Union Cleaners blows late lead in 61-56 loss to Howard Hanna

By JEREMY SELLEW

jsellew@yourmvi.com

While Union Cleaners is winless in the Mon Valley Independent Summer Basketball League, the boys in blue have been in every single game.

Union had one of its best chances to pull off an upset, but careless ball control and poor shot selection ultimately cost them in the opening game of Thursday’s tripleheader.

Union Cleaners led 56-49 with three minutes to go, but Howard Hanna Wilson Baum held them scoreless the rest of the way and used a 12-0 run to escape with a 61-56 win. 

“This is two games in a row now that it seems like we wait until the final minutes to kind of put it all together,” Howard Hanna coach Matt Loftis said. “I give them credit, that team is winless but they’ve been in every single game. But our guys still continue to play up to that final horn.”

The game continued the pattern of getting off to a hot start and cooling off for Howard Hanna as Union Cleaners took advantage of some mental mistakes and foul trouble.

“It’s crazy because we get up early then all of a sudden we’re down five,” Loftis said. “We have a bad tendency to let teams just hang around. We make bad fouls, get careless and have dumb turnovers.”

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