Peters Township ends Bethel Park’s playoff hopes

By: Don Rebel
Friday, February 7, 2025 | 11:54 PM

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The mission for the Bethel Park boys basketball team was clear. To qualify for the WPIAL postseason in Section 3-5A, they needed to win at home over Peters Township on the final night of section play and have Thomas Jefferson lose to section champion Baldwin.

The Highlanders helped with a comeback win over TJ, but the Black Hawks could not hold up their end of the bargain, falling at home to the Indians, 54-42.

The loss eliminated Bethel Park and clinched a playoff berth for Thomas Jefferson, as well as bumped Peters Township into a second-place tie in the section with a South Fayette team that the Indians swept this year.

“It was absolutely far from us coming up short,” Bethel Park coach Rico Abbondanza said upon the completion of his first season as head coach. “There were so many achievements and moments for us this season. This team has helped lay the foundation for our program. It is sad that we will not reap the rewards of that when the future of the program begins to thrive.”

While a great deal of focus was on the Bethel Park situation coming into the game, Peters Township had something to play for as well with second place and seeding at stake.

“Those were all the kind of things we talked about,” Peters Township coach Joe Urmann said. “We knew Bethel would come in here with a sense of urgency and they did. I think our guys rose to the occasion. Our message was to take the fight to them and credit to our guys for executing the game plan at a high level.”

Peters Township wasted very little time taking control, building up a double-digit lead in the opening quarter by hitting on five of its first six shots, including a couple of long distance 3-pointers.

“Sean (Thelk) made a couple of deep ones, which he has been known to do,” Urmann said. “A couple of our guys made shots (early), but our guys locked in defensively as well and I give them credit for that.”

Bethel Park finally righted the ship and trimmed the deficit to eight points by the end of the opening quarter thanks to sophomore William Sabotos scoring half of the Black Hawks’ 12 first-quarter points.

In the second quarter, Peters Township junior guard Dylan Donovan started to take control.

Donovan scored nine of his game-high 19 points in the second quarter with good penetration and some short pull-up shots that had the Indians up by nine by halftime.

“Dylan strikes that balance in an awesome way between finding his guys when they were collapsing on him and then also getting his own when he had opportunities,” Urmann said. “It’s hard being the centerpiece of the other team’s scouting report and having the ball in his hands as much as he does. He’s done a really good job handling it this year.”

At one point in a low-scoring third quarter, Bethel Park climbed to within four points at 36-32; however, Peters Township scored the final five points of the quarter to build the lead back up to nine heading into the fourth quarter.

Bethel Park just could not find another urgent gear in the fourth quarter and could not bring any suspense to the final quarter, falling by 12 points.

The Indians claimed victory without starting senior guard Nick McCullough, who was injured in practice on Thursday. Team officials hope he will be back and ready to go for the playoffs.

“I thought Ben Miller was a sensational player filling in for Nick McCullough,” Urmann said. “He guards everywhere and makes a ton of little gritty plays that impact winning on so many levels.”

Junior Michael Bruckner led Bethel Park with 11 points as the Black Hawks’ season ends with a section record of 4-8 and an overall mark of 7-14.

Peters Township sophomore Jake Wetzel scored 12 points on the block as the Indians finish 9-3 in the section and improve to 15-6 overall.

They will close out the regular season Monday with a home game against Mt. Lebanon.

Tags: Bethel Park, Peters Township