That could come Tuesday when Trinity (15-8) plays No. 4 New Castle (16-6) with a site and time to be determined. The Hillers, led by one fantastic performance from senior Josh Valentic, sure made believers out of Mt. Pleasant (9-13), which tied a season-low for points scored.
“(Dunn) coaches a really nice style of basketball and they have a great shooter who shoots well every night,” said Mt. Pleasant coach Tom Traynor, whose 49-year coaching career ended with the loss.
Traynor, who won 612 games, is battling pancreatic cancer and he considers Dunn one of his close friends.
“They’re on the crest of being very good,” Traynor added. “I certainly thought they were the best team in the pigtails.”
Valentic is a big reason for that, and the Wheeling Jesuit recruit put together one of his better performances.
Valentic scored 34 points on 13 of 19 shooting with game-highs in rebounds (seven) and steals (four).
not bad for someone who missed two days of school this week and is still dealing with symptoms from a cold.
“I just started feeling a little better (Thursday),” Valentic said. “We just played well. I knocked down a couple shots early. I felt good the whole game.”
Valentic scored the first eight points for Trinity, which looked to use the high-post on offense and applied full-court pressure against a Mt. Pleasant team rife with underclassmen.
As Valentic’s shots fell with ease, so did his teammate’s.
Trinity made 21 of 40 shots and the Hillers had assists on 12.
“We really wanted to attack the middle so the boards would open up,” Dunn said. “Given our mixture of unselfish passes, we believed it would work.”
The Hillers doubled up the Vikings, 28-14, in rebounds and dominated defensively.
a mixture of full- and half-court pressure forced Mt. Pleasant into a miserable shooting night. The Vikings made just nine field goals in 41 attempts, and three of those were on late three-pointers from freshman Ryan Gumbita, who finished with 14 points.
“Because of their youth, we wanted to apply pressure and we were able to do that,” Dunn said. “It was absolutely a complete team effort.” Blogs: NFL from the Sidelines | The Varsity Letters | The big Blog on Campus | Mat Matters | Wild About ThingsDatabase: High School, College, Steelers football results, 2000-10 Home