After surgery on a broken left foot in early January, Josh Russell thought his season with the Upper St. Clair basketball team was pretty much done when an astrologer, er, doctor gave him the news.
“The doctor told me if all the stars aligned right, I might be back late in the season,” Russell said.
Well, Saturday afternoon was sunny and there were no stars in the sky around Fox Chapel High School. But inside the gym, something was aligned just right. It was Russell’s shot.
In his first extensive action since the surgery, Russell came off the bench and was a main reason Upper St. Clair won a PIAA playoff game for the first time in 15 years. Russell, a senior guard, made four 3-pointers and tied for team-scoring honors with 13 points as Upper St. Clair came on strong in the second half to defeat Allderdice, 63-45, in a Class 6A first-round game.
“It was just devastating when he got hurt and we thought he was done,” said Upper St. Clair coach Danny Holzer, whose team lifted its record to 21-4. “It’s a feel-good story because he works so hard, he loves the game and he’s one of the kindest kids there is. This was everything for him.”
Russell almost missed most of last season with a torn meniscus in his left knee.
“It’s amazing because I didn’t even expect to be here playing a few weeks ago,” said Russell, who was averaging 10 points before his injury. “To be a contributor to a state playoff win is incredible. I’m very blessed.”
On Feb. 21, Russell practiced a little for the first time since the surgery. He played less than a minute in a WPIAL quarterfinal game the next day against Pine-Richland and played a little in a semifinal loss to Butler. Russell started to feel close to 100 percent in practice during the week leading up to the Allderdice game — and he hit 50 percent of his 3-pointers (4 of 8) against the Dragons (19-8), the No. 2 team from the City League. Russell made three 3-pointers in the first half when the rest of Upper St. Clair’s team shot just 35 percent (7 of 20) and made only 1 of 6 3-pointers. Upper St. Clair led at halftime, 26-20.
“We weren’t in sync the whole first half. It wasn’t for him, we would’ve been in trouble,” Holzer said.
Allderdice trailed by only 37-33 in the third quarter and by only 42-35 after the third. But Upper St. Clair’s trapping defenses — both in the full court and half court — started to take their toll on the Dragons. Allderdice had 13 turnovers in the first half and 18 in the first three quarters. Senior guard Tony Henderson was the only Allderdice player in double figures with 13 points. It was the third time in four games that Allderdice was held to 45 points or fewer.
“Our thing has been the second half all year,” Russell said. “We try to wear teams down and it showed today.”
Junior guard Luke Gensler also had 13 points and senior forward Andrew Casey 11 for Upper St. Clair, which won a PIAA game for the first time since Sean Lee (Dallas Cowboys linebacker) was the team’s star in 2005. Upper St. Clair will play Butler Wednesday in a rematch of the thrilling WPIAL semifinal that Butler won in overtime.
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh.
First Published: March 7, 2020, 11:54 p.m.