Monessen Cold, BF’s Jeter Hot in Second Half as Tigers Take Boys AA Title

By: Bruce Markey
Saturday, March 3, 2012 | 7:24 PM

Something happened to Monessen in route to a second straight WPIAL Boys AA championship. They forgot how to put the basketball into that pesky cylinder thing. OK, perhaps the Beaver Falls defense had something to do with the wall the Greyhounds hit on offense in the second half as the Tigers cruised to a 46-27 victory Saturday afternoon at the A.J. Palumbo Center at Duquesne University.

After a Chavas Rawlins bucket in the first minute for Monessen tied the game at 20-20, Beaver Falls went on a 14-0 run that put them in control for good. The Tigers outscored the defending champion Greyhounds 26-9 in the second half to secure their eighth WPIAL basketball championship.

A back-and-forth first quarter ended with Beaver Falls leading 10-9 as the tone was set early with a mix of great defense and shaky shooting.

The Tigers opened up a 20-14 lead late in the first half before the Greyhounds Jaisen Irwin hit back-to-back field goals to close the gap to 20-18 at halftime.

Then the dreaded second half started for Monessen and all things went south. Not only did the Greyhounds score only six points, but after a quiet first half, stand out senior Sheldon Jeter came to life for Beaver Falls. After being held to only four points in the first half, Jeter tallied 8 of his teams 14 third quarter points.

The third quarter pattern continued in the fourth as Jeter scored 7 of the Tigers 12 points while the Greyhounds limped to the finish line with only three points, and they came on a Tyler Young 3-pointer late for the final points of the game.

Jeter led all scorers in the game with 19 points, which included an impressive 10 of 10 from the charity stripe.  Jeter also dominated the glass, leading the way with 12 rebounds.
No other players from either team reached double digit scoring as the senior Irwin led Monessen off the bench with 9 points.

The Tigers district title gives them eight (1970, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1994, 2005) and their first in seven years when another Jeter, Shledon’s cousin Lance led the Tigers to a thrilling title game victory over Aliquippa.

Beaver Falls improves to 24-2 and will now face the third place team from District 10 next Saturday in the First Round of the PIAA postseason. The title reign for senior oriented Monessen ends with a mark of 23-3. On Saturday, The Greyhounds open up the state playoffs against the third place team from District 6.
Score By Quarters:
Beaver Falls : 10 – 10 – 14 – 12 = 46
Monessen : 9 – 9 – 6 – 3 = 27