JACKSON TWP — Three straight section losses handed the Seneca Valley boys basketball team a strong dose of frustration.

Friday night, the Raiders were more than happy to pass it on to Central Catholic.

Seneca jumped out to a double-digit lead in the first quarter and was never threatened afterward in a convincing 63-46 victory on Senior Recognition Night at William Paul Gymnasium.

The Raiders had dropped games to Pine-Richland (70-68), North Allegheny (84-58) and Butler (52-45) over the previous 10 days. The losses to the Rams and Golden Tornado both came in overtime.

“It was frustrating enough that I lost sleep over it,” said Seneca Valley senior forward Zach Snyder of his team's recent three-game losing skid. “Excluding the game against NA, the other two games we just beat ourselves with mental errors.”

Snyder did his part to get the Raiders (11-4, 4-3) back on the winning side of things Friday, scoring a game-high 28 points to go with 13 rebounds and five blocks.

Nine of his points came in the opening period, during which the Raiders dropped a 17-6 run on the Vikings.

“This was a huge win,” added Snyder. “We lost our cushion (in the section standings) by losing three straight. We needed to keep battling and get back on track.”

Raiders' coach Victor Giannotta would not go as far as to say the game was make or break.

“It wasn't a must-win, but it was good to win,” he said. “We needed it. Our defense played well. It was an inspired and passionate effort on Senior Night.”

The Vikings found themselves in a rut early.

They didn't recover until the fourth quarter and by that time, Seneca's lead was hovering around 20 points.

“We missed four shots inside the foul line early,” said Vikings' coach Chuck Crummie, who watched his team fall to 4-9 overall and 1-6 in Section 3-AAAA. “Our defense was less than adequate. We have a lot of players who play on the football team and they went to Heinz Field last season. It took us a while to get them over the football bumps and bruises. We're still looking for an identity.”

Senior guard Chad Izenas scored 16 points for the Raiders.

CENTRAL CATHOLIC 46

Damar Hamlin 2 0-0 4, Bobby Kiernan 1 0-2 3, John Petrishen 2 2-2 6, Alex Schoppen 4 2-2 10, Bricen Garner 2 1-3 5, Ryan Sproule 1 0-0 2, Jonathan DeVito 3 2-2 10, Matt Bilyak 1 0-0 2, Sean Whalen 1 2-2 4, Rashad Wheeler 0 0-0 0, Carlo Cantania 0 0-0 0, Ron George 0 0-0 0, Andrew Derda 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 9-13 46.

SENECA VALLEY 63

Zach Snyder 10 8-11 28, Jack Cook 2 1-4 5, T.J. Holl 3 0-0 6, Chad Izenas 5 5-7 16, Dakota Topf 3 0-2 8, Cody Boozel 0 0-0 0, Josh Balog 0 0-0 0, Matt Drambel 0 0-0 0, Andrew Smathers 0 0-0 0, Chris Hart 0 0-0 0. Totals: 23 14-24 63.

Central Catholic 11 9 8 18 — 46

Seneca Valley17 15 15 16 — 63

3-point goals: Central Catholic 3 (DeVito 2, Kiernan); Seneca Valley 3 (Topf 2, Izenas).

Tuesday: Taylor Allderdice at Seneca Valley