By Dan Irwin
New Castle News

BUTLER — Summit Academy’s decided height advantage over Neshannock produced plenty of in-the-lane scoring and off-the-glass dominance.

In the end, though, the Knights’ costliest wounds may have been inflicted outside the paint. Just outside — as in the width of a free-throw line.

In a physical game that saw three Lancers foul out, Summit drained 27 of 42 foul shots — including 10 of 12 in the final two minutes — to secure a 90-82 WPIAL Section 2-AA triumph and its 11th straight victory.

The Knights (8-0, 12-3) pounded it inside to 6-foot-8 starters Elijah Minnie and Omar Johnson, and got 20 and 17 points, respectively, from the pair. Moreover, with 6-5 Tyerell Wyche also among the starters, Summit outrebounded Neshannock, 23-14, in the first half en route to taking a 41-35 lead into the locker room .

“We gave up too many offensive rebounds,” said Neshannock’s interim head coach Ken Locke, who got 37 points from Ernie Burkes, 22 from John Sansone and 17 from Joe Iorio. “That really was the difference in the game.

 “The guys battled hard the second half, they made the adjustments themselves as far as getting the ball and boxing out, not letting them jump over top of them, but we just weren’t able to finish.”

Summit, which also got 20 points from guard Rakim Reedy, stretched its lead to as many as nine points in the third period, and led 69-61 with 5 1/2 minutes left in the game. Sparked by the 6-4 Iorio, though, Neshannock reeled off an 11-2 to run to take a 72-71 lead.

Iorio, the Lancers’ only 6-foot-plus starter and their leading rebounder with 14, contributed the first six points of the uprising from underneath the rim and added a seventh on a free throw.

The score was deadlocked one final time at 74-all, when Burkes hit two free throws following a technical foul on Minnie for hanging on the rim as he finished a steal and slam.

The technical also gave Neshannock the ball and a chance to retake the lead, but the Lancers lost it out of bounds. That’s when the Knights finished by outscoring Neshannock 16-8 over the final 101 seconds, including that 10-of-12 string at the foul line that followed a 17-of-30 effort over the previous 3 1/2 quarters.

“We wanted to take advantage of it inside,” Summit coach Art McCray said, “but defensively we didn’t do well. We gave up way too many points. This is not what we want to do defensively.

“However, we made our foul shots at the end. We didn’t do so good in the first half from the free throw line, but at the end of the game, we knocked it down.”

Of the Knights’ fourth-quarter lapse that allowed Neshannock to catch up, McCray added, “I think what actually took us out of game was ourselves. I don’t think there was any point where we were actually out of control, it was just the fact that I think we were rushing things offensively and defensively we weren’t in the right spot.

“We missed some easy buckets, but we showed enough poise, we still had faith in each other, and we came back and made our free throws.”

(Email: d_irwin@ncnewsonline.com)