By ADAM BREWER
MVI Sports
The No. 4 Monessen boys’ basketball team played solid defense in the first sixteen minutes of action in their WPIAL Class 1-A Quarterfinal matchup with No. 5 Union.
But the Scotties’ two-headed, scoring monster is hard to stop for a full 32 minutes.
The duo of Lucas Stanley (35) and Braylon Thomas (17) could not be stopped, as Union posted 46 points in the second half en route to a 70-58 victory over Monessen Wednesday night at Peters Township’s AHN Arena.
With the win, the Scotties (14-10) improved to 6-3 in the quarterfinals since 2016 and are looking for their third straight appearance in the championship game. Union will play top seed Imani Christian in the semifinals Saturday with a site and time to be determined.
“We made a couple of big shots in the second half and our offense got on a couple of runs,” Union coach Mark Stanley said. “Monessen is a very good team and we had our work cut out for us tonight. I thought both defenses came to play and controlled things early on.”
To read the rest of the story, please see a copy of Thursday’s Mon Valley Independent, call 724-314-0035 to subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at http://monvalleyindependent.com.