Ugly shots, missed opportunities and confusion dominated the first-round Class AAA playoff game Monday night between Moon and Valley at North Allegheny High School. Still, Moon standout Tyler Hersperger was concerned with only one thing. "All it's about is advancing," Hersperger said. "Doesn't matter if it's pretty, doesn't matter if it's ugly. What we've learned over the last two years is just advance. That's all you've got to do." And that's just about all Moon was able to do in defeating Valley, 53-41. Unfortunately, it was never pretty. Both teams struggled shooting the ball. Moon controlled the flow of play during most of the first half, leading by as many as 10 points, but poor shooting allowed Valley to stay in the game. "I think we're a better scoring team than we showed tonight," Moon coach Jeff Ackermann said. "I know we're a better shooting team than we showed tonight." Valley also struggled shooting the ball from the opening tip, misfiring on everything from open-look 3-point shots to fast-break layups. Valley played without star forward Toney Clemons. Center Ryan Orr did his best to compensate for the loss of Clemons. Orr scored seven points and grabbed eight rebounds in the first half, but missed 4-of-7 free throws, and Valley went into halftime down, 28-26. Valley stepped up its play at the beginning of the second half, tying the game early at 30-30. Valley had opportunities, drawing a pair of charging fouls and several fouls early in the half, but squandered them by taking bad shots and failing to work the ball inside to Orr. "We wanted to front him," said Hersperger of the 6-foot-6 Valley center. "Going in, we thought he was about 6-foot-4. We didn't watch too much tape on him. We got here and he was 6-foot-6, and it was a surprise to me. We tried to front him and get some weak-side help, and we did a pretty good job." Orr finished the game with 10 points and 12 rebounds. The tie was as close as Valley would come to leading, as Moon mounted a 7-0 run, capped by Vince Valenzi's 3-pointer. Then, as Valley once again started showing signs of life, Hersperger started heating up. After being held to only two points in the first half, Hersperger hit two layups, a short jumper, and a 3-pointer, as Moon extended its lead back to 10 points. Hersperger finished the game with 14 points. "I challenged him at halftime," Ackermann said. "Tyler played the second half the way I expected him to play the whole game, and the way I expect him to play the rest of these playoffs. He's too good not to be playing like that." Brian Walsh, a sophomore guard, also stepped up, finishing with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Forward Andy Dowdell hit a 3-pointer with two minutes left, sealing the win and ensuring another playoff game for Moon. Valley starting point guard and leading scorer Ian Benson, who averaged 16 points per game in the regular season, was held to just five points. Benson missed all 10 shots he took in the second half, six of which came from behind the 3-point arc. But that wasn't even the most unusual happening during an abnormally sloppy game. After Moon controlled the opening tip, the teams exchanged four ugly shots before officials realized that both teams had been shooting at the wrong baskets for the first minute of play, and that Moon's first two points, scored by Dowdell, were scored in his own basket and actually gave Valley a 2-0 lead. A brief conference and reverse of direction rectified the problem, but Hersperger doesn't even want to think about what might have happened had the points been meaningful. "I wouldn't even shower, I'd just go right to the bus," Hersperger said. "I probably wouldn't even go to school tomorrow, either. I'd just sit in bed and cry." The second round will match Moon against the winner of tonight's Laurel Highlands-Ambridge game. Despite the poor shooting performance, Ackermann remains confident. "I think in order to win a championship, you have to win a game like this, where you don't play your best," he said. "Hopefully, we got it out of our system."

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---