Latrobe boys basketball team earns win over Mt. Pleasant in season-opening tournament

By: Dave Mackall
Friday, November 29, 2024 | 11:09 PM

Latrobe christened its new gymnasium floor Friday night with first-round games of the Greater Latrobe Tipoff Classic, the first time in years that the school district has held the season-opening boys basketball event.

The high school gym in September received an unplanned update to the floor after the wood surface was damaged by water during the summer.

“We’re grateful to be able to return this tournament to the school and play on a brand-new court. We’re really pleased with the playing surface,” Latrobe coach Brad Wetzel said after the Wildcats’ season-opening 66-25 victory over Mt. Pleasant, sending Latrobe into the championship game at 4 p.m. Saturday against PIAA District 6 opponent Richland.

Max Butler scored 20 points, and Kyle McNeil added 12 for Class 5A Latrobe (1-0), which overwhelmed Class 3A Mt. Pleasant (0-1) in the first half to take a 52-18 lead and trigger a second-half running clock.

Richland, a Class 3A school, defeated Class 2A Windber, 51-48, in the first game to place District 5 member Windber in the consolation game against Mt. Pleasant at 2 p.m. Saturday.

“You have to have a short-term memory and come back and be ready to play,” Mt. Pleasant coach Annie Malkowiak said.

Latrobe officials said in September that the high school playing surface was damaged in late June when water overflowed from the school’s nearby swimming pool and ran under connecting doors and into the gym.

District Superintendent Mike Porembka, at the time, attributed the incident to human error during pool maintenance.

Once the damage was discovered, district staff stopped the flow, but water also damaged locker rooms and team rooms used for the basketball and wrestling programs. Those areas also have been repaired.

While the tournament was the first in quite a while for Latrobe, Wetzel couldn’t recall the last time the school held a similar multi-team, season-opening event. He said, however, that he remembered his teams previously having competed in them during his 23 years as coach of the Wildcats.

“It’s nice to get the season started,” he said. “(Saturday) will be a stiffer challenge. Richland has a big team. Hey, one step at a time.”

Wetzel said he didn’t know what to expect from Mt. Pleasant in the teams’ first game, but it turned out Latrobe faced little resistance from the smaller and inexperienced Vikings, who return just one starter from last year’s Class 3A playoff qualifier.

“With the situation they are in, we just tried to respect them and play as hard as we could,” he said. “They just don’t have the senior leadership they had last year.”

Malkowiak said she and her staff have been attempting to change the basketball culture at Mt. Pleasant to a winning atmosphere. Last season, the Vikings were 8-13 overall but finished the year with a 7-5 record in Section 4-3A.

“This game will be good for them two months from now,” she said. “I know that, my coaches know that but I’m not so sure these players know that, because mentally they’re so young.”

Senior forward Aiden Johnson is the team’s lone returning varsity player.

“Last year, our first five or six games were against mostly 5A schools, and it paid off because it prepared them for our section game,” Malkowiak said. “The difference is, I have one returning player with any varsity experience, and it showed. Basketball-wise, Mt. Pleasant doesn’t know how to win — yet — and we’re trying to change the mentality.”

Tags: Latrobe, Mt. Pleasant