Upper St. Clair beats buzzer to win WPIAL finals rematch with Pine-Richland

By: Don Rebel
Saturday, December 11, 2021 | 7:59 PM

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Upper St. Clair edged Pine-Richland nine months ago to win the 2021 WPIAL 6A boys basketball championship. The sequel took place Saturday in another championship game, this time of the Upper St. Clair Tip-off Tournament.

While the cast for the host Panthers had completely changed from last season, the end result was the same with Upper St. Clair and the student body celebrating on the court.

Senior Tanner O’Grady hit a fade away jumper from the right elbow at the buzzer to give USC a 68-67 victory over top-ranked Pine-Richland.

You gotta see Upper St. Clair's Tanner O'Grady's buzzer beater from today pic.twitter.com/PALmFJ6Ugo

— TribLive HSSN (@TribLiveHSSN) December 12, 2021

The defending champion Panthers weren’t even in the Trib HSSN preseason Top 5 after losing all five starters to graduation. However, this new look Panthers squad sent a message with opening-weekend wins over Chartiers Valley and Pine-Richland that they are still a powerful cat on the prowl.

“We talk about that this is a different team now,” Upper St. Clair coach Danny Holzer said. “We want to continue what the last several years have been like. Our team slogan is ‘a new era,’ meaning we had a tremendous run with five guys. Now it’s time for some new guys to step up and make their mark.”

After leading 2-0, the new guys trailed most of the first half until scoring late to take a 30-29 lead at halftime.

The Rams’ balanced attack came out strong in the third quarter and once again enjoyed the lead for the rest of the quarter.

The fourth quarter was back and forth with several ties and lead changes. Both teams had chances late in regulation, but the scored ended up tied at 61-61 when the quarter ended.

After USC senior Mike Pellicci hit a 3-pointer with under a minute left to give the Panthers a 66-65 lead, Pine-Richland set up point guard Andrew Alexander with a left side drive to the hoop that drew a foul with 15 seconds left in OT. The senior drained both free throws to put the Rams up one.

After a timeout, Upper St. Clair got the ball in the hands of O’Grady. He was denied a right-side drive to the hoop, so he dribbled out and hit the turnaround fader before the buzzer that was clean through the cylinder, setting off a celebration on the floor for the host Panthers.

“The play was actually to try to get Aidan Besselman on a back-door and have O’Grady go opposite when he came off the double (screen), then Mike (Pellicci) goes reverse dribble and give Tanner the handoff and help clear out to create a one-on-one opportunity,” Holzer said. “We executed and he made a play.”

O’Grady made several plays as he led all scorers with 26 points.

“He’s worked so hard and he’s so determined,” Holzer said. “He’s one of those program players we have. He could have started for most teams last year, but we had five seniors. He has shown what it means to be a team player and have high character.

“Now he’s on his way to being one of the best players in 6A.”

After scoring 29 points on opening night, senior Porter Rauch had 18 points for Upper St. Clair (2-0).

Senior Andrew Swartout hit five 3-pointers and led Pine-Richland (1-1) with 15 points while senior Joey Dudkowski scored 14 points and Alexander added 13 points for the Rams.

Tags: Pine-Richland, Upper St. Clair