Jeannette coach Jim Nesser played his high school basketball at Greensburg Central Catholic, so he wasn’t fazed a bit by the Centurions’ bandbox gymnasium when he led his Jayhawks onto the court for the first of two matchups this season. Neither was Terrelle Pryor, who scored 29 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to lead Jeannette (8-3, 5-0) to a 64-55 come-from-behind win over rival Greensburg Central Catholic. “I think we all realize how difficult it is to win here,” Nesser said. “I thought Ron Palcic did a great job coaching his team because, in the first half, he mixed it up a little bit with his defenses and got us confused.” That Greensburg Central Catholic would find a way to frustrate the Tribune-Review’s No. 2-ranked Class AA team isn’t really that surprising. The Jayhawks suffered their only section loss last season when they were blown out, 83-65, in the last game of the regular season on the Centurions’ home floor. “It’s a definite advantage when Jeannette has the type of athletes they have,” Palcic said. “You can play them a little bit better with a tighter court.” This time, Pryor, who was limited to 11 points in last year’s loss, had that many at halftime, while teammate Davonte Shannon chipped in 20 points and 10 rebounds. But it was a miscue by Pryor in the fourth quarter that nearly turned the tables in Greensburg Central Catholic’s favor. Leading 50-45, Pryor got the ball on a breakaway and threw down a monster dunk that gave Jeannette a seven-point lead with just less than five minutes remaining in the game. Pryor, however, was given a technical foul for taunting and, after R.J. Wallace made both free throws for two of his 15 points, the Centurions had much-needed momentum. “I’m not happy with Terrelle and the way he responded when he got the ball that one time; He could have cost us the game,” Nesser said. “He’s a better player than that. He played a great basketball game, but there’s no excuse for him to make that (technical) foul, and there’s no excuse for that.” As was the case last season when the teams played at Greensburg Central Catholic (11-5, 4-3), Jeannette floundered in the opening minutes, which allowed the Centurions to build an early lead. In fact, the Jayhawks were outscored, 7-0, in the first 2:13 and trailed, 9-2, after Nate Antone drained the second of his two early baskets less than halfway through the first quarter. “I thought we did a worse job defensively, to be honest,” Nesser said. “We didn’t work the way we were supposed to work defensively, and I thought they made some plays, and we didn’t do a good job defending them.” All the while, Jeannette was struggling. Greensburg Central Catholic constantly pressured the ball and limited Pryor to just two shots and two points in the opening quarter. As a team, the Jayhawks made only one of their first five shots before recovering to finish 5 of 12 (41.7 percent) in the period and committed an uncharacteristic seven turnovers. “I had a couple defenses in mind that would identify Pryor and Davonte, and it was my plan to take them out early,” Palcic said. “It worked early, but they’re such great athletes, they got better as the game got a little more intense.” Jeannette finally found an answer in the second quarter in the form of the tandem of Pryor and Shannon. Pryor leaped out of the gate with the first six points of the period and moved the Jayhawks back into the game, 16-16, with 6:10 to play in the first half. The game turned into a back-and-forth affair throughout the latter part of the second quarter with four late lead changes. But Greensburg Central Catholic took a 30-27 lead into the locker room thanks to a late run by Franco Sebastiani, who scored four of his team-high 18 points in the final two minutes. “Greensburg Central Catholic’s effort was at an A-plus,” Palcic said. “I can’t fault my team’s effort at all.”

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