A New Season

As I write this blog entry, I write in mourning. Mourning over a basketball season with so much unfulfilled promise. After hearing the news of GS's 42-25 loss to Montour, I could feel the pain of all of the senior players.I experienced this same pain after being on the field for our football teams first round exit from the WPIAL playoffs after a loss to New Castle. Fortunately for my followers, my career is not over. For the spring sports season, I plan on providing better coverage that will hopefully include all sports. If you are a member of the track and field team, girls' lacrosse team, baseball team, or any other spring sports team, come to this blog for coverage of your respective team.

This Is Not Sparta

After a grueling regular season that has left the GS boys' basketball team with a 7 seed in the WPIAL playoffs, tonight the real action begins. The Lions will face Montour High School at 8 P.M tonight at Plum High School. GS will face a young, but talented and athletic Montour team tonight that finished 13-7 and 7-5 in section 4-AAA. The Spartans are currently on a 5 game winning streak and appear to have gained momentum at the correct time. Montour also fields a lineup that has a significant size advantage over the guard-oriented Lions. Lead by 6'5 Sophomore center Dylan Buechel, Montour has found success when they have been able to dominate their opponents up front. One clear advantage that GS has is their defense. When playing against the top defenses in the WPIAL, Montour has struggled mightily. In their second game against WPIAL leading Chartiers Valley, Montour was shut down offensively, scoring only 38 points in a 68-38 loss. If GS hopes to win the game tonight, Raevann Mottley must use his athleticism to contain Buechel in the post. Along with this, Jake Matthews will need to prevent freshman guard Devin Wilson from dominating in the open court. If all of these things happen, GS will prevail. I predict a 68-58 victory for the Lions, setting up a rematch of the PIAA Semifinals last year against Hampton on Friday night.

Losing A Heartbreaker

After numberous reschedulings and foot upon foot of snow, the Greensburg Salem varsity basketball game against Laurel Highlands finally occurred Wednesday evening. Unfortunately, the lack of practice during the second winter break of 2010 showed.

Despite a 16 point scoring effort by Senior Jake Matthews, the remainder of the team struggled mightily shooting falling 49-44 to LH. Lead by the 15 points of Ethan Mildren, LH stifled GS in rebounding. After a low scoring first quarter, GS began to fall behind in the second as LH picked up their shooting effort. Despite having a 28-18 lead at the half, GS, lead by Matthews, staged a comeback and brought the score to 35-30 after three quarters. Unfortunately, GS could not reclaim the lead due to more poor shooting. Fortunately for GS, the game did not determine their playoff seeding. On Tuesday night, the team recieved a 7 seed and will play tenth seeded Montour next Tuesday at a location that has yet to be determined.

Recent News

The brutal winter of 2010 continues to take a toll on the high school basketball season. After another round of snow Tuesday night, school was canceled Wednesday along with the section match up between GS and Laurel Highlands. Due to the fact that the WPIAL is announcing playoff pairings Wednesday night, Wednesday was the last chance for the game. It appears as though the section will be split with LH taking the higher seed due to their win in the game earlier this season. It is a tough pill to swallow for GS, however, they appear to be a better team than LH at this point and time and hopefully they will prove this in the playoffs. In other news, the GS school board discussed complaints by parents and players against girls' soccer coach, Jim Morrison. Finally, girls' basketball coach Jen Yuvan and her entire staff announced their resignation last night at the meeting.

Notes 'n 'At

The lack of school this week has caused me to miss writing. Shocking, I know. But I do have a few updates for all of you. If you have not yet heard, the game against Laurel Highlands has been rescheduled for 7:30 on Monday. Since this is the most important game by far, I encourage my faithful followers to attend. Hopefully we can have a raucous student section and show the Mustangs how the Salem Psychos operate. The leaders of the student section, myself and Chris Wertz, will be introducing a new chant that was brought to my attention by Senior basketball player John Munsch. I don't want to ruin the surprise, so please come out and see if for yourself. I hope to see all of you there, and I hope that everyone still remembers where their classes are on Monday.

Ice Age

Well it appears that the gargantuan section match up between Laurel Highlands and GS is off for tonight. The disappointment is killing me right now because I was really looking forward to this one. Hopefully the teams find time before the playoffs to play this one because the winner will most likely take section 3-AAA. Since there's not much to write about in GS sports right now, how about that Superbowl? I was stunned to see the Saints pull out that victory. While Drew Brees earned his MVP award for that game, the true winner has to be Sean Payton. The onside kick call at the beginning of the second half was quite possibly the gutsiest call in Superbowl history. As shocked as I was to see the call, it made sense for the situation. The Saints simply wanted to keep the ball out of Peyton Manning's hands and they did just that by converting the opportunity. Every once in awhile, a coach needs to make a game changing call. Take for example the play in Superbowl XL where Antwaan Randle El received the pass from Ben Roethlisberger and proceeded to throw it to Hines Ward for the touchdown. Was it a risky call? Of course. But when you are trying to win a championship, sometimes the tough calls have to be made. So here's to good coaching and for the survival of the winter of 2010.

Leashing the Scotties

Southmoreland came into the contest against GS tonight with nothing to lose. Unfortunately, confidence does not win championships.

After a slow first quarter in which GS and Southmoreland came out tied 13-13, GS rolled over the Scotties with their superior talent and athleticism. Jake Matthews scored 22 points in the balanced GS offense that has been lights out all season due to their excellent shooting. After pulling away in the second quarter, the GS put on a show in the third as T.J Olesky added 8 points. The fourth quarter, like many games this season, was mostly a showcase of J.V talent. In a huge development for the team, Junior Guard Dave Nowicki returned from an injury that he suffered in the second week of the football season and scored 7 points. Nowicki's return is huge for the team; he was a starter for GCC last season. Nowicki can play both guard spots and provide a toughness for the squad. His ball handling also appears to be better than any other player on the team, and this could be key to a deep playoff run this year. The match up this month against Laurel Highlands will be the biggest game of the year thus far and it will provide a glimpse into the future for this talented GS team.