Sophomore stays in unstoppable range
Gallagher sinks Jaguars with bucket at buzzer
Laurel Highlands super sophomore Rodney Gallagher hit the game-winning jumper with 1.2 seconds left against Thomas Jefferson Friday night.
The legend of Rodney Gallagher continues to grow.
The Laurel Highlands sophomore superstar added to his highlight reel Friday night, scoring a game-high 22-points and sinking a winning jumper from the corner with 1.2 seconds left to lift the Mustangs (10-3, 8-0) to a 58-56 road victory against Thomas Jefferson (15-4, 5-3). The win clinches Laurel Highlands’ first section title since 2013.
Gallagher has accomplished plenty in his first two years of high school, including winning a WPIAL championship and becoming the first freshman selected to the Post-Gazette Fabulous 5. One thing he hadn’t done yet, though, is hit a winning buzzer-beater — until now.
“It was definitely nerve-racking a little bit,” Gallagher said. “I was trying to get to the rim, and it wasn’t there. So I just wanted to gather myself, and I saw him sagging a little bit, so I knew the jump shot was going to be there, and I took it. It looked short, but it went through the net.
“I always dreamed about something like this. … I’m glad Coach [Hauger] called my name to get it there, and I’m glad I finished it.”
The Mustangs withstood a third-quarter rally by the Jaguars and clawed their way back into the game in the fourth before Gallagher’s heroics sealed the deal.
“That’s a tough loss. I thought the kids played their hearts out,” Thomas Jefferson coach Dom DeCicco said. “It’s a shame, but we had our chances. They made plays when they needed to.”
After starting the season 2-3, Laurel Highlands since has won eight games in a row and appear to be peaking at the right time. The team went through a similar rough patch early on last season before getting hot and riding its momentum to the WPIAL Class 5A title. The way Mustangs coach Rick Hauger sees it, those close losses early in the season — which all came on the road against quality opponents — will only serve to help the team come playoff time.
“We scheduled tough opponents, and we scheduled them all on the road. And I did that for a reason,” Hauger said. “I thought that we were close to where we would start to win some of those games. The guys took it that way.”
The teams exchanged several leads throughout a back-and-forth first quarter. Jaguars freshman Evan Berger gave Thomas Jefferson a 17-15 lead with a 3pointer late in the quarter, but Mustangs sophomore Brandon Davis responded with a 3 to put Laurel Highlands on top, 18-17, going into the second.
Gallagher nailed a 3-pointer midway through the second quarter, then assisted Davis on a corner 3 to put the Mustangs up, 27-20. Two more 3-pointers from Gallagher followed by a coast-to-coast fastbreak layup gave Laurel Highlands a 35-28 lead going into the break, with Gallagher chipping in 16 of his 22 points in the first half.
The Jaguars came out of halftime determined to slow down Gallagher, and for the entire third quarter, it worked. Gallagher went scoreless throughout the period, and Thomas Jefferson used a 20-8 run to take a 48-43 lead into the final quarter.
Jaguars senior guard Jake Pugh found Berger with a no-look pass for a corner 3 early in the fourth to give Thomas Jefferson a 51-47 lead, but the Jaguars offense went cold from there. Junior forward Jayden Pratt gave the Mustangs a 52-51 lead with a bucket in the paint, then Gallagher buried two clutch free throws to make it 54-51 with 1:30 to play.
Pugh then tied the score with 37.1 seconds left on a three-point play, finishing a reverse layup while absorbing contact under the rim. That’s when Hauger left the fate of the game in the hands of Gallagher, and the sensational sophomore delivered.
“He is something,” Hauger said. “He’s a guy that you can trust, and he’s a guy that you know, for all the accolades and all the success, he’s a team guy. Team comes first with him.”