The Shadow
PENN LAIRD – Alleghany fought until the end, but came up short Monday evening as the No. 7 seeded Cougars fell 68-57 to the No. 2 seed Spotswood in quarterfinals of the Class 3, Region C boys basketball tournament.
Entering the tournament Spotswood had won 15 straight games and had not been tested for nearly a month.
Alleghany, who closed out their season losing 3-of-4, gave it all they could, while also taking control early on and built a first half lead to as high as seven points.
In the end, it was too much from 1-2 combo punch from Spotswood seniors Cam Pacheco and Tyler Sprague who combined to score 54 of the teams 68 points, including 39 of the teams 45 points in the second half.
Spotswood struggled with stopping Hayslett on defense. Hayslett, who scored a team-high 22 points for Alleghany was a nightmare for the Blazers in the first half with 13 points, including eight in the first quarter alone with all six buckets coming in the paint.
In the beginning, it didn’t feel like Alleghany was the No. 7 seed. The much bigger Cougars size and balance weighed on Spotswood early on.
After dropping a few games to close out the regular season the Cougars could not have asked for a better start as they controlled the first half and used their size to force tough shot attempts by the Blazers who were held to only 25 first half points, their lowest amount in nearly two months,
Just as it seemed like Alleghany was going to go into halftime with a near double digit lead, Spotswood closed out the final few minutes of the half on a 7-2 scoring to cut the halftime deficit to only two points.
That momentum shift was all that was needed for the Valley District champion Blazers as they would jump out of the second half by going on a 17-4 scoring run during the first four minutes to take their then largest lead of the game at 42-31.
Pacheco and Sprague who were held to 15 points combined in the first half led the way with the scoring run as they connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to open the lead up to double digits.
As Spotswood began to take control of the game, costly turnovers began to pile up for Alleghany. The Cougars finished with 16 turnovers in the loss, with six of them coming in the crucial third quarter where AHS was outscored 23-13 and fell behind eight points to end the quarter.
The Blazers would keep pouring it on in the fourth quarter as their lead grew to 13 points. With just under five minutes left Pacheco completed an old-school 3-point play on an off-balance layup while drawing the foul. SHS went ahead 57-44.
Down, but not out. Spotswood began to turn the ball over, which opened the door for Alleghany to get a quick few shots to drop by senior Chase DePriest.
The Blazers would then be hit with a dead-ball technical foul and before you knew it the Cougars were back in the game down only four points following a 9-0 scoring run.
The momentum would only last for so long. Needing a basket, Spotswood’s Sprague was found open and delivered the game’s biggest shot as he knocked down his third 3-pointer to put the Blazers back up seven points.
It would be a lead that Spotswood would hold onto the rest of the way as they made 9-of-10 free throw attempts in the final two minutes of the game to seal the win.
Alleghany’s leading scorer DePriest, finished with 14 in the loss to Spotswood and also brought down nine rebounds.
Pacheco scored a game-high 30 points for Spotswood, while Sprague scored 24.
The Cougars were held to only eight trips to the free throw line and made only 50% of their attempts, while the Blazers made 14-of-17.
NOTE: Spotswood (23-3) went on to defeat No. 3 Staunton in the regional semifinals and defeated No. 1 Western Albemarle to win the regional championship.
Alleghany 14 13 13 17 – 57
Spotswood 12 13 23 20 – 68
Alleghany (16-9) – Hayslett 10 2-3 22, DePriest 6 0-1 14, El. Entsminger 5 0-0 11, Hale 2 1-2 5, Ea. Entsminger 1 1-2 3, Phillips 1 0-0 2, Elliott 0 0-0 0, Raether 0 0-0 0. Totals 25 4-8 68.
Spotswood (21-3) – Pacheco 9 10-11 30, Sprague 8 3-4 24, Langridge 4 1-2 9, Tesfay 2 0-0 4, Parlee 1 0-0 2, Baker 0 0-0 0, Fisher 0 0-0 0, Price 0 0-0 0. Total 24 14-17 68.
3-Pointers – Alleghany 3 (DePriest 2, El. Entsminger). Spotswood 5 (Sprague 3, Pacheco 2).
