Hempfield kept knocking, but Mt. Lebanon wouldn’t open the door. Under pressure all night, the visiting Blue Devils withstood the Spartans’ repeated challenges and remained undefeated Friday in boys basketball.
Barely.
“It’s what we expected,” Mt. Lebanon coach Joey David said. “It’s great for us to experience these kinds of challenges early. Now whether it’s good for the heart, that’s a different story.”
Liam Sheely scored 24 points, and Jacob Zaber made all six of his free-throw attempts in the final two minutes as Mt. Lebanon escaped with a 68-63 victory in the Section 2-6A opener for both schools.
Hempfield overcame an 11-point halftime deficit to briefly pull even with Mt. Lebanon in the fourth quarter. But the Spartans could never get back a lead they enjoyed early in the game.
“I’m happy with the second half after being down like that at halftime,” first-year Hempfield coach Austin Butler said. “Some self-inflicted wounds led us to that point. But we just talked about trying to stay positive at halftime. We know this group is resilient. We came back from down 10 at halftime at Latrobe (to win, 61-59, on Dec. 4), and we were down in this game at halftime.”
Carter Gould added 16 points, and Zaber finished with 10 for Mt. Lebanon (4-0, 1-0).
Daniel Husentis led Hempfield (3-2, 0-1) with 20 points. Lucas Simmons added 15, and Trevor Donsen tallied 12 for the Spartans, who trailed 36-25 at halftime.
“They were right there,” David said. “(Butler) is doing a great job with those kids.”
Mt. Lebanon was maintaining its 11-point lead early in the third quarter when Hempfield doubled up the Blue Devils, 18-9, and trailed just 50-48 on a basket by Husentis.
Mt. Lebanon led 55-50 on Sheely’s 3-point shot in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, but the Blue Devils couldn’t sustain a run, allowing Hempfield to finally pull even on Simmons’ 3-pointer with 5:35 left.
It was short-lived as Mt. Lebanon took the lead for good on another Sheely 3-point shot, giving the Blue Devils a 58-55 advantage.
Twice more Hempfield came within two points as the game turned into a free-throw contest down the stretch.
Simmons hit a pair from the line to close Hempfield within 62-60 before the Spartans logged a steal and called timeout with 1:17 to go.
But Mt. Lebanon regained possession and rode Zaber’s free-throw shooting.
Husentis converted two free throws with 18.7 seconds left, pulling Hempfield within 66-63, but Mt. Lebanon got behind the Spartans defense and Dane Barber’s layup sealed the outcome for the Blue Devils.
For David, though, it was a little too close for his liking.
“We’re not playing anywhere near our capabilities,” he said. “We’re nowhere near where we need to be to be the type of team we want to be. I thought we played a very poor first half, and we were still up by 11.
“But when you get into these close games on the road, it’s tough to get out. The guys did a decent job at the end, making the free throws, and we walk out with a W.”
Hempfield shot better than 70% inside the 3-point arc, but the Spartans struggled outside it, making just 6 for 31 attempts (19.4%).
“We had to play from behind, and I thought we settled from the 3-point line a little too much,” Butler said. “We talked about taking care of the basketball, and if we got stops on their three main guys, we’d win the game. We didn’t do a good enough job of containing them. Credit to those guys. They’re great players and great offensive threats. But we knew what the game plan was coming in and, we didn’t execute it as we should’ve and we were still right there.”