Saint E's Lancers Suffer Close Loss in Playoffs

's varsity boys basketball team couldn't overcome a late run by Sister Thea Bowman Catholic Academy and lost, 53-49, on Saturday, Feb. 26, to fall out of the 2011 Diocese of Pittsburgh championships. The teams played at neutral-site Central Catholic High School.

"The kids played really hard today," Saint Elizabeth's Head Coach Dan Plansinis said. "They played their hearts out, and that's all we can ask for."

Saint E's led for most of the game and even built significant leads at times, but Sister Thea Bowman kept fighting to stay in the game.

Bowman was down, 12-5, at the start of the second quarter but went on a run to pull within one point at 12-11.

Bowman was down by seven points again in the fourth quarter but eventually overtook Saint E's to win by four.

Cullen Buckley, a Saint E's eighth-grader, said that his team's passing was off at times and that with both teams playing a full-court offense, that allowed more opportunities for turnovers.

"We started to get a little tired," Buckley said, "but we could have stepped it up."

The Lancers, located just off of Route 51 in the , had a squad of 17 seventh- and eighth-graders on their boys varsity team this season and finished second in the Pittsburgh Diocese's South 1A Section behind their natural rivals from  in the .

A win against Bowman in this first-round playoffs game would have pitted Saint E's against a very tough St. Mary of the Assumption team in the quarterfinals at Central Catholic on Saturday, March 5. St. Mary's won the North 1A Section this season with an 11-1 record.

Instead, Bowman, which finished fourth in the East 1A Section with a 7-7 record, will draw St. Mary's.

Saint E's 2010-11 season is complete. The Lancers went 9-3 in South 1A.

"Playoff experience and just the season overall prepares them [the players] for high-school basketball and life in general because of the competition factor," Plansinis said.

"The teamwork we learn is amazing," Saint E's eighth-grader Nick Pazuchanics said. Pazuchanics said that he enjoys the time that he spends with his friends playing basketball and getting to know his classmates. He admits that the loss on Saturday was tough, but he wishes good luck to the remaining teams in the playoffs.

Jody Walker, an assistant coach of the Lancers, offered some more intangibles that speak to the benefits that his team's kids receive.

"At Saint Elizabeth's, we have had a tradition of discipline," Walker said, "and the kids always come to games with shirts and ties. The other thing is, we shook hands all the time to show mutual respect. That's something that I was taught.

"I've been here for 14 years at Saint Elizabeth. The respect showed by the kids that we've had over the years has been phenomenal. The parents and everything."