Canon-McMillan had trouble scoring in the first two quarters and coach Rick Bell had a message for his team in the locker room at halftime.
“I told our guys that I really, truly believed that we saw Seneca Valley’s best in the first half,” Bell said. “But I didn’t think they had seen our best yet.”
Whether Canon-McMillan played its best in the second half could be a matter of debate. But the Big Macs certainly were a lot better, and good enough to move on to the WPIAL quarterfinals.
Canon-McMillan came on strong in the second half and defeated Seneca Valley, 57-52, in a WPIAL Class 6A first-round game Saturday afternoon at West Allegheny. Canon-McMillan scored 36 points in the second half.
Canon-McMillan (21-2), the No. 7 seed for the playoffs, will play Woodland Hills Saturday in the quarterfinals. No. 10 seed Seneca Valley, which had entered the playoffs winning six of its past seven, finished the season 14-9.
It was only the third playoff victory in Rick Bell’s 17 years as coach, but the second consecutive year the Big Macs won a first-round game.
“To get one last year maybe people thought it might be kind of an accident,” Bell said. “Now, hopefully it can start to become a trend.”
Canon-McMillan was trending downward in the first half against Seneca Valley. The Big Macs scored only 16 points in the first 14:30 of the game and trailed by nine points. Seneca Valley led at halftime, 25-21.
“We were getting shots, but they just weren’t dropping,” Bell said of the first half. “The other thing is that Seneca Valley is a good team. They were physical and we were having a hard time penetrating. Most of our best looks come off our penetration. We made a couple adjustments at halftime and started getting a little more penetration in the second half, and getting more open shots.”
Canon-McMillan made 7 of 11 shots from the field in the third quarter and outscored Seneca Valley, 19-9. Seneca Valley came back and tied the contest, 40-40, with 6:58 left on a layup by Chris Hart.
But consecutive 3-pointers by Drew Engel, Ethan Beachy and Elliott Waller fueled an 11-4 run that enabled the Big Macs to open up a 51-44 lead with 1:31 left. Seneca Valley cut the deficit to 52-48 with 27.9 seconds left, but could get no closer.
Senior guard Kenyon Lewis made 6 of 7 shots and finished with a team-high 16 points. Engel added 13 and Beachy 12. Engel and Beachy each had three 3-pointers and the Big Macs shot 44 percent (8 of 18) from 3-point range. Seneca Valley made only 25 percent (3 of 12) from 3-point range. Hart led Seneca Valley with 18 points and Davie Ritchie had 17.
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh.
First Published: February 17, 2018, 11:12 p.m.