ELIZABETHVILLE — Upper Dauphin’s hopes for a trip to the Tri-Valley League final were in jeopardy at halftime Tuesday.
Then the Trojans’ offense, as well as their defense, came to life in the third quarter.
Alex Uhler scored all 14 of his points in the second half as Upper Dauphin built a second-half lead and hung on for a 53-47 victory over Greenwood in the league
semifinals at Gordon E. Foster Gymnasium.
The Trojans (19-4), the East Division champs, led 21-19 at halftime before opening the second half on a 14-1 run to take a 35-20 lead with 2:39 left in the third quarter. Greenwood, the West Division runner-up, got to within six twice in the final quarter but Upper Dauphin hit 12-of-19 from the foul line in the fourth to seal the victory.
The Trojans will now take on West Division champ Juniata (17-6) in the championship game Thursday at Susquenita High School at 7:30 p.m. The Indians beat Halifax 48-44 in Tuesday’s other semifinal.
“Our team worked very hard this offseason,” Uhler said. “We always knew we could get there, but we just really had to work hard and make it happen. Sometimes it looked better than others, but we are going good right now.”
Upper Dauphin hammered the Wildcats 70-48 during the regular season on Jan. 30 and opened Tuesday on a 12-0 run. But Greenwood crawled back in the game and got to within two at halftime.
The Trojans had a miserable offensive second quarter, shooting 2-for-11 from the floor and had just one point, a foul shot by Calen Reigner, over the final 7:26 of the first half.
Leading scorer Matthew Miller also missed the last 6 minutes of the half on the bench with two fouls.
The message in the locker room was simple.
“We knew we could get this, we were just saying ‘Guys, you got to want it,’ ” Uhler said. “We just went out there and just executed better in the second half.”
Instead of playing passive and settling for mostly perimeter shots in the third quarter, Upper Dauphin attacked Greenwood’s 3-2 zone and found plenty of easy buckets inside and on the baseline. The Trojans, who were 5-for-11 from the floor in the third, also did it without Miller again as he came out of the game with his fourth personal foul at 5:46.
Uhler scored 10 points in the quarter, while Jordan Gessner had two assists.
“Guys just started attacking the basket,” Uhler said. “Jordan Gessner started driving into the middle and dishing off to the big guys. That opened everything up.”
Gessner scored Upper Dauphin’s first points of the second half on a drive down the lane. On the Trojans’ next possession, Gessner found Uhler open on the baseline for a layup. Uhler then hit 1-of-2 from the foul line to make it 26-19 with 6 minutes left in the quarter.
On Upper Dauphin’s next trip down the floor, Uhler drove the baseline, was fouled and hit the free throw for a three-point play. After Uhler hit two more free throws when he was fouled on the baseline, Travis Deitrich hit a 3-pointer from the corner on a kick-out pass from Uhler.
The Wildcats’ Elias Goodling knocked down 1-of-2 from the line before Deitrich hit 1-of-2 from the foul line to made it 35-20 with 2:39 left in the third quarter.
Uhler later scored his final points of the third on a layup to make it 37-24.
Upper Dauphin’s defense picked it up, too. Greenwood was 2-for-6 from the floor in the third and turned the ball over five times.
“Our defense kind of feeds off our offense,” Upper Dauphin coach Anthony Weaver said. “If we are playing well offensively, then we have more energy at the other end. Not that it makes it right, it just seems like that is the way we kind of do things.”
Despite his foul trouble, Miller finished with a team-high 16 points to go along with seven rebounds. Dietrich added 11 points, while Gessner had nine rebounds and four assists.
Seth Ferguson scored 13 of his game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter for the Wildcats, who got to within six points one final time on a steal and layup by Adrik Woodward with 1:36 left in the game, making it 47-41.
Woodward finished the night with 12 points.
Game Summary
GREENWOOD (47) — Ferguson 9 3-4 21, Woodward 4 4-9 12, Sheaffer 3 0-0 9, Goodling 0 3-6 3, LeBant 0 0-0 0, Allen 0 0-2 0, Wright 0 2-2 2. Totals 16 12-23 47.
UPPER DAUPHIN (53) — Snyder 0 0-0 0, Miller 5 3-5 16, Uhler 4 6-10 14, Calnon 0 0-0 0, Gessner 1 3-5 5, Lenker 0 2-2 2, Deitrich 3 3-4 11, Trently 0 0-0 0, Reigner 1 1-2 3, Wiest 1 0-0 2, Norris 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 18-28 53.
Greenwood (11-12) 6 13 7 21 — 47 Upper Dauphin (19-4) 15 6 16 16 — 53
3-point FGs: Sheaffer 3, Miller 3, Deitrich 2