Tribune-Review
WPIAL basketball coverage by TribHSSN.
With about 30 seconds until half, Mt. Lebanon decided to hold for the final shot, but Seneca Valley wasn’t in a wait-and-see mood.
Connor Lyczek converted a steal near midcourt into a breakaway layup and teammate Caiden Oros followed with a steal and layup seconds later as Seneca Valley played like a team hungry for its first playoff win in eight years.
“One hundred percent, we were winning a playoff game before we graduated,” Cole Brooks said of him and Lyczek, the team’s two seniors.
Lyczek scored 24 points and Brooks had 18 as the ninth-seeded Raiders turned any lingering frustration into all-out aggression in Tuesday night’s 72-54 first-round victory at No. 8 Mt. Lebanon in the WPIAL Class 6A playoffs. The postseason win was Seneca Valley’s first since 2013.
Metro Creative
After practicing just four times since late November, Mt. Lebanon coach Joe David could only wonder what his basketball team might look like this season.
There were out-of-sync plays in Friday’s opener and moments that felt sluggish, but the third quarter was vintage Blue Devils: 3-pointers, defense. It was all there.
Mt. Lebanon made seven 3-pointers in that quarter alone led by hot-shooting sophomore Mike Pfeuffer and tightened its press defense just after halftime to rally past host Baldwin, 58-51, in Section 2-6A. Pfeuffer scored his team-high 15 points entirely in the second half including three 3s in the third.