Preseason No. 1 Uniontown was relieved to get out of Penn-Trafford with a win in the Section 1-5A boys basketball opener.
Penn-Trafford led only briefly in the first quarter but took the Red Raiders to the limit with a second-half rally that nearly set off the upset alerts.
Uniontown watched a 19-point lead dwindle to two in the closing seconds before settling for a 68-64 victory Tuesday night in Harrison City.
“Listen, I’ve been watching Penn-Trafford for three months. We were in a fall league with them at Hempfield,” Uniontown coach Rob Kezmarsky said. “That’s a well-coached team. The credit goes to them. They came at us.
“It’s not about escaping, it’s going 1-0 and waking up tomorrow with a win. We’re still a work in progress.”
Uniontown (3-1), which bounced back from a 55-54 loss to Belle Vernon, led 39-20 late in the first half before the Warriors slowed the pace and began to chip away at what seemed like an insurmountable deficit.
The Warriors (2-2) cut it to two at 57-55 on two free throws from Zach Feldman midway through the third. They did it again with five seconds left in a tense fourth on a 3-pointer by Jack Weishaar to make it 66-64.
“I have confidence in our guys,” Warriors coach Doug Kelly said. “I was proud of the way we defended in the second half. We needed to shoot it better early. Our response was good. We need to put four quarters together.”
Calvin Winfrey III led the Red Raiders with 26 points, 13 in each half. Career 1,000-point scorer Notorious Grooms and Kelan Milsom each scored 16 in the win.
Uniontown made the WPIAL semifinals and PIAA second round last season and returns a number of seasoned players from that run.
Grooms and Winfrey have played more than 80 games together.
Despite the fast start and inability to go basket-for-basket with the Red Raiders, Penn-Trafford hung around in its first section action.
Brayden Stone drove the lane for a layup to get the Warriors within 64-61 with 23.3 seconds remaining.
But Grooms, trapped by the Warriors on a full-court inbounds play, delivered a strike downcourt to Cam Dugan for a layup and a 66-61 lead with 10 seconds left.
Winfrey made two free throws with six-tenths of a second remaining for the final points after the Warriors failed to get a shot.
Winfrey was 9 of 13 from the foul line.
“We played our game, but then they slowed us down,” said Winfrey, who needs 30 points to reach 1,000 for his career. He is getting Division II college attention for football and basketball. “Once we started to get back into our rhythm, we were okay. We need to be able to finish games.”
Uniontown led 20-13 after a fast-paced first quarter and stretched it to 39-25 at the half.
Tyler Anthony hit a 3 just before halftime to give the Warriors momentum, which they parlayed into a 21-point third quarter that included a 16-3 run that cut the margin to 47-43.
He made another 3 late in the quarter, but Winfrey’s driving layup gave Uniontown a 51-46 edge going to the fourth.
Evan Gross and Weishaar hit 3s in the fourth for Penn-Trafford, but they could only get as close as 66-64.
Anthony led the Warriors with 18 points, including four 3-pointers. Feldman scored 15, and Stone added 13.
Gross finished with nine.
“The fight is there,” Kelly said. “So is the effort and care.”