Warriors get back on track by holding off West Mifflin

EF trailed by six points with four minutes to go before rallying to beat the Titans.

As the WPIAL basketball calendar inches closer to postseason play, the margin between wins and losses shrink as the little details become as important as ever.

In Friday’s exciting Section 3-4A clash between Elizabeth Forward and West Mifflin, it was the Warriors (15-4, 8-2) that made plays when they needed them to pick up a narrow 58-54 win.

“This is very big for us,” EF coach Nolan Larry said. “Coming off of kind of a devastating (71-43) beatdown against Belle Vernon, I talked about it with the guys, and we didn’t want to have a hangover and let that carry into two games. But that’s hard. I don’t think we necessarily played our best or executed our best, but we played hard with grit, determination, resolve; whatever word you want to use.”

Larry’s squad trailed 5044 with four minutes remaining in the game but outscored the home Titans (6-13, 5-5) 14-4 the rest of the way to get the job done.

On the other side of that, West Mifflin’s resurgence hit a road bump. After a 90-60 loss at Belle Vernon on Jan 13., the Titans had won three straight in section play to catapult into a playoff position.

With chances to maintain its lead throughout the game, coach Hal Minford was frustrated with the result.

“We have not been satisfied lately, even with our wins,” he said. “We have to grow from this. We left a lot of points out there in the first half. We missed five layups early in the second half, so it could have been a 10-point game. We just have to continue to improve. I mean, from where we were at the beginning of the season to where we are now, there’s been significant growth. But we play to win, and we didn’t.”

A free throw from Elizabeth Forward’s Cy Herchelroath opened the fourth quarter scoring and also tied the teams up at 39-39 before the Titans pulled ahead with a 6-0 run.

Julian Dewberry had the first two and Daven Reynolds, who led WM with 16 points, had four of them to give his squad a 45-39 edge.

But the Warriors almost matched that flurry with a layup from James Gile and a triple from Daniel Spence. Spence and Gile led Elizabeth Forward with 18 and 17 points, respectively, while Tyler Basic also got into double-digits with 14.

West Mifflin’s Isaiah Morrison added the next points with a layup through contact that made him and the crowd erupt before his made free throw. Reynolds was next with another layup, bringing the 50-44 advantage with just over four minutes left.

The clock bled under four when Basic nailed his triple with 3:54 left, but the magnitude of his shot was felt as it cut the EF deficit in half at 50-47.

The Warriors then added four more points to take a lead out of Larry’s timeout. Spence buried two free throws and Herchelroath, who scored seven points, gave the victors another lead with 3:14 left to play.

Morrison took that advantage back after a steal and layup as Gile’s shoe fell off his foot as he slipped, putting West Mifflin ahead 52-51 with 2:25 remaining.

Then, Basic, who has one of the purest shots from deep range in the WPIAL, came up big in another important spot. Trailing by one with 1:49 to play, he drilled another three-pointer that put the Warriors up two. Still, the Titans battled back with a steal from Reynolds and a tying-layup.

With the score at 54-54, EF put the ball in the hands of Herchelroath, who promptly got to the free-throw line.

He made the first and missed the second, which would typically be a bad thing for the Warriors, but it actually ended up being the end of the game for the Titans.

The missed free throw was snatched down by Justin Flournoy, who posted his only two points of the game by going straight up and finishing through contact. Now, the score sat at 57-54, and Flournoy was given the chance to make it a fourpoint game. But he missed, and again, it was an EF player that came down with the rebound as Herchelroath grabbed it with 45.8 remaining. Spence was eventually sent to the freethrow line with 23.8 left and split a pair, ending the scoring at 58-54.

“We had a couple of breakdowns at the end,” Minford said. “The three-pointer that Basic hit – big time shot – and then the offensive rebounds off the free throws was just an absolute killer. That’s the first time that’s happened this year, and it can’t happen again. It won’t. We’ll get back to work and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Both teams only have two more games in the section, as Elizabeth Forward will take on Yough and Derry Area next week and West Mifflin will play at East Allegheny and against Greensburg Salem. EF’s matchup at Derry, who was defeated by West Mifflin during its three-game winning streak, could decide the second-seed in Section 3-4A next Friday.

“One thing we’ve prided ourselves on this year is that we haven’t lost two games in a row,” Larry said. “When we lose a game, we want to make sure that we respond the right way. Although the performance was a bit sloppy tonight, we had the resiliency to come out on top. This is a tough place to play and it was an enjoyable game. The environment is hostile. This was a playoff atmosphere, guys were talking stuff back and forth, and afterwards it was nice that everybody shook hands and were respectful of each other.”

“I love coaching them,” Minford said. “They’re like sponges. They listen, they learn and they grow. We’ve gotten better this year, but we have to win games like these. Give credit to Elizabeth Forward, because they’re a good team, but we’re not satisfied with dropping games like these and just making the playoffs. We want to go in there and win games.”