NA Defeats Mt. Lebanon 85-49
North Allegheny’s pressure defense forced 30 Mt. Lebanon turnovers as the Tigers dashed to an 85-49 victory over the Blue Devils on Tuesday night. Junior Cole Constantino thrived against the Blue Devils, grabbing a game-high five steals and a 16 points. Mt. Lebanon’s Johnny David was the Blue Devils leading scorer with 16 points and four three-pointers.
Mt. Lebanon held an early 5-0 advantage over the Tigers, but the lead was short-lived as NA stormed back behind a hounding defense and some hot three-point shooting. Senior Joe Mancini, on his way to a 14 point night, knocked down three treys in the quarter to help North Allegheny to a 21-9 lead at the end of one period of play. The Blue Devils trimmed their deficit to 30-27 midway through the second quarter thanks to junior guard Jonny David who dropped in three three-pointers of his own. However, a 10-0 run by the Tigers to end the half put NA back in control, 40-27, at intermission. Constantino played a large part in the half ending run, producing several steals and body twisting buckets, including a two-point buzzer beater.
In the second half, North Allegheny cruised to the victory, outscoring the Blue Devils 45-22 over the final 16 minutes. In addition to the 30 turnovers forced by the Tigers, NA pulled down 11 offensive rebounds, producing almost twice as many shots as the Blue Devils. In all, the Tigers were 33 of 67 from the field, hitting at a 49% clip. Mt. Lebanon was 15 of 36, connecting for 42% on the night. North Allegheny poured in 14 of 35 from beyond the arc. Joining Constantino and Mancini in double-digits for the Tigers were Luke Gwaltney and Mike Carter with 11 and 10 points respectively. For the Blue Devils, Eddie Jenkins scored 13 points to follow David’s 18.
With the win, North Allegheny improves to 3-0 overall and will host Pine-Richland on Friday night in the Section 3 opener. Mt. Lebanon drops to 1-2 and will visit Peters Township on Friday night. Both games on Friday tip at 7:30 pm. For the Tigers, their meeting with the Rams will be broadcast live via the internet on the North Allegheny Sports Network.