The Chartiers Valley Colts downed the defending WPIAL champion Moon Tigers, 51-44, Friday night at Upper St. Clair to advance to the semifinals of the WPIAL Class 5A boys basketball tournament.
The Colts were led by Jayden Davis, who tallied 13 points, four rebounds and four assists, and Julian Semplice who tallied eight points, three rebounds and five assists. Julius Best posted 10 points for Chartiers Valley, which moves on to face top seed Montour Tuesday night at a time and site to be determined.
The Tigers, who fell to 18-6, will now play in the consolation bracket at a time and location to be determined.
The Colts held the Tigers to just one 3-pointer in the first three quarters and limited Moon to 18 points in the first half.
“I just tell them to stick true to our principles,” CV coach Corey Dotchin said. “Those are the things that we work on every day in practice and can hang our hat on and for situations in games like this to close out games and win a tight one when you need it.”
The Colts led 23-18 going into the second half. Chartiers Valley clamped down on the Tigers offense, holding them to a six-point third quarter and keeping them to two points in the first six minutes of the third.
With Moon playing tight defense, holding Davis to just four points in the first half, Dotchin wanted to match their defensive efforts.
“I’ve been trying to preach to these guys that this is the playoffs, and everybody scouted a little bit heavier,” Dotchin said. “Everybody knows what the tendencies are…Everyone’s well-coached, so we’ve got to be able to hang on that defensively.”
Moon scored just 24 points going into the fourth quarter but the Tigers exploded in the fourth quarter and scored 20 points. Michael Santicola totaled 15 points and five rebounds, while Amir Turner posted 10 points in the game. Both led the late run.
Their run, however, was a little too late.
“I thought giving up only 51, especially at the end, when we’re pressuring a lot, we got a lot of easy ones up, but for the most part, the defense was good,” Moon coach Gino Palmosina said. “There’s a couple missed assignments, but sometimes there’s a lid on your rim, and that happened to us tonight, unfortunately.”
Moon started the game hot start going up 9-3 at the start, but Chartiers Valley responded with an 8-2 run to go into the second quarter with a 16-11 lead.
Danny Slizik hit two threes and Julian Semplice hit one to spark the Chartiers Valley offense in the first quarter. Chartiers Valley kept the lead from that point on.
Palmosina was proud of the Tigers’ efforts throughout the season.
“We lost four seniors last year,” he said. “We came a long way in the offseason and whatnot, but we’re still in the state playoffs, so we will continue. But hats off to CV. They made the right plays. Made some shots tonight. They deserve to move on.”
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