Gladiators win in 2 overtimes
South Allegheny traveled to North Allegheny for a second-round game in the Western Region of the PIAA playoffs. Now the Gladiators are one step closer to going east to Hershey for the state championship.
Bryce Epps poured in 29 points, Mike Michalski added 19 and South Allegheny found one last burst to beat Shady Side Academy, 68-59, Saturday in double overtime Saturday. It was a back-and-forth game between section rivals who split their two regularseason meetings, and a week after winning the Class 3A WPIAL championship, Shady Side couldn’t stop South Allegheny from reaching the PIAAquarterfinals.
“You could look back at a hundred different things, but the key adjustment was we went to our full-court pressure,” said South Allegheny coach Tony DiCenzo. “That kind of stymied them a little bit, they turned the ball over, and that created offense for us.”
The Gladiators (19-7) had no choice but to force the issue. They trailed the Bulldogs, 45-28, early in the fourth quarter.Shady Side (20-7) went on a 19-0 run that spanned the final two minutes of the first half and the first three of the second. South Allegheny didn’t score for more than seven minutes, and by the time they found the basket again, their 17-16 halftime lead was a 29-17 deficit.
Shady Side used its offensive rebounding and pressure to control the game and get turnovers. Nothing was more frustrating for South Allegheny than a fifth-chance putbackby Peter Kramer that put themdown 17 with 7:14 to go.
“Coach pulled us aside and told us to keep fighting,” said Epps, a junior point guard who averaged 21.2 points per game in the regular season. “He said this is going to show whowe really are.”
From there, Epps and his younger brother — 5-foot-5 freshman Cameron Epps — sparked the comeback. Dillion Hynes hit a corner 3 and Michalski scored inside to get it started, then the Epps brothers combined for three steals and scored 12 of the next 14 points.
With sophomore Shady Side standout Eli Teslovich, who scored a team-high 19, trying to post him up, Cameron stole the ball, then hita 3 at the other end to make it 45-44 with 2:47 left in the fourth quarter. About a minute later, Bryce made a pull-up3 to give the Gladiators their first lead since early in thesecond half.
Ethan Salvia tied it for the Bulldogs with 1:10 remaining and Bryce Epps missed a runnerat the buzzer, which sent it to overtime. He misfired again on a corner 3 at the end of the extra frame, keeping things tied at 51-51 going into a second.
But he made up for that immediately with a steal and layup after Shady Side won the tip, then Michalski drilled a 3 — his only attempt from beyond the arc — to make it 56-51 and South Allegheny never trailed again. The Gladiators, who lost in the WPIALsemifinals, advance to face Bishop Guilfoyle or ChestnutRidge Wednesday.