Area teams ready to tip off the boys’ basketball season

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series previewing the winter sports season.
When surveying basketball coaches in Section 4-AAAA, responses are as consistent as court performances. The best-of-the-best compete in the division and only one goal is on the teams’ minds as the 2015-16 campaign tips off Dec. 4. Being No. 1 is primary.
“The goals are same as always,” said Chartiers Valley skipper Tim McConnell. “Section champs. WPIAL champs. State champs.”
Mt. Lebanon head coach Joe David reiterated those points. “The goals are to contend for the section, WPIAL and state championships.”
Even with five returning starters, Canon-McMillan floor boss Rick Bell emphasized that mission is easier said than done. Since he has been in the coaching business, Bell outlines five objectives for his clubs: one, finish in the top four thus qualifying for the district playoffs; two, win the section title; three qualify for the state playoffs; four capture a WPIAL banner; and five, claim the state championship.
“Our section is the best, most balanced, with the best coaches in the WPIAL,” Bell said. “All of our opponents thus are our toughest. Every team is prepared, disciplined and well coached.”
So regardless of experience, each team is a contender as long as they heed their coaches’ simple advice.
“Continue to improve every game and play together,” said David, who returns just two starters from last year’s 21-7 team.
That recipe certainly worked last season for the Blue Devils. They shared the section banner with Char Valley with a 12-2 slate, qualified for the district playoffs and upended the WPIAL champion in the first round of the PIAA playoffs.
However, Lebo lost three starters from that squad, including Matt Hoffman, who is playing football at Villanova. Additionally, leading scorer Jonny David (18.5 ppg.) is playing at Kentucky and Patrick Ehland (13 ppg. 8 rpg.) is competing at Carnegie Mellon.
The versatile Eddie Jenkins returns to his role as point guard along with Mark Lamendola. Jenkins, a senior who quarterbacked the football team to a 10-2 season and starts for the baseball team at shortstop, averaged seven points and two steals per game last winter. Lamendola managed eight points, four assists and two steals per game.
“We are inexperienced but one of the team’s strengths is depth,” David said. “We have a very young group of freshman and sophomores that are looking for playing time.”
Patrick Werkmeister, a 6-4 forward, Xavier Awad, Sean Witte and Henry Kogan look to play key roles in Lebo’s success this season.
While McConnell’s Colts find themselves in a similar role as the Blue Devils, Bell’s Big Macs could be the team to beat in the league based on experience. Canon-Mac returns four starters from last year’s 10-12 club.
Though C-M lost Sam Bohn to Chatham College, Britton Beachy, RJ Bell, Carson Miller and Jordan Smith return to the line-up. Beachy averaged 15.4 points per game to go along with 4.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists. Bell managed 5.7 points and 3.2 rebounds. Miller pulled down 3.6 boards and scored 6.1 points a game. Smith contributed 2.2 points and 3.5 rebounds an outing.
Dom Eannace, who excelled at quarterback for the football team this fall, will play a key role in the post for the Big Macs this winter. “He’s got a lot of energy and a motor,” said Bell.
Kenyon Lewis and Jake Davey give the Big Macs added punch on the perimeter. “They are two more guys who are able to defend and score,” Bell added.
While the Big Macs used the pre-season to focus on defense rebounding and conditioning, they needed little work on their toughness. “That’s one of our strengths,” said Bell. “We prepare, focus and compete every day in practice. We hope that translates into improvement every day and every game.”
Depth is an area that Chartiers Valley can improve. However, shooting is always an asset and a reason why the Colts won a WPIAL championship last winter. They defeated North Allegheny to claim the Quad-A title.
But, the Colts graduated a great deal of their offense when Matty McConnell matriculated to Robert Morris. He averaged 29 points per game and finished with more than 2,000 in his varsity career. Jake Ritson, a three-point specialist, is playing baseball at a junior college.
Eddie Flohr, however, returns to engineer the offense. He averaged 14.9 points and 5.5 assists per game last season as the Colts rolled up a 23-4 record. In addition, Ross Wilkerson and Joey Antonucci are veterans from last year’s club. Antonucci ranked behind McConnell in the rebounding department while Wilkerson averaged 11 points per game.
Coleman Vaughn, a junior, is another sharpshooter. Caleb Zalicek, Nick Jaslowski and Ray Olkaski will also make strong contributions to CV’s success this season.
At Peters Township, Gary Goga agrees that the competition in the section is premier.
“Literally every team is good,” he said. “You don’t want to mention anyone specifically (as being the toughest opponent) because you risk short-changing a team and program. This is going to be a really competitive year.”
Though they lost three starters, including Tim Swoope, who is playing football at Washington and Jefferson College, the Indians intend to contend in part because of returning starters Mike Cortese and Nick Valentic. A junior guard, Cortese averaged six points per game last year and Valentic, a senior swingman, managed seven.
Seniors Ben Doyle and Kelson Marisa both started games last year. “We need them to play well for us to succeed,” Goga said.
While senior Clayton Yeates starts at the point for Peters, Adam Cisney, Conor Manning as well as Matt Thelk are expected to fill gaps while sophomore Jake Cortes, senior Joe Fick and junior Ethan Young are all competing for minutes. “They are all hard workers,” said Goga, who has been particularly pleased with Thelk. “He’s a glue guy. He does everything we ask of him and hustles his butt off.”
Practice and competing are two different things adds Goga, who cited depth as his team’s strength. “We need to transfer the effort and effectiveness we show in practice to when it counts the most. The bottom line is we need to compete.”
Compete is exactly what Goga expects his Indians to do. The immediate goal is to contend for a playoff spot. “In an absolutely brutal section,” he added. “Every team we play has a great coach and great players. It’s truly an honor to be in this section with the group of guys we all get to coach against.
“In order to achieve our goals, however, we have to do the little things better than everyone else or else we won’t win. Plain and simple,” said Goga.