Cold-shooting Leechburg boys eliminated by Union in Class A quarterfinals

By: George Guido
Wednesday, February 23, 2022 | 9:50 PM

It was a bad time for a bad shooting night for Leechburg.

The Blue Devils made just 16 field goals — seven in the first half.

Meanwhile, Union was solid on both ends of the floor, hitting seven 3-point baskets in the first half and collecting 31 first-half rebounds in a 74-44 victory over Leechburg in a Class A quarterfinal before a jam-packed Mike Covelli Field House.

The Stanley brothers were tough to stop. Mathew Stanley tallied 24 points, and Mark Stanley scored 15 and pulled down 18 rebounds as No. 3 Union (21-2) advanced to the semifinal round Saturday against Imani Christian at a site and time to be determined.

The usually reliable Blue Devils shooting touch just wasn’t there Wednesday night. Leechburg hit just one 3-pointer, a shot by Owen McDermott that beat the buzzer long after the issue was decided.

“I love the way Union’s in your face. They play man-for-man,” said Blue Devils coach Damian Davies. “We went a full year with teams playing zone, so we tried all week to get ready for that. We thought we could take advantage of that in the open court. The ball just wasn’t going in, and that put a lot of pressure on us.”

A basket by Braylon Thomas off a turnover with 49 seconds left in the opening quarter gave the Scotties their first double-digit lead, 16-6.

“That’s our game,” Union coach Mark Stanley said about his team’s early surge. “We like to press and thought we could hurt them a bit with our press. Our pace, really, we want the game fast. Our plan was to hurry them up.”

While Leechburg was missing its shots, Union was rebounding. The Scotties controlled the boards en route to a 44-15 lead with about a minute left before the intermission.

“We go get it,” coach Stanley said of his team’s rebounding ability. “We talk about going to get it, and we have some exceptional athletes. With Mark Stanley and Kaden Fisher, if the ball’s in there, they’ll go get it.”

On one notable sequence, Peyton Lombardo hits a three to make it 24-9. The junior guard then stole the ball on the inbounds play and hit another 3-pointer to jump the Union advantage from 12 points to 18 points in a matter of seconds.

Lombardo had 14 points — all in the first half, including a quartet of 3-pointers. Lombardo also had 10 rebounds.

Leechburg narrowed the gap early in second half, cutting the deficit to 48-28 on a basket by Marcus Cleveland. Eli Rich, held scoreless in the first half, got six quick points in the third quarter, but Union ended the quarter on an 11-2 surge.

“One of the challenges is to always get Elijah in the game,” Davies said. “When we’re going fast, sometimes we can’t get him the game. We try to work on the half-court game and getting the ball to Eli, then a full-court game, spread it out and get it to Braylan (Lovelace). The ball wasn’t going down for us, and they were getting everything the other way.”

Leechburg shot just 28% from the field, and Union was at 45%.

Now, the season is in limbo for 18-4 Leechburg. The Blue Devils need to see Union win the WPIAL title to enter the PIAA playoffs as the No. 5 team from the WPIAL.

Lovelace had nine points for Leechburg, and Devaughn Knight added eight.

Tags: Leechburg, Union