Penns Valley boys basketball loses 62-49 to Richland in District 6 3A semifinal
Penns Valley entered Saturday’s contest against Richland with fire in their eyes.
Penns Valley had won four straight games, including a 51-40 victory over Mountain League rival Philipsburg-Osceola on Tuesday in the PIAA District 6 3A Playoffs.
The Rams, though, met their match, ironically enough with another Rams team, losing to Richland 62-49.
It started from the 3-point line — Richland made nine shots from deep with six of them coming from Luke Raho (18 points) and four from Kellen Stahl (12 points). Trent Rozich finished as the team’s leading scorer with 19 points.
Penns Valley head coach Robert Irwin felt that it could be a possibility of Richland netting shots from distance.
“We tried to do our best by making smaller movements instead of larger movements with our zone, but they got hot tonight,” Irwin said. “They hit some shots, and they’re a good team. We knew that was going to happen, and we just need to be a little bit sharper.”
Many of Richland’s opportunities came from pressure on the defensive end, especially when pressing Penns Valley on the baseline. Penns Valley’s Zach Braucht led the team with 15 points and felt that his team could improve on beating the pressure at the baseline.
“We were just wound up beating the press break,” Braucht said. “It shouldn’t have been a problem. We didn’t expect it to be a problem. With their shooting, they just hit their open shots, and we didn’t get out in our zone like we usually do and they hit every open look that they got.”
Penns Valley will await to see who their opening-round opponent will be in the PIAA 3A state playoffs on Mar. 9. That brings an opportunity to clean up their defense in the 2-3 zone, a challenge that Kyle Niewinski looks to take head on.
“There were little breakdowns,” Niewinski said. “There’s one movement in our zone that we need to fix up and that should take that away for sure.”
Richland and Penns Valley went back and forth in the first quarter. Braucht finished the first quarter with five points — trailing him was Kyle Niewinski and Aidan Culver for Penns Valley. Rozich got off to a hot start for Richland with 10 points, along with Sam Penna and Demont Johnson contributing two points each.
Penns Valley had to call a timeout with 4 minutes, 15 seconds remaining in the first half, following Raho and Stahl’s 3-point shots to give Richland a 23-18 lead. The 3-point shooting duo continued to nail jumpers from deep with Raho ending the quarter with nine points and Stahl with six points. Richland controlled the first half with a 32-24 lead.
Raho and Stahl continued their barrage of 3-pointers in the third quarter with Stahl hitting two and Raho hitting three. Penna got in on the 3-point show with one of his own and finished the quarter with five points. Richland led 56-35 following the third quarter.
Penns Valley made their final push in the fourth quarter, outscoring Richland 14-6. Colin Niewinski scored four points, Culver scored four points, Braucht, Jackson Romig and Maclain Welshans each scored two points, but it wasn’t enough for Penns Valley to overcome.
While Raho and Stahl sent the crowd into a frenzy with their 3-point shooting, Rozich did the dirty work from the low post. His 19 points came from grinding out tough layups and a number of hard fouls. His effort was emblematic of what boosted his team to the championship round on Wednesday against Bishop Guilfoyle.
“It means a lot to us because in the last game, we were struggling and in this game, we were on fire,” Rozich said. “We really got our confidence up. We just have to get into the gym in the next two days and practice and hopefully we’ll be good for Wednesday.”
Richland 62, Penns Valley 49
R (22-4): Rozich 19, Raho 18, Stahl 12, Penna 7, Johnson 6
PV (12-12): Braucht 15, Culver 9, K. Niewinski 8, Romig 6, C. Niewinski 6, Welshans 5
First Half: 32-24, Richland
This story was originally published February 26, 2022 at 6:22 PM.
