Offense goes dry as Union falls to North Catholic

MONROEVILLE, Pa. – Unable to crank up the offense, the Union Knights dropped their state-opening playoff game to WPIAL Class A champion Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic, 63-39, at Gateway High School Friday night.

Union (17-10), the fourth-place team from D9, shot just 29.5 percent (13-for-44) from the field while the Trojans (19-8) hit on 55 percent (22-for-40) of their shots.

Zachary Offi led North Catholic with 13 points, seven them coming in the third quarter. He hit three of his five 3-point shots. Eric Taylor, the 6-foot-4 center, finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Union got a double-double from Lucas Bowser with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Cole Morris scored 12 points.

Union’s lone lead was 2-0 on a Bowser basket to start the game. From there, it was all North Catholic. The Trojans led 15-8 at the end of the first quarter, 27-16 at halftime and an 11-2 run to start the third quarter put the game away.

North Catholic led by as many as 26 points at 62-36 with 3:13 left.

NORTH CATHOLIC 63, UNION 39

Score By Quarters

Union                          8          8          14       9          –           39

North Catholic           15       12       21       15       –           63

Union – 39

Hank Murphy 1 2-3 4, Sutton Varner 2 0-0 4, Cole Morris 4 1-2 12, Gavin Hawk 0 3-4 3, Lucas Bowser 6 3-6 16, Dana Logue 0 0-2 0, Kolby Montgomery 0 0-0 0, Jesse George 0 0-0 0, Trey Miles 0 0-0 0, Hunter Johnson 0 0-0 0, Reice Saylor 0 0-0 0. Totals: 13 9-17 39

North Catholic – 63

Tristan Newcamp 2 2-2 6, Austin Sieminski 4 1-2 9, Eric Taylor 3 4-5 10, Kenny Fukon 3 2-4 9, Zachary Offi 5 0-0 13, Isaiah Wilson 1 4-5 6, Isaiah Harvin 2 0-0 4, Dominic Serventi 1 1-2 4, Vincent DiNicola 1 0-0 2, John Fukon 0 0-0 0, Danny Nyman 0 0-0 0, Kevin Wright 0 0-0 0. Totals: 22 14-22 63.

3-pointers: Union 4 (Morris 3, Bowser), North Catholic 5 (Offi 3, Fukon, Serventi).