Our Lady of the Sacred Heart overcame a nine-point halftime deficit to defeat Union, 41-35, Wednesday night at in the second round of the PIAA Class 2A Boys Basketball Tournament at North Allegheny High School.
The Chargers outscored the Scotties 30-15 in the final two quarters to earn a berth in the quarterfinals Saturday against Sewickley Academy, a 56-35 winner over Lakeview Wednesday, at a time and location to be determined.
OLSH improved to 21-7 with its second-half comeback despite some subpar free throw shooting for the game and particularly down the stretch.
OLSH trailed 20-11 at halftime but regrouped to take the lead and owned a 38-32 advantage with 1 minute, 45 seconds remaining in the game.
At that point, Union – which lost twice to the Chargers in the regular season, 78-53 and 70-59 – began to foul, and it looked like that strategy might pay off.
OLSH missed nine of its next 10 free throw attempts, but the Scotties were unable to take advantage, as they could get no closer than 39-35 with 36 seconds remaining.
Union rebounded a missed OLSH free throw attempt but misfired on a shot attempt at the other end, and OLSH’s Jake Johnson was fouled after grabbing the rebound with 11 seconds left in the game.
Johnson converted both free-throw attempts to make it 41-35, and that sealed the win for the Chargers.
Landon Eckert scored 23 points to lead Union, which hit on just nine of 34 3-point attempts on the night. The Scotties shot just two free-attempts and missed both of them.
OLSH converted on just 10 of 24 free-throw attempts on the night, including 7 of 18 in the fourth quarter.
“We had some horrible free-throw shooting,” OLSH coach Mike Rodriguez said after the game. “But our defense was very tough all night.”
Rodriguez said the defense played a key role in OLSH turning the game around in the third quarter.
“And we stopped settling for 3’s and started attacking the basket,” he said.
Tiernan McCullough scored 13 points to pace OLSH while Lucas Grisafi added 11 and Austin Avsec 10.
McCullough was held to just one point in the first half but erupted for 10 third-quarter points as the Chargers outscored the Scotties 19-6.
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