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Ramblers topple Tussey Mountain

SAXTON — It appeared that the Tussey Mountain boys basketball team may have figured out the Windber defensive pressure during what was an impressive second quarter.

But once the Ramblers found their rhythm again defensively, it was just a matter of finding the offense to send the Titans home.

That’s exactly what happened as both Chase Vargo and Keith Charney combined for 22 second-half points as the Ramblers eliminated the Titans, 64-53, Friday night at a raucous and packed Tussey Mountain High School in the District 5 Class 2A semifinals.

“The turnovers killed us, plain and simple,” Tussey Mountain coach Jeremy Molosky said. “We went over the press all week, but it’s different when it comes to the real thing when you’re here. Sometimes we took advantage of it and did well, sometimes we froze and turned the ball over.”

Both teams struggled in the first quarter offensively, but Tussey found its way offensively in the second quarter, as one of Devin Swope’s three 3-pointers helped set off a 21-11 explosion for the home team, including a 15-4 run.

The run was capped off by a Skylar Peck drive to the bucket for the and-1 to make it 25-19 Titans at the half.

Peck led Tussey with 14 points followed by Matthew Leonard who had 13 and Devin Swope who contributed 12.

“We felt very fortunate just to be down six,” Windber coach Steve Slatcoff said. “We understood that if we were going to get back into the game, it was going to have to happen on the defensive end. One of the things we talk about is defense travels, especially this time of the year.”

That message was received in the third quarter as Vargo scored nine of his game-high 16 points. Teammate Caden Dusack finished off the frame with a pair of 3’s to tie the game at 42.

“I think we just relaxed a little bit on defense,” Molosky said. “Our help side was just slow and they took advantage of it. Hats off to them, they didn’t quit.”

Matters only got worse for the Titans as Charney drew the extra shot with six minutes to go, and scored nine of his 13 points to help seal the game.

“We wanted to put some pressure on them without fouling and keep them in front of us so we could take away some of their strengths. We were able to come down here to beat a very quality program and a very good basketball team,” Slatcoff said.

Molosky — whose Titans finished 17-7 and winners of the Inter-County Conference — was heartbroken to see his latest senior class come up short of a trip to UPJ for a district championship

“It’s probably the hardest-working kids I’ve had,” he said. “I couldn’t have asked for better kids to coach. It was always 110 percent at practice. They never gave up.”

WINDBER (64): Dusack 5 0-0 313, Vargo 6 4-5 16, Ke. Charney 6 1-2 13, Klosky 1 0-0 2, Ko. Charney 3 2-2 8, Gray 3 2-4 8, Shuster 0 0-0 0, Napora 1 0-2 2. Totals 26 9-15 64

TUSSEY MOUNTAIN (53): Henry 2 0-0 4, Swope 4 1-2 12, Leonard 5 2-2 13, Rightenour 3 0-0 6, Morningstar 2 0-0 4, Peck 3 8-10 14. Totals: 19 11-14 53.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Windber 8 11 23 22 — 64

Tussey Mountain 4 21 15 13 — 53

3 point field goals: Windber 3 (Dusack 3); Tussey Mountain 4 (Swope 3, Leonard)

Records: Windber (15-7); Tussey Mountain (17-7)

Referees: Mike Baum, Sam Zambanini, Craig Stahl.

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