Carlynton boys take care of business against Monessen in quarters

By: Adam Brewer
Wednesday, February 22, 2023 | 9:46 PM

In a battle of the top two defenses in Class A, No. 3 Carlynton was able to find its offense in the middle quarters and put constant pressure on No. 6 Monessen as the visiting Greyhounds fell in the WPIAL quarterfinals 62-39 on Wednesday night.

Monessen only scored in the single digits in the opening two quarters, and never mounted a prolonged rally in the final 16 minutes of play.

The 39 points for Monessen was its second-lowest scoring output of the season.

“We didn’t do a good job of handling their pressure early on,” Monessen coach Dan Bosnic said. “I thought they sped us up a lot, and we didn’t run a lot of half-court offense. I also thought rebounding was going to be key, and they won that battle on the glass.”

The Cougars (16-6) were led by a trio of double-digit scorers and advanced to their second straight semifinal. Carlynton lost to Fort Cherry in last year’s round of four matchup.

Carlynton will match up against section rival Union, a 100-47 winner over Aquinas Academy, in the semifinals Saturday. Union won both section matchups against Carlynton by a combined five points.

“We have to limit our mistakes against Union,” Carlynton coach Jake Trombetta said. “We have to take care of the ball and take good shots. Union is a really good basketball team, and they don’t make a lot of mistakes. The last two games were one-possession games, so we can’t afford to give up any possession during the game. They are not going to beat themselves.”

The Greyhounds (21-3) host Aquinas Academy in consolation play Friday, vying for the fifth spot from District 7 in the state playoffs.

“Our guys didn’t quit, and I am proud of our effort in the second half,” Bosnic said. “We kept playing, and hopefully that will help us out on Friday. We have another opportunity to play another game, and hopefully we can cut down on our mistakes.”

Austin Milliner and Jaiden McClure led the Cougars with 14 points apiece, Chase Jones scored 12 and Devonte Dean came off the bench with nine. Lorenzo Gardner tallied a game-high 22 points for the Greyhounds, and Davontae Clayton chipped in with 7.

Monessen, which usually plays a stifling man-to-man defense, opted to go with a zone against Carlynton, which was battling an 11-day layoff. The zone worked a little bit for the visitors, but the home team was able to penetrate, get second-chance points and finally break open the zone.

“They have a lot of slashers on their team, and we wanted to pack things in the middle,” Bosnic said. “We had to keep them in front of us and try to collapse the defense when they did go inside. It worked a little at the beginning of the game, but they were able to break it and got a lot of second chance points.”

Jaisean Blackman garnered an interior bucket for the Greyhounds to start the scoring on the night, but the Cougars countered with 11 straight points. The spurt started with eight points, two treys and a layup, by Pete Gargis.

“We don’t shoot it particular well from the outside, so most teams throw zones at us,” Trombetta said. “We just tell the kids to be assertive and to try to penetrate the zone. We had to attack the driving lanes and watch out for our cutters going to the basket. We just settled into the game.”

Monessen climbed back into the game by scoring six of the next 11 points and was down 15-8 at the end of one despite one basket in the opening eight minutes. Gardner was 6-for-6 at the foul line in the first quarter and was 12-of-15 at the charity stripe for the game.

As a team, the Greyhounds were 14-for-23 at the free-throw line.

The second quarter was a series of runs. Carlynton started the frame with a 13-2 spree with seven points coming from Jones. Monessen responded with a 5-2 spurt, but the home team closed out the first half on a 6-1 rally for a 36-16 lead at halftime.

Milliner registered five points in a Cougars’ 9-2 run to open the third quarter and pushed its lead to 45-18. Carlynton extended its lead to 53-22 after an 8-4 spurt, but Monessen responded late in the third with a 7-0 burst. Gardner collected seven points in the quarter.

Both defenses stepped up in the final eight minutes, and only 19 points were scored. Carlynton was trying to drain the clock, while Monessen was in catch-up mode and had several turnovers in the late stages. The Greyhounds held a 10-9 scoring edge in the fourth.

“We are very active and aggressive on the defensive end,” Trombetta said. “Our guys were at the right place, and we pride ourselves on the defensive end. We force teams into turnovers, and most of the time we capitalize off of those turnovers.”

Monessen drops to 30-17 in the WPIAL playoffs since 2004, and that includes an 8-7 mark in the quarterfinal round. This is just the second trip to the semifinals for Carlynton since 2004.

Tags: Carlynton, Monessen