Steve Antuono, Alexander Roth, and Joseph Roth provided a balanced scoring attack and Ellwood City used a strong performance in the fourth quarter to earn its 58-53 victory over Avonworth Thursday night at North Allegheny HS.
The victory advanced the 11-seeded Wolverines (11-4 overall) into the quarterfinals of the Class-3A Playoffs.
Alexander Roth scored 10 first half points as part of his team-high 16 point effort (4 3-pointers), Joseph Roth scored 13 points, and Antuono finished with 12 points (2 3-pointers, 4-4 free throws).
Milo Sesti and Dan Ditri each connected on three pointers for Ellwood City who held a comfortable 30-18 halftime lead.
The Wolverines defense stymied Avonworth, allowing only two players to collect points in the half. Andrew Gannon collected 15 points for the Antelopes but only one other player scored for Avonworth in the half. Contrarily, Ellwood City’s offense attack was balance by scoring from five players.
Avonworth rallied and outscored Ellwood City 25-11 in the third quarter, getting points from six different players, to erased its halftime deficit and earn a two point lead entering the final quarter.
A back and forth final frame saw both teams exchange leads with big shots including three pointers from both Roth brothers and Sesti. Joseph Roth’s go-ahead triple put Ellwood City back ahead 52-51 with less than four minutes left in play.
Senior Ryan Gibbons (7 points, 5-6 free throws) calmly sank three late free throws to help Ellwood City ice the game.
The Wolverines finished 12-17 from the free throw line as a team while Avonworth struggled, finishing 6-14 from the stripe.
Gannon collected a game-high 21 points (4 3-pointers) in defeat for the Antelopes. Mason Donavan scored 10 points in Avonworth’s pivotal third frame en route to his 15 points (3 3-pointers).
#11 Ellwood City advances next to play #3 Shady Side Academy (14-2 overall) on Monday night at 6:00 p.m. at Fox Chapel High School. [VIEW FULL BRACKET] Shady Side Academy earned a 55-46 victory over Apollo-Ridge earlier in the evening Thursday [GAME RECAP]
Thursday night provided bountiful for many Lawrence County basketball teams as #2 Neshannock was victorious, #12 Laurel earned an upset win, and the 11-seed Union girls get first playoff win in over a decade. Other results from around the WPIAL:
#WPIAL Basketball Finals from tonight’s Boys 1st Rd action pic.twitter.com/FP3F8hJUPW
— Cover Three Athletics (@Cover3_ATH) March 5, 2021
For the Roth brothers it is next off to WPIAL Swimming Championships on Saturday before the return to the hardwood. [READ MORE]
Oddly enough, 35 years to the date, brothers Dan and Frank Aloi combined for 51 points to lead the 1986 Wolverine basketball team to a WPIAL victory over Aliquippa. A few decades later, a new set of Wolverine brothers, Alexander and Joseph Roth, combined to score 29 points Thursday night.
35 years later: Behind a new set of brothers, Joseph and Alexander Roth lead Ellwood City into the Class-3A quarterfinals with a 58-53 win over Avonworth. #WPIAL #ecdotorg https://t.co/kDnzgSvGjT
— EllwoodCity.org (@ecdotorg) March 5, 2021
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