Shady Side Academy ousts Southmoreland from WPIAL playoffs
Alliteration has followed the Southmoreland boys basketball team around this postseason.
Scotties.
Stone.
Sleeper.
(Nineteen eighty) Seven.
Add another one to the list: Sadness.
Fifth-seeded Southmoreland's playoff run took an abrupt detour Thursday night with a 40-37 loss to No. 4 Shady Side Academy in the WPIAL Class 3A quarterfinals at Gateway.
Southmoreland (19-5) was making its first quarterfinal appearance since ‘87, which has become the measuring-stick season for this team. It's also the last time the Scotties made the WPIAL semifinals and PIAA playoffs — they're 0-3 in the state tournament all-time. But they still have a shot to make the state postseason.
Shady Side Academy (18-6) advances to play Lincoln Park (20-4) in Monday's semifinals. Now the Scotties have to root for Shady Side. With the WPIAL going back to its follow-the-winner format, and 3A taking the top six teams to the PIAA playoffs, Shady Side has to reach the title game at Petersen Events Center for the Scotties' season to continue.
“That's the year I graduated high school,” said Scotties coach Frank Muccino, who went to Belle Vernon. “I don't remember much from those years; coaching has caused memory loss and gray hair.”
Tough losses like this don't help either.
Southmoreland expected a physical game from Shady Side, known for playing strong team defense in the half-court, and that's what they got.
“It was like a drag-out, knock-out fight,” Muccino said. “They landed the last blow. They played great defense, and so did we, but we didn't shoot well; We missed a ton of shots.”
Shady Side coach Dave Vadnais expected a contentious game.
“We knew it'd be physical, and it wasn't going to get up into the 80's,” he said.
Shady Side, the Section 3 champion, ended the first and second quarters on scoring runs. Senior guard Kirf Olander, back in form after an injury cost him much of the season, hit a jumper and two free throws, and senior guard Etai Groff dunked to give the Indians an 11-8 lead after one quarter. With Southmoreland leading 22-13 after a three-point play by Zac Leighty, Shady Side closed the first half on a 10-0 run with Olander connecting from 3, and putting back a miss, and Groff finishing an and-1 to give the Indians a 23-22 lead at the break.
The run reached 15-0 before Leighty hit a 3 to make it 28-25.
Olander has taken scoring pressure off of Groff.
“Our guys feed off his energy,” Vadnais said.
Vince Keffer made a 3 for the Scotties, but Olander answered from behind the arc to give the Indians a 34-32 lead after three.
Junior 6-11 guard Brandon Stone came up with a rebound but was called for a travel on the next possession. Stone was held in check.
“We wanted to be big and physical and take away his space,” Vadnais said of Stone. “We wanted to make him work. Fortunately for us, he wasn't hitting his shots.”
With Shady Side clinging to a 38-37 lead, Olander rebounded a missed free throw and tipped it to Skyy Moore. Groff was fouled and made both attempts to make it 40-37 with 34.2 seconds left in the fourth. Olander came up with a huge block on the other end.
Southmoreland called a timeout with 10 seconds left.
When play resumed, the Scotties could not get a clean look and time ran out.
“We're usually a decent second-half team, but we didn't play our best tonight,” Muccino said. “We had some open looks but didn't knock them down. Sometimes that happens. Defense travels with you to all gyms. Jump shots don't always do that.”
Groff finished with 16 points and Olander added 14.
The Scotties needed a late steal-and-score from senior guard Tommy Pisula in the first round to take Avonworth to overtime before posting a 64-55 win at Peters Township.
But Pisula spent most of the first half on the bench with three fouls. Leighty scored 11 in the first half for the Scotties. Pisula fouled out with 1:17 left. He was held to three points, 15 below his average.
Leighty had 14 points and Stone added 12 and nine rebounds.
Southmoreland's last lead was at 22-20.
“This is huge for our program,” Vadnais said. “If we can beat Southmoreland, we can beat anybody.”
Bill Beckner Jr. is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at bbeckner@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BillBeckner.
