Warriors drop section finale

By DEAN DELLAMALVA JR.
For the Mon Valley Independent
Some may say a team with nothing to lose is dangerous.
The Elizabeth Forward boys basketball team were eliminated from playoff contention with a loss to Belle Vernon Area Tuesday and faced a tall task of facing the Section 3-4A champs from Uniontown one day later.
And the Warriors nearly left the Red Raiders licking their wounds.
EF led 37-33 at halftime and played well enough to scare Uniontown before falling, 67-52, due to cold shooting in the second half.
Xander Pannell led the Warriors (2-8, 6-15) with 14 points but had only four after the first quarter. Chase Vaughn had 13 points, with only two coming in the second half.
“We lost that tough one to Belle Vernon (Tuesday night) so we were kind of unsure of how the kids would come in here tonight,” Elizabeth Forward head coach Matt Loftis said. “Credit to them, they absolutely played one of our best halves of basketball there in the first half. They never laid down, no matter what was going on.”