Shady Side boys rally past Burrell in matchup of Section 3-3A leaders

By: Jerin Steele
Friday, January 20, 2023 | 10:04 PM

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At halftime, Shady Side Academy coach David Vadnais told his team it was a gift that they were still within striking distance after only scoring 12 points in the first half.

He challenged his group to shoot the ball with confidence.

Standout junior guard Eli Teslovich stepped up, and the rest followed suit.

Teslovich scored 11 of his game-high 23 points in the third quarter, and Shady Side Academy rallied from a double-digit halftime deficit to earn a 50-44 victory at Burrell on Friday night in a clash of two of the top teams in Section 3-3A.

Shady Side learned earlier this week it will be without one of their standouts, Ethan Salvia, because of a knee injury for the remainder of the season, so Vadnais was pleased to see Teslovich take charge.

“He’s our best player, and since Ethan (Salvia’s) injury, it’s even more clear that he’s the guy,” Vadnais said. “If he can’t score early, we can’t score, and that showed in the first half. Guys got tight and second guessed whether they should shoot or not. We just struggled in the first half, and we had makeable shots.”

Burrell (8-8, 4-2) led 23-12 at halftime, and an early 3-pointer by Macky Bennis extended the lead further, but then the Bulldogs (10-4, 6-1) went on a 14-2 run, capped off by a Teslovich dunk.

“I don’t want to say we lost track of him, but he started to hit a few shots, they got momentum and we started making some bad decisions on the offensive end,” Burrell coach Mike Fantuzzo said. “That led them to getting even more momentum, and we just never recovered.”

Malik Buchak hit a pair of 3s off the bench to keep Burrell in front, but Mac Mohn sank a shot from beyond the arc late in the quarter, giving Shady Side a 36-34 lead entering the fourth.

Teslovich continued his scoring binge into the fourth, and Nico Matt hit a crucial 3 late in the game for his only bucket.

It was a strong bounce-back effort for the Bulldogs after they lost a 53-51 buzzer-beater Tuesday at Deer Lakes.

“It’s a great team win,” Vadnais said. “We ride on Eli’s shoulders. We play as well as he plays and try to have other guys step up. Nico hadn’t made a shot all game. You could tell he wasn’t comfortable all game, so as a senior captain to step up and hit that shot was huge. Nate Mallory changed his game in the second half. He missed a bunch of layups in the first half, but he was tentative. Second half he was going at the rim and finishing with both hands at the glass.”

Earlier in the week, Fantuzzo said his team needed to get off to a strong start, and they did.

Bennis hit a pair of 3-pointers and had eight points in the first quarter to get the Bucs off to a 15-8 lead.

Then, it was Tucker Bitar’s turn to hit from outside, nailing a pair of 3s early in the second. What followed was a stretch of physical play and missed shots. Burrell only got one more field goal, a layup by Esau King-Buchak off a nice pass by Ryan Croushore, but was stout defensively.

King-Buchak had a couple blocks, and the Bucs held the Bulldogs to only four points in the quarter.

Bennis had 14 points, and Bitar scored 13.

Shady Side’s Nate Malloy had 11 points, several of which came off offensive rebounds.

Shady Side’s dominance on the glass was a talking point for Fantuzzo after the game.

“We just talked about how they beat us on the offensive boards really badly,” Fantuzzo said. “We gave them too many second-chance opportunities. They had 21 offensive rebounds, and you just can’t recover from that against a good team.”

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer

Tags: Burrell, Shady Side Academy