Leechburg rolls past St. Joseph behind raucous home crowd

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, January 15, 2019 | 11:18 PM

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In the days leading up to Tuesday’s Section 3-A showdown with St. Joseph, Leechburg coach Corey Smith implored the community to come out and support the Blue Devils.

The community responded and packed the home side of Lewis Hicks Gym with Thunderstix in hands.

And the community liked what it saw as Leechburg held the Spartans scoreless for 11 minutes, 8 seconds of the first half and rolled to a 59-46 victory.

The victory puts the schools in a tie for first place with 5-1 records at the section’s halfway point.

Junior Connor McDermott fired in five 3-point baskets and finished with 18 points, and sophomore Dylan Cook added 17.

“That was a knockout punch, I think,” Smith said of his team’s defensive stretch. “We held them to nine points in the first half. We came out and punched them in the mouth with a triangle-and-two to take Grant (Bendis) and Sully (Andrew Sullivan) out of the game and have everyone force up shots.”

Leechburg is 9-5 overall, and St. Joseph is 11-3. The Spartans lead the all-time series, 45-34.

St. Joseph coach Kelly Robinson kept reaching into his bag of strategic ideas, to no avail.

“We tried everything,” Robinson said. “I feel for the kids. This is what our team looks like when we’re struggling offensively. No one hit shots. We had our looks. We had the shots we wanted, but nothing fell.”

The Spartans had a 5-2 lead three minutes into the game only to see the Blue Devils stage a 23-0 run.

Robinson used three timeouts during the Leechburg surge, but the struggles continued.

When McDermott nailed a 3-pointer with 5:11 left in the third period, Leechburg had its largest lead at 34-13.

St. Joseph, however, took advantage of 16 Leechburg turnovers in the second half and worked its way back a bit.

Two quick baskets by Sullivan to open the fourth period cut the Blue Devils advantage to 40-28. But the Spartans could manage only one Bendis free throw in their next seven possessions to cut their deficit to 11.

Said Robinson: “Defensively, we were getting stops and turnovers at the right time, but we came down five times and didn’t score. That takes the air out of your team. It was just a bad day.”

Cook and Nico Venanzio canned two foul shots each, and Leechburg reasserted control.

Late in the game, Leechburg’s John Miskinis crashed into the wall near the Leechburg basket as he was fouled while scoring. McDermott came in to make his free throw as Miskinis nursed an elbow injury, but he later returned to the floor.

“We got lackadaisical when we were comfortable with that lead,” Smith said. “When you lead, you’ve got to stay hungry.”

Blumer pulled down 11 rebounds, and Miskinis dished out nine assists.

Added Smith: “Over the weekend, I asked the students to recruit everyone one to come out. This is the first time the community came out like this, and the place was alive. I want to thank the school and hope we get this kind out atmosphere every game.”

Bendis had 19 points, 10 rebounds and five steals before fouling out with 1:22 to go.

George Guido is a freelance writer.

Tags: Leechburg, St. Joseph