By TIM BIRNEYValley Sports Report
SAYRE — Pressure defense and the hot hand of senior Zach Senese sparked Sayre to a 14-point halftime lead, and senior Nick Pellicano's third-quarter barrage extended the lead to 30 in the Redskins' 64-45 win over Line Mountain here Wednesday night in the quarterfinals of the District 4, Class AA boys basketball playoffs.
The Redskins played with tremendous energy from the opening tip, and built a 22-12 lead after the opening eight minutes.
"That was our biggest emphasis tonight, these last seven games, we had no energy," he said.
"We finally came together," added Pellicano. "Playing together and making the right decisions was our focus this week."
Sayre coach Paul Blythe also noted his team's energy
"Once we knew where we were at, and who we had, we came into practice really focused," he said.
"I told the guys, 'if you believe you can win, and we go out there and execute, we're hard to stop.'
"That's the best we've played probably since the Waverly game in the Christmas Tournament," added Blythe.
The Redskins forced 25 turnovers with their full-court pressure, and they're 1-2-2 zone, and turned a majority of them into easy points in transition.
"Our pressure definitely bothered them.
"If you're not disciplined on the offensive side, and you can't look middle and go opposite, it's very hard to execute against us," said Blythe.
"We sag a little bit, and play it at a different level than other schools around here play it, and it's helped us out a lot," added Blythe.
Senese knocked down four 3-pointers, and scored all 18 of his points in the first half, while Pellicano scored 12 of his game-high 26 points in the third quarter.
"Zach (Senese) is one of the keys to our game," said Blythe. "If he and Nick (Pellicano) get going, then we're hard to stop because that leaves Ryan (Ressler) and Hudson (Trump) to rebound and do what they do best.
"Zach was unconscious in the first half," added Blythe. "He had 18 points, and was feeling it, so we just wanted to keep getting him the ball."
Senior Ryan Ressler scored on a putback on the offensive glass to give Sayre a 2-0 lead, and the Redskins never trailed.
Senese drained a 3-pointer with 6:17 remaining in the first quarter to make it 5-0.
Line Mountain closed the gap to 7-5, but buckets by Senese, off a feed from senior Hudson Trump, and Pellicano, in transition off an assist from Senese, to make it 11-5 midway through the first quarter.
The Eagles closed the gap to 13-12 with with 2:15 left in the first quarter, but Trump triggered a 9-0 run to end the stanza with a putback on the offensive boards to make it 15-12 with 1:20 remaining.
Ressler, off a drive-and-dish assist from Pellicano made it 17-12 with 56.8 seconds left in the opening stanza, and Senese closed the scoring with five points.
Senese started his mini-run by missing a 3-pointer from the corner, but Pellicano tipped the rebound to Trump, who fed it back to Senese in the corner for a 3-pointer to make it 20-12 with 23 seconds remaining.
Moments later, Senese stoled the in-bounds pass, and scored from point-blank range to extend the lead to 22-12.
Senese made it 10 points in a row, with a steal on the press and a breakaway lay-up, and a 3-pointer from the corner with 5:58 remaining in the first half to make it 27-12.
Line Mountain answered with a 6-2 spurt to trim the deficit to 29-18 midway through the second quarter, but Senese canned a 3-pointer, and Pellicano rebounded his own missed free throw, and scored from point-blank range to give the Redskins a 35-18 lead with 2:20 left in the first half.
The Eagles hit back-to-back 3-pointers to close the gap to 35-24, but was as close as they would be the remainder of the game.
Pellicano scored on a putback on the offensive glass with 6.6 seconds remaining to give the Redskins a 37-24 halftime advantage.
Trump banked home a 15-foot jumper in the opening moments of the third quarter, and Pellicano scored eight points in Sayre's 10-2 run to make it 47-26 just two minutes into the second half.
After a pair of Line Mountain buckets trimmed the deficit to 47-30, junior Karter Green drained a 3-pointer from the corner, then scored on a putback to make it 52-30 with 4:12 remaining in the third quarter.
Sayre kept up the offensive barrage, and Pellicano scored on a fast-break lay-up with 1:11 remaining in the third quarter to cap a 25-8 blitz in the stanza that pushed the Redskin advantage to 62-32 entering the final eight minutes.
Pellicano scored in the opening minute of the fourth quarter to give the Redskins their biggest lead of the game, at 64-32.
With Blythe subbing freely, Line Mountain closed the game with a 13-0 run.
Pellicano led the Redskins with 26 points, four rebounds, four assists, and two steals, and Senese had 18 points, including a 4-for-9 performance from behind the 3-point arc, five rebounds, three assists, and four steals.
Ressler had nine points, seven rebounds, four assists, three blocked shots, and two steals in the win, while Trump added six points, 10 rebounds, Green chipped in with five points, six boards, two assists, and one blocked shot, and sophomore Declan Barry had four rebounds and three assists.
For Sayre's nine seniors, getting a win in their final game on their home floor was "great."
"It feels great," said Pellicano. "It's the best way to possibly go out, and I'm ready for the next round."
"This is all for them — the 15 guys on the bench, the nine seniors," said Blythe. "We had goals ... one of them was to get a home game, and we got it — the first one in 20 years at Sayre I believe."
The Redskins, now 15-8, will square off with top-seeded Northwest Area (20-3), which beat East Juniata, 55-26, Wednesday, Saturday at 2 p.m. at Loyalsock High School.
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IN PHOTO 1: Sayre's Zach Senese. IN TOP PHOTO: Sayre's Nick Pellicano. ... PHOTOS BY TIM BIRNEY.
