Peters Township looks to stack more wins in order to secure banner

When Peters Township knocked off the defending WPIAL Quad-A boys’ basketball champions on their home court, Gary Goga dismissed the 77-71 triumph against Chartiers Valley.
“We didn’t really view (CV) any differently than any other game,” Goga said. “It’s a nice win but their championship last year is theirs. It really means nothing to us. They are a highly talented team this year. So it’s was a nice win for us.”
But the Indians want more. More victories. Stacking wins, particularly as they head into the second half of the season, could add up to a section banner.
Heading into this week’s contest against Canon-McMillan (6-7, 1-5), which ends the first half of league play, the Indians are tied with Baldwin in the Section 4 race. Both are 4-2 in the division, 9-3 overall and trail the first-place Colts, who are also 9-3 overall but 5-1 in the section.
Goga noted that the win against the Colts was awesome for his kids but added, “ultimately, it’s one game” and ahead are more “huge games.” So the Indians are taking them the proverbial one at a time.
“We need to keep finding ways to just score one more point than our opponent and get Ws.”
It wasn’t one but two points that separated Peters Township from Upper St. Clair on Jan. 8 as the Indians posted a 40-38 victory against their rival. The Panthers now find themselves in a tie with Bethel Park for the fourth playoff spot out of the section. Both are 3-3 in the league. USC was 8-5 overall heading into Jan. 12’s fray against Mt. Lebanon and BP was 9-4 before its visit to Baldwin last night.
“It’s good to get a win like (USC),” said Goga of the victory in front of a friendly home crowd.
The Indians, who are averaging 69.3 points per game, are led by Nick Valentic’s 21.5 points per game. He fired in 11 points against USC and finished with 21 tallies against CV.
Clayton Yeates (18), Kelson Marisa (15) and Mike Cortese (12) finished in double digits against the Colts. Against USC, which was led by Andrew Wheeler’s 17 points, Marisa fired in eight while Yeates and Michael Johnson each finished with six markers.
As a whole, Goga is pleased with his players. “They are all doing good things,” he said. “This is a good group of guys. They play for each other and they aren’t selfish. I’m very proud of them all but there are more goals we have to hopefully accomplish.”
The Indians embark on the second-half of section action on the road Jan. 15 against Baldwin before hosting Bethel Park and Mt. Lebanon on Jan. 22 and 26. The rematch with Char Valley is set for 7:30 p.m. Jan. 29 at Peters.
Meanwhile, the Colts recovered from their upset loss at the hands of the Indians to score back-to-back wins against Mt. Lebanon, 63-53, and Baldwin, 65-63.
In the win against Lebo, Eddie Flohr fired in 23 points, the same amount he had against Peters Township. Ross Wilkerson (14), Caleb Zajicek (13) and Joe Antonucci (10) also finished in double figures for the Colts.
Antonio Garofoli connected on seven, 3-pointers and finished with 21 tallies for Lebo, which slipped to 2-4 in the section and 4-9 overall. Mark Lamendola followed with 17 markers.
In the thriller over Baldwin, Coleman Vaughn scored the game-winning basket with 0.2 seconds to play. Flohr finished with 24 points and Zajicek followed with 21 tallies. Flohr (3) and Zajicek (5) buried eight 3-pointers between themselves.
The Highlanders led 16-13 after one frame and 35-30 at halftime before the Colts rallied in the second half. CV outscored Baldwin, 22-15, in the third quarter.
The Colts resume section play Jan. 15 with a visit to Bethel Park. The Hawks have been hot recently, winning five of their last six games before visiting Baldwin last night (result unavailable at press time). BP evened its league record with an 82-58 win against Canon-McMillan. In the triumph, Jake Dixon exploded for 18 points. Josh Duda and Brandon Thorsen followed with 17 and 14 tallies respectively for the Hawks, who used an 18-3 second-stanza advantage to pull away from the Big Macs. Chance Wright and Levi Metheny helped BP with its long-range shooting and defense. The Hawks buried six treys, five in the first half.
The win against C-M was the third in a row in 2016 for the Hawks, coming on the heels of wins against USC, 57-42, and Moon, 73-68. BP head coach Josh Bears would not signal the win against the Panthers as a turnaround for the club, although the Hawks had lost three out of four games prior to the victory. Those losses included defeats against Chartiers Valley, 73-52, Peters Township, 69-58, and Lebo, 52-49.
“Honestly, we never allowed ourselves to think that the ship was sinking,” said Bears of BP’s 0-3 start in the section. “As deep in quality as this section is, teams will go on streaks; both good and bad. We just happened to have a bad streak to open section play. As big as the (USC) win was in the standings, I think it’s even bigger for our confidence. Our guys are starting to believe and when you get a group of talented, unselfish guys like we have start to believe that they can beat anyone, that’s when you might have something special.”
The Hawks start the second half of section action hosting Chartiers Valley at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 15. They host USC (Jan. 22), Moon (Jan. 29) and Baldwin (Feb. 5) but visit Peters (Jan. 19), Lebo (Jan. 26) and Canon-Mac (Feb. 2).
“To keep the momentum, the cliché answer is to keep improving every day. One game at a time,” Bears said. “While that is true, I feel like our team is driven more so by the want to be great. We need to continue to play with an edge. Our guys want to change the culture of Bethel Park basketball and take it to the next level. And they want to show that every single night.”