Belle Vernon’s Salvino hopes boys basketball team refocuses for PIAAs

By: Jeremy Sellew
Thursday, March 5, 2020 | 10:39 PM

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Belle Vernon coach Joe Salvino has been through this before.

Coming off a WPIAL title game loss isn’t easy, but if there’s one coach who can lead his team on a state title run after a loss in the WPIAL playoffs, it’s Salvino. Both state titles at Monessen came after failing to win a WPIAL title.

Now that’s the mission for the Leopards.

Belle Vernon (19-7) travels to St. Mary’s tonight for its PIAA Class 4A first-round contest against District 9 champion Clearfield (15-8) at 7:30 p.m.

The trip will take nearly three hours one way for the Leopards, nearly twice as long as the game itself. It’s one of the biggest obstacles in the team’s path.

“That’s a big concern of mine. Plus, we don’t have school tomorrow but with senior projects going on, they’ll still be up early and in somewhat of a normal routine,” Salvino said. “But traveling three hours is totally ridiculous. With the six classes, you don’t have the East versus West anymore. It’s ridiculous.”

The Bison are coming off their sixth straight district title, but the WPIAL teams they faced in the first round of the PIAAs are 4-0 against them. They also lost to Obama Academy from the Pittsburgh City League in 2015.

“I looked at most of their scores. They look like they’re happy with low-scoring games,” Salvino said. “They’re hard to get a read on because there are only two 4A schools up there. So they play a lot of teams up or down in class.”

The Bison will show a starting lineup of Matt Pallo at a guard position. Cade Walker will be at small forward with Luke Winters, Karson Rumsky and Andrew Lopez.

Walker and Rumsky, both 6-foot-3, are the focal point of the Bison offense.

“They really look for those two guys offensively,” Salvino said. “They’re going to run a dribble-drive type of offense. If we come out in a zone, they’re fine with being patient.”

Defensively, the Leopards will see a match-up zone from the Bison.

“Sometimes they play man. But I don’t know how they’d match up athletically,” he added. “We’re going to do the same thing we’ve been doing. We’re going to look to push the ball up the floor. We’re not going to change anything.”

The Leopards once again will be led by sophomore point guard Devin Whitlock, who hit 1,000 career points in the WPIAL championship loss to Highlands. His average is up to 20.3 points.

He’ll be joined by Mitch Pohlot (11.5 ppg), Hunter Ruokonen, Jared Hartman and Jake Haney.

Haney will fill the void after senior guard Cam Nusser was dismissed from the team after an off-the-court incident.

Thomas Hepple (7.5 ppg) and Daniel Gordon will be the first players off the bench.

“What’s done is done. We can’t go back and fix anything,” Salvino said of coming off the loss. “We still have a future. If they want to move on, that’s going to be on them.”

The Leopards are averaging 69.1 points. Scoring balance will be the key to their success if they want to advance.

“I thought in the championship game, people that weren’t scoring stopped trying to score,” Salvino said. “Jake and Daniel, I think they were a little hesitant. I thought Jared was a little tentative after he missed a couple shots. Sometimes, you just have to keep shooting.

“We can’t just put it on one person. If you’re open, you shoot it. We can only win if the ball goes in the hole. They want to show they’re a District 7 team that can play, it has to come from them. It’s a hard thing coming off a loss, and the first game is always the hardest. Once you get on a roll in states, you never know what can happen.”

Salvino acknowledged the support the team’s received throughout its WPIAL run and is hoping to see the support follow the team to St. Mary’s.

“I really appreciate the student body’s support and all the fans in the community,” the longtime coach said. “Hopefully we keep it going up there.”

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