When Mt.Lebanon looks back on this year’s boys basketball season, the Blue Devils will pinpoint their holiday trips to South Carolina and West Virginia as the turning points. The Blue
Two dozen 3-pointers made the score higher than a typical Mt. Lebanon-Upper St. Clair grind, but the dramatic finish still fit this gritty rivalry’s history.
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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.