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long-term goals.An early season favorite to contend for the Heritage Conference title, Homer-Center intends to play for the league crown in the conference championship game at the KCAC on Feb. 7 before making what it hopes will be a long run in the postseason.“It’s amazing,” Homer-Center junior center Ryan Sardone said. “He’s been a coach in this area for such a long time and it feels really special to be part of the team that got him his 500th win. Now that this milestone is over, we can focus on getting to the KCAC and doing our best to go to playoffs. It’s just a milestone to get past to go to the next.”Meanwhile, Saltsburg (9-7, 4-6) will take a three-game losing skid into Monday night’s trip to reigning Heritage Conference champion Ligonier Valley.Of course, the Trojans will hope to carry much of their most recent stretch forward while forgetting the past.Saltsburg completed its rally with a nine-point run in the final three minutes, bookended by a Josh Gibbons 3-pointer and a tying layup, that erased a 61-52 deficit and knotted the score for the first time since the opening tip.But the Trojans never finished the comeback to claim their first lead as Homer-Center senior forward Blake Henry knocked down 1 of 2 foul shots forthe game-winner with 1:01remaining.And after Homer-Center regained possession on a jump ball when Saltsburg’s John Calandrella was tripped up inside the Wildcats’ arc, senior forward Jaden Evanick made up for two missed foul shots on the previous possession with 1 of 2 in the closing moments to forge the final score.Stitt called timeout with 1.3 seconds left after Saltsburg hauled in the rebound, but his team couldn’t get off a final shot attempt as the Troianswas proud of the fight his team exhibited, and it came from a simple halftime message: Cut loose. And after switching to a trap defense, the Trojans smothered the Wildcats while forcing several takeaways on long passes and setting up quick transitions.“1 told the guys at half-time, ‘We can do one of two things,”’ Stitt said. “‘We can just sit in here and pout and go out, go out there and lose by another 20 points, 30 or 40 or whatnot. Or we can just go out there and have fun. We don’t have to run a play in the second half. Just play playground basketball. Be confident. If you’re open, shoot the ball, and just get after it.’ And to the kids’ testament, they answered. They didn’t give up, and as a coach, that’s all I can ask for. And I’m hoping that second half, even though we lost, can bring us confidence heading to the district playoffs.”After an all-too-familiar run of missed opportunities from the onset — Saltsburg shot 4-for-19 from the field in the first half while falling into a 36-15 deficit and allowed the Wildcats to open the second half with a 10-4 run — the Trojans all but flipped the script.“That first half, that’s how we’ve been playing for the last month,” Stitt said. “We’ve been struggling. We just have lacked confidence and have not made shots.”Saltsburg cut the deficit to 15, 48-34 with a 15-2 run. And after Homer-Center restored its lead to 20, 56-36 entering the fourth quarter, the Trojans rediscovered their shot with 13 straight points, capped by back-to-back Calandrella 3-pointers, to open the final period and narrow the gap to seven, 56-49.Homer-Center knocked down 5 of 6 free throws while in the foul bonus, and Saltsburg junior Brady Yard capped a three-point play to push the score to 61-52.Yard and Evanick were at the center of a play that appeared to help shift mo-Yard got tangled up with Evanick as Homer-Center set up a play in transition and took him to the ground before Evanick retaliated with a shove.Yard was charged with a foul, while Evanick was given an intentional foul, and Saltsburg hit 1 of 2 foul shots before regaining possession on a traveling call.“We have to understand when things happen like that, we have to walk away from it,” Rado said, “because if you’re thrown out, you don’t play in the next game. So it was an emotional game, a physical game. It was a league game, and they know the path to the KCAC, a lot of it relies on this game.”Homer-Center outscored Saltsburg 16-9 in the first quarter and 20-6 in the second while shooting 13-for-24 from the field in the opening half, but the Wildcats didn’t score a singlefirst three periods and 7-for-13 in the fourth.But with the game on the line, Homer-Center held it together long enough to secure Rado’s milestone win.“We probably played our best first half of the year, and then Saltsburg really upped their game in the second half to come back,” Rado said. “They hit a lot of 3s and hat’s off to them, and Coach Stitt did a good job of getting them back and putting them in position to win the game.”Evanick led Homer-Cen-ter with 22 points, including 11 in the first quarter and 10 in the third. Sardone tacked on 16 points, senior guard Jon Gearhart had 11 points and Henry scored eight.For Saltsburg, Gibbons led the way with 13 points. 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Newspaper Details
Indiana Gazette
Indiana, Pennsylvania, US
Sat, Jan 18, 2020
Page 13
Full Page
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Anonymous
PA, USA 13 Mar 2022
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