Fisher’s Files: Defense, home-court advantage go a long way for Sewickley Academy

By: Ray Fisher
Sunday, March 30, 2025 | 11:01 AM

While the Sewickley Academy boys basketball team was 3-0 in three postseason games held at Peters Township, the Panthers also won 10 of 11 games on their home floor in 2024-25.

And most of the victories at Win Palmer Court proved to be lopsided decisions.

The only loss at home suffered by the Panthers came on Feb. 1 in a low-scoring 26-25 setback to Class A playoff qualifier Nazareth Prep.

Sewickley defeated visiting Bentworth, 59-26, in the first round of the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs, and visiting Neshannock, 51-37, in the third-place consolation round.

The Panthers also stormed past Windber, 64-36, at home in the first round of the PIAA tournament.

“I think all these playoff games have been an unbelievable experience for our young guys,” Sewickley coach Mike Iuzzolino said. “You can’t teach experience of playoff basketball. You have to go through it.

“My basic coaching philosophy revolves around being ‘everyday’ guys. Bring the juice every day. Get better every day. Control what you can control and don’t waste your time, energy or effort on things you can’t. The one thing I will say about all of our guys is that they have done an incredible job of representing Sewickley Academy in such a positive way. I tell them all the time life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond.”

After starting out the year with a 42-40 loss to, yes, Nazareth Prep, Sewickley won nine in a row and 15 of its next 16 to go to 15-2 overall.

The Panthers beat Chartiers-Houston, 48-39, in the WPIAL second round before knocking off Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, 42-35, and Greensburg Central Catholic, 52-48, in the PIAA quarterfinals and semifinals.

Following Sewickley’s rousing come-from-behind win against GCC that sent the team on its trip to Hershey for the state finals, the Panthers’ offensive average was a modest 56.4 ppg.

Iuzzolino offered what could be considered a contender for his quote of the year when he said via email, “Defense wins games; offense just determines by how much.”

Adhering to the first-year coach’s delivery, the Panthers held a 37.9 ppg defensive average — the best mark in the WPIAL and slightly better than Aliquippa’s 38.7 average.

“Coach Iuzzolino made it very clear that he believes in strong but disciplined defense,” said Nolan Donnelly, a 6-foot-2 senior forward. “Since then, we have worked to perfect our defense, so yes we take a lot pride in our defense. We talk about our opponent’s average score a lot, and I believe it is one of the best in the state.

“However, we still spend a lot of practice time tweaking and perfecting our principles.”

Caiden Battles is one of three juniors in the starting lineup for the Panthers. Battles is a 5-8 point guard.

“The strength of this year’s team would definitely be our defense,” Battles said. “Coach has always been hard on us about defense since summer when we first began working together. We take extra pride in playing good defense because I feel that is our team’s identity.

“Many teams want to score as many points as possible, but ultimately defense wins games. Some games we might not be getting all our shots to fall, but the team knows that our defense can make up for that. We have been very successful with our defensive principals all year and that’s got us to where we are now.”

Tags: Sewickley Academy