BY MIKE MASTOVICH
JOHNSTOWN — When his Conemaugh Valley boys team fell behind by seven points early in Friday’s PIAA Class A playoff, coach Garry Lupek didn’t panic.
The veteran coach figured his District 6 champions simply needed time to get into the flow against District 10 runner-up Linesville at Richland High School.
The Blue Jays went on a 14-0 run in the first and second quarters and eventually pulled away in a 67-33 victory. Conemaugh Valley outscored Linesville
37-13 in the second half.
“At this stage of the season you can’t be unsure of yourself,” Lupek said after his Jays improved to 23-3 and earned a Sweet 16 round game against District 7 fifth-place Neshannock.
“You have to be ready before you even got on the transportation to take you to the site,” he said. “Here we were overzealous.
“We overcompensated for the fact that they were a team we had never seen. Once we adapted, adjusted and improvised, things fell into place.”
Jimmy Lupek scored a game-high 26 points and passed his graduated brother, Josh, for second place on Conemaugh Valley’s all-time scoring list with 1,468 points. Josh Lupek had 1,455 points during his career and Brandon Studer is first with 2,540.
“My teammates just told me to keep shooting, don’t stop because I was having an on day,” Jimmy Lupek said. “They told me to keep doing my job, hitting the assists and shots. Jason (Preuss) was giving me a couple nice passes.”
Point guard Jason Preuss had 11 assists. Dalton Uncapher scored 17 points and had
12 rebounds. Jesse Uncapher grabbed seven boards.
“They were just animals inside,” Linesville coach Steve Mickle said. “You’d go for a shot and they would block it. It was hard to box them out.”
Preuss ran the floor and found open players as the Jays converted rebounds into points.
“Jason is our three-year assist leader,” Coach Lupek said. “He’s very intelligent. He plays a nice cerebral game. He sees the whole floor. He seems to understand what’s going to happen before it happens. He always does a good job defensively. He’s very unselfish.”
Linesville (17-8) led 11-4 on Brennan Miller’s basket at 4:01 of the first quarter. Valley netted the next 14 points and led 30-20 at halftime.
Jimmy Lupek made consecutive 3-pointers to open the second half, giving Valley a 36-22 advantage.
“No. 20’s 3s when he got himself set for two in a row took what air they had in them,” Coach Lupek said of Jimmy Lupek.
The Jays outscored the Lions 15-4 in the decisive third quarter and 22-9 in the fourth. Eric Schell led Linesville with
10 points, all but two in the fourth quarter.
“We close the chapter on this and get ready for our practice on Sunday,” coach Lupek said. “At this time of the year you know what your weaknesses are. You make your weaknesses stronger. You make your strengths better.”
