By Kayleen Cubbal
New Castle News

The Union High boys basketball team had a rough go of it last night against Lincoln Park.

Yet the news is not all bad for the Scotties, who still can clinch a WPIAL playoff berth tonight without stepping onto the court.

Union found itself to be no match for the visiting Leopards in an 81-41 WPIAL Section 1-A game.

Lincoln Park, ranked No. 1 in the WPIAL by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and No. 3 in the state by the Patriot-News of Harrisburg, is now 9-0 in the section and 17-4 overall.

Union (4-5, 10-9) can clinch a playoff berth if Our Lady of Sacred Heart beats Western Beaver tonight. The Scotties still have a section game at Western Beaver remaining Friday night.

“The only way we won’t get in is if we lose the last two and Western wins its last two and Sacred Heart splits,” Union coach Dave Smialowski said. “We sure would like for it to be taken care of tomorrow night (tonight). We’re going down to Sacred Heart to hopefully bring back some good news.”

As for last night’s game, the Leopards dominated from start to finish, taking a 17-7 lead after one quarter and expanding that to 42-21 at halftime.

“We were down 21 after the first half, but we had some open looks,” Smialowski said. “Against a team like Lincoln Park that has so much size — Devontae Watson is 6-foot-10 and just a beast and their shooting guard (Ryan Skorvanko) is 6-6 — you live and die by the outside shot and we just didn’t knock them down.”

Watson, who already has committed to Temple, led the Leopards with 26 points, including 18 in the first half, and Skorvanko chipped in with 16.

The Scotties were without leading scorer Markel Peace (14.3 points per game).

“Markel has a little bit of an injury and he played the whole game with it Friday night (against Sacred Heart), but it flared up, so we held him out,” Smialowski said, declining to elaborate on the nature of Peace’s injury.

Joe Salmen paced Union with 17 points and Benjamin Young added 11.

“I told the kids to forget about this one and go back to work,” Smialowski said. “There’s a reason why Lincoln Park is No. 1 in the WPIAL and they proved it tonight.”