Second-Half Surge Lifts Pine-Richland Over NA, 62-53
The seventh-ranked Pine-Richland Rams used a big second half to top the North Allegheny Tigers on Tuesday night, 62-53, in a Section 3-AAAA contest. Pine-Richland trailed 41-29 at the half but shot 52 percent in the second half and stifled the NA offense to just 20 percent shooting for the comeback win. The Rams victory avenged an earlier loss to North Allegheny on December 15 in which the Tigers rallied from 11-points down in the fourth quarter to beat Pine-Richland, 71-69.
North Allegheny stormed out of the gates in the first half and shot a sterling 62 percent from the field to build a 12 point lead by intermission. Sophomore Curtis Aiken led the Tigers with 20 points and senior Keegan Phillips added 12 points.
Pine-Richland’s defense turned things around in the second half and limited North Allegheny to 5 of 25 shooting from the field and 0 for 9 shooting from beyond the arc. The Rams received offensive contributions from Andrew Petcash who netted 19 points, Adam Alexander who tallied 16 points, and Phil Jurkovec who chipped in with 15 points in the come-from behind victory.
The loss drops North Allegheny to 9-6 overall and into a three-way tie for third place in Section 3-AAAA with a record of 5-3. Winners of seven in a row, Pine-Richland improves to 10-4 overall and 5-2 in section play. The Tigers hope to bounce back on Saturday night with a non-section game against Hampton. Start time is slated for 8:30 pm.
Boys Basketball vs. Pine-Richland, 1-20-16
| GAME SUMMARY | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SCORE BY QUARTERS | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | FINAL |
| North Allegheny | 21 | 20 | 6 | 6 | 53 |
| Pine-Richland | 17 | 12 | 20 | 13 | 62 |
