Bethel Park’s playoff hopes get brighter with win over Thomas Jefferson

By: Don Rebel
Friday, January 31, 2025 | 11:04 PM

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The power went out on the Bethel Park gym scoreboard several times Friday night.

Fortunately for the Black Hawks, the lights did not go out on their playoff hopes.

Sophomore guard Will Sabatos tipped in a missed shot to break a tie in the final minute as Bethel Park held on to defeat Thomas Jefferson, 65-63.

The win moves the Black Hawks into a fourth-place tie with the Jaguars in Section 3-5A heading into the final week of the regular season.

The BP victory also kept Trinity’s postseason hopes alive.

With the score deadlocked at 62-62, Sabatos tipped in a missed 3-point shot in traffic for the final field goal of the contest.

Each team added a free throw in the final half-minute of play.

With 7 seconds remaining, Thomas Jefferson called timeout to set up a possible winning or tying basket; however, Jaguars junior Nick Trklja drove the left lane and missed a contested layup at the buzzer to seal the win for the host Black Hawks.

“The play was designed for a 3 for (Noah) Kaszer, but our one kid ran the wrong play,” Thomas Jefferson coach Dom DeCicco said. “Second option was Nick getting to the rim. They are kids and they’re going to make mistakes, but we still got a great look at it.”

In a must-win situation, Bethel Park came out flying, pounding the ball inside and getting easy put-ins to lead after the opening quarter, 20-13.

The second quarter was a complete about face.

The Black Hawks started shooting outside and missed shot after shot around the perimeter.

Meanwhile, the Jaguars offense started clicking, and they outscored the Hawks 18-4 in the second quarter to take a 31-24 lead into the locker room.

With their season on the brink, Bethel Park came out in the third quarter and instead of trying to hammer the ball low on the blocks again, kept pumping shots from behind the arc.

This time, the shots were dropping.

In the first half, Bethel Park hit on only one 3-pointer. In the third quarter, the Black Hawks nailed five 3-pointers from the perimeter and one conventional three-point play for 18 of their 20 points.

There were many contributors to BP’s lights-out shooting from long range in the third quarter, including Sabatos, junior Mike Bruckner twice, seniors Alex Dziezgowski and Tanner Pfeuffer and junior Jude Hamel at the buzzer to end the third with Bethel Park trailing, 46-44.

“It was incredibly big,” Bethel Park coach Rico Abbondanza said of his team’s third-quarter shooting. “We worked on the high reps shooting model for the last week or more. Over 200 to 300 3s per player across our entire roster. We started seeing a pattern of guys who can shoot it at a high level of efficiency.”

Bruckner and Dziezgowski added two more 3s in the fourth quarter as Bethel Park took the lead and upped it to five points with just over two minutes remaining.

The Jaguars fought back to tie the game late before the Sabatos tip put the Black Hawks up to stay.

“Will Sabatos is just a high-level athlete who is a focused defender and a timing expert,” Abbondanza said. “He creates so many unpraised plays down in the trenches doing a lot of the high-level gritty plays.”

Thomas Jefferson could have clinched a playoff spot with a victory. Now the Jaguars head into the final week of the regular season needing wins and possibly some help.

“I thought them hitting those 3s in the second half caused us to get out of some of our pressure defense, which let them slow the pace down,” DeCicco said. “Crucial turnovers at really bad times cost us.”

Sophomore Justin Fry was one of four players to hit double-digit scoring for the Jaguars with a game-high 18 points. Trklja had 16 points, Kaszer had 14 and Kane Eggerton added 11 points.

Pfeuffer led the Black Hawks with 16 points, Mike Bruckner had 15 and Sabatos 14 points.

Thomas Jefferson (9-10) and Bethel Park (7-11) are now tied for the fourth and final playoff spot in Section 3-5A with records of 4-6, one game ahead of Trinity (9-8) at 3-7 in the section.

Each team has two section games next week.

TJ visits last-place Ringgold on Tuesday and is home to first-place Baldwin Friday.

BP visits Baldwin on Tuesday and hosts third-place Peters Township on Friday.

Trinity hosts second-place South Fayette on Tuesday and travels to Ringgold on Friday.

If all three teams finished tied, they would all qualify with each holding a 2-2 record in head-to-head tiebreaker.

Bethel Park is 2-0 against Thomas Jefferson, TJ is 2-0 against Trinity and the Hillers are 2-0 against the Black Hawks.

Tags: Bethel Park, Thomas Jefferson