. Clair without a field goal and only four points in the final quarter.

But in the end, Upper St. Clair (15-8), the No. 2 seed for the playoffs, earned its third semifinal berth in four years, while keeping Seneca Valley (9-13) from making the semifinals for only the third time in school history.

Seneca Valley turned the ball over twice in the final 40 seconds when trailing by only two points.

Then after Upper St. Clair’s Julian Dahlem missed two free throws with 2.8 seconds left, the ball was knocked out of bounds and given to Seneca Valley with 2 seconds remaining.

After a timeout, Seneca Valley’s Luke Lawson took a long pass about 35 feet from the basket, but his contested shot was way off.

“You know what I was thinking in the back of my mind? It was the Chartiers Valley girls [ Thursday] night when they were up by 16 against Mt. Lebanon with three minutes to go and lost,” Holzer said. “I saw what happened in that game. Then I look up at the scoreboard in this game and we’re only up two. I thought, ‘Oh, my Lord.’ But we made enough defensive plays at the end.”

Upper St. Clair made enough 3-pointers in the first half (6 of 12) to grab a 31-14 lead at the break.

Dahlem, a sophomore guard, gave the Panthers a lift by scoring 12 points in the first 12 minutes. Through three quarters, Upper St. Clair shot exactly 50% (16 of 32) and 47% (8 of 17) from 3- point range. Meanwhile, Seneca Valley was 1 of 9 from 3-point range in the first three quarters and the No. 7 seed Raiders were hurt early on with nine turnovers in the first quarter and 13 in the first half.

Upper St. Clair’s offense in the fourth quarter was nothing like the first three quarters.

Holzer acknowledged that the Panthers became tentative and they were contradicting themselves offensively.

They would try to be patient, holding the ball some. But then they would launch a 3-pointer. Upper St. Clair attempted only six shots in the final quarter and all were 3-pointers. They didn’t make one.

Meanwhile, Seneca Valley turned up the defensive pressure and Upper St. Clair turned the ball over six times in the final eight minutes. “I think their physical size and the grind of the game kind of wore us down a little bit,” Holzer said. “We wanted to spread them out because we thought we could beat them some off the dribble and get layups. But we got tentative. We probably should’ve stayed more aggressive.”

Seneca Valley went on an 18-2 run to start the quarter. Lawson, who led Seneca Valley with 14 points, scored on the inside with 1:16 left to make it 45-43. The teams traded turnovers before Upper St. Clair missed a free throw with 21.2 seconds left.

Seneca Valley was working for the final shot when Dahlem poked the ball away near the foul line, came up with it and was fouled with 2.8 seconds left. He missed both free throws, but Dahlem was a key to the win. He was the only Upper St. Clair player in double figures with 14 points.

“He was the MVP of the game,” Holzer said. “He’s only a sophomore, but our kids follow him because he’s so tough.”

The season ended for Seneca Valley like so many games for the Raiders this season. They lost seven games by six points or fewer, including five by two points or fewer.

“I think Upper St. Clair is like a ‘blue blood,’” Trost said. “You look, they win these types of games. They’ve been in these environments a lot of times. Our guys are still learning a little bit. I told our kids that we have our hand at the top of the well and we’re ready to dig out, but we’re just not quite there yet. But we’ll get there.”