A year after West Allegheny finished 1-21, the Indians are headed to the WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinals.
The Indians withstood 16 points from Bryce Laskey in the fourth quarter for a 63-54 win against Laurel Highlands in the first round of the playoffs Tuesday at Peters Township High School.
Laskey led all scorers with 32 points.
“You just try to contain him,” first-year West Allegheny coach Andrew Tsangaris said. “He’s a good player, but with that being said, we’ve seen guys in the section that are of his caliber that can shoot it. So going against guys from other teams, maybe a kid at Mars that’s pretty good, seeing him twice, I think definitely prepared us.”
West Allegheny will face Highlands in the quarterfinals Friday.
The Indians found a rhythm feeding senior Isaiah Crowe inside and had a 33-29 lead at halftime. Crowe led West Allegheny with 20 points, followed by Jackson Faulk with 16 points.
Laskey opened up the second half with a layup, but junior guard Dre Baldwin answered with a layup with 6:35 to play to maintain a lead.
Baldwin made another layup to go up, 39-33, and Faulk cushioned the lead at 41-33. Later, a free throw by Crowe put West Allegheny up, 46-36, before Iliesa Salauca, who finished with 10 points, made a layup to cut it to 46-38 as the third quarter expired.
The Indians held the Mustangs to nine points in the third quarter, which was the turning point, Tsangaris said.
“We are who we are, and we kind of feed off of our defense.... it’s definitely our defense that has helped us offensively,” Tsangaris said.
Laskey banked in a jump shot to bring Laurel Highlands within six, but Crowe later made a layup for a 51-40 lead with 5:59 left in the fourth quarter.
Baldwin snuck in a layup and West Allegheny, with a 13-point lead, began to slow down its pace of play. Votour made a free throw to make it 54-40 with less than three minutes to play, but a 3-pointer, steal and layup by Laskey kept Laurel Highlands alive at 1:40.
Laskey later hit a 3-pointer to cut Laurel Highlands’ deficit to 57-50 with 46 seconds to play, but a free throw but Votour and two free throws by Crowe made it 60-50. Laskey made another 3 before Crowe made two more free throws and put the game out of reach.
In his first year at the helm, Tsangaris couldn’t speak to the progress made from last year to this one, but said the work ethic and experience level of the team has made a difference.
“Last year, I don’t really know anything about, outside of what was in the paper, but what I do know is I’ve got a great bunch of guys from seniors all the way down to freshman that come and play hard every day,” Tsangaris said. “You look at guys that were in WPIAL championship football games, guys that were in WPIAL championship soccer games, that stuff carries over, just being in that moment.”
Sarah K. Spencer: sspencer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @sarah_k_spennce.
First Published: February 21, 2018, 3:37 a.m.