Mohawk defense derails Moniteau
CHERRY TWP — Mohawk coach and Knoch gradate Mike O’Lare wasn’t too pleased with his team’s defense in the first quarter Saturday night at Moniteau.
So his players turned up the intensity when Moniteau had the ball.
“We didn’t respond to that increased intensity, right away,” Moniteau coach Mike Jewart said. “And it hurt us.”
After scoring 16 points in the first quarter, the host Warriors (13-12) were outscored 18-4 in the second period and never seriously threatened again in dropping a 56-42 PIAA Class 3A boys basketball tournament game.
“Everybody comes up with a plan for these (PIAA) tournament games,” O’Lare said. “Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. We had defensive schemes in place to try containing No. 1 (Chason Rugg) and No. 4 (Andrew Zepeda), their two big scorers.
“For the most part, I thought we succeeded in doing that.”
Moniteau still had its opportunities, particularly from beyond the 3-point arc.
“I thought we had some open looks there,” Jewart. “I can’t complain about our shot selection. David Martino had a couple of 3-point shots rim around and out in that second quarter.
“If those shots go in, maybe this game takes a different turn. Who knows?”
Trailing by 11 at halftime, Moniteau fell behind by as many as 21 late in the third quarter. Down 19 entering the fourth, the Warriors cut the gap to 50-40 on a Zepeda layup qwith 3:07 to play. Leading 52-42 with 1:42 left, Mohawk (19-8) got two free throws from Jay Wrona and a layup by Dante Retort to go up 14 and put the game away.
“We like to spread the court when we have the lead late in games and that opens things up for us,” O’Lare said. “We turned it over a couple of times, though, and were hesitant to shoot the ball. They made a bit of a run at us.”
“If we could have gotten the deficit into single digits ... There was still time left. We might have had a shot,” Jewart said.
Mohawk won for the fourth time in five games. Wrona led the visitors with 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Fadden tallied 13 points and eight boards.
“We did a good job on Fadden, I thought,” Jewart said. “Wrona really hurt us and they had other guys step up and play well.“
Rugg had 13 points and four rebounds for Moniteau. Dessicino had nine points. Mohawk enjoyed a 32-22 edge on the boards and turned the ball over only six times.
“That’s a good basketball team,” Jewart said. “Coming in here, I felt like we needed to play a competitive game against a WPIAL team and I think we did that. They didn’t come in here and blow us out.
“We have a special group of kids here. They never quit. Even down 19 or whatever it was, they kept playing hard. I’m proud of the effort they gave all year. We won the Disrict 9 title, got a home state game, we accomplished a lot of things.”
Rugg, Martino, Aydan Jackson, Landon Kelly, Dessicino, Cade Barger and Logan Campbell were seniors for the Warriors this season.
MOHAWK 56
Bobby Fadden 4-9 5-6 13, Jay Wrona 7-15 6-6 21, J.J. Nail 1-2 0-0 2, Mason Hopper 4-8 1-1 9, Keigan Hopper 4-8 1-1 9, Dante Retort 3-3 0-0 6, Drew Wrona 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 21-41 12-13 56.
MONITEAU 42
Chason Rugg 6-12 0-0 13, David Martino 1-9 0-0 2, Andrew Zepeda 3-9 0-0 6, Aydan Jackson 2-7 1-2 5, David Dessicino 4-5 0-0 9, Brendin Sankey 1-2 2-3 4, Connor Ealy 1-2 0-0 3, Dawson Cook 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 18-46 3-5 42.
Mohawk 13 18 15 10 — 56
Moniteau 16 4 7 15 — 42
3-point goals: Mohawk 2 (J.Wrona, M.Hopper), Moniteau 3 (Rugg, Dessicino, Ealy)
