Top-seeded Chartiers Valley survived a missed last-second 3-point attempt by Moon Area Tuesday night and came away with a 39-37 decision over the Tigers in the semifinals of the WPIAL Class 5A boys basketball tournament at Peters Township High School.
The fourth-seeded Tigers, who earlier this season handed the Colts their only loss during section play, took a four-point lead, 29-25, into the final eight minutes but managed just a pair of baskets and missed four of eight free-throw attempts in the quarter.
Chartiers Valley, which will try to defend its title at 7 p.m. Saturday against Thomas Jefferson at the Petersen Events Center, was more efficient from the stripe, hitting on eight of 10 attempts in the fourth quarter.
Still, the Tigers were in position to win or tie the game with one last possession, but a last-second contested 3-point shot would not fall.
Moon coach Gino Palmosina said afterward his team puts plenty of emphasis on free throw shooting, but in his mind, that’s not what cost his team the game.
“You can say free throws or you can say fouls,” he said. “But at the end of the day, the coach has to do a better job of putting his players in better positions to score the ball – and I didn’t do a good job of that tonight.”
Moon, now 20-4 – with half of those losses coming to Chartiers Valley by a combined five points – will take on Hampton at 7 p.m. Thursday for third place at a location to be announced later. The outcome of that game will determine seeding for the PIAA Tournament, which gets underway March 6.
Palmosina acknowledged that it will be a challenge to come back from a tough loss.
“But that’s life,” he said. “Things go south in life. It’s about how you respond when things go wrong. We’ll find out a lot about our team in the next few weeks.
“We have a lot of basketball ahead of us.”
Moon trailed 12-4 after the first quarter but outscored Chartiers Valley 25-13 in the middle two quarters, holding the Colts to seven points in the second quarter and six in the third.
That enabled the Tigers to take a 29-25 lead heading into the final quarter, but they could not hold on.
Chartiers Valley’s Julian Semplice worked inside for a basket and two free throws, and Luca Federico – who led all scorers with 13 points – found his way inside for a layup that vaulted the Colts in front, 31-30, 6 minutes, 10 seconds to play, and the two teams were never separated by more than three points the rest of the way.
Chartiers Valley led 38-35 with 50.4 seconds to play, but Moon’s Brody Bauman’s scored on a twisting layup cut it to one, 38-37, with 33 seconds left.
The Colts maintained that lead with 11.6 seconds to play when Semplice was fouled. He missed the first but made the second to extend his team’s lead to 39-37, and that gave Moon one final shot to tie or win the game. But Brody Bauman’s last-second, contested 3-point attempt from well beyond the arc failed to drop, and Chartiers Valley claimed its 22nd win in 24 games.
Palmosina had no qualms with Brody Bauman’s final attempt.
“Brody’s a shooter – he got the ball and let one loose,” he said. “I thought we might have started our attack a little too late in the clock. But we had to live with it.
“When you don’t execute at the end of a game when you’re coaching high school basketball, it’s on the coach.”
It was a 3-point shot by Moon’s Jackson Bauman with 5.8 seconds to play that was the difference in the Tigers’ 52-49 win over Chartiers Valley on Jan. 23.
The Colts got off to a fast start Tuesday night, scoring 10 of the game’s first 12 points, and ultimately established a 12-4 lead after one quarter. Logan Helfrick converted a pair of 3-pointers for Chartiers Valley.
Moon found its footing and used a 13-5 run to tie the score 17-17 with a little less than three minutes to play in the second quarter. But Danny Slizik found his way down the lane with less than 20 seconds remaining in the first and his driving layup gave the Colts a 19-17 halftime lead.
Caleb Waclawski was a factor in the second quarter for Moon, posting inside for a pair of baskets and a free throw for five points. AJ Buford also converted a conventional three-point play and added five points in the quarter.
Moon was held scoreless for the first half of the third quarter but 3-pointers from Caden Kopay, Brody Bauman and Jackson Bauman during a 2½ -minute stretch gave Moon a 26-25 lead, and Jackson Bauman converted all three free throws after he was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 2.2 seconds left in the quarter. That put Moon top 29-25 heading into the final eight minutes.
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