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Red Raiders reign supreme: Uniontown’s Braxton, Kezmarsy top All-Area Boys Basketball Team

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Uniontown senior Jamire Braxton poses with Red Raiders coach Rob Kezmarsky after scoring the 1,000th point of his career this past season. Braxton is the Ãå±±½ûµØ All-Area Boys Basketball Team Player of the Year and Kezmarsky is the Coach of the Year.

Rob Burchianti | Ãå±±½ûµØ

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Belle Vernon’s Zion Moore attempts a jump shot over Uniontown’s Kelan Milsom during a game this past season. Moore is a First Team member of the Ãå±±½ûµØ All-Area Boys Basketball Team. Milsom w

Rob Burchianti | Ãå±±½ûµØ

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Yough’s Terek Crosby releases a 3-point shot in a game this past season. Crosby, who went over the 2,000-point mark for her career this year, is a First Team member of the Ãå±±½ûµØ All-Area Boys Basketball Team.

Rob Burchianti | Ãå±±½ûµØ

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Expectations were extremely high for Uniontown’s boys basketball team this past season and with that came a certain amount of pressure.

After all, Red Raiders basketball has very lofty standards compared to many others in the WPIAL or even the PIAA.

There was a huge obstacle in the way for coach Rob Kezmarsky’s team, however.

And though they couldn’t quite get over the huge hump that was Lincoln Park, the team with two NCAA Division-I recruits that went on to repeat as WPIAL and PIAA Class AAAA champions, Uniontown had an outstanding season nonetheless.

You could make the case that the Red Raiders were the second best team in the state.

Lincoln Park’s two closest games throughout its run through the postseason were both against Uniontown, an 11-point win, which was a deceiving score of a much closer contest, in the WPIAL semifinals and a four-point win in the PIAA second round.

As it was, the Red Raiders claimed their 51st section championship and went as far as they could in the playoffs, winding up in the WPIAL Final Four and the PiAA round of 16. In a different year, a WPIAL title and at least a trip to Hershey would’ve been very realistic possibilities.

The Red Raiders finished the season with a 23-5 overall record that included a late-January lull partially due to injuries.

Leading the way for Uniontown was senior 1000-point scorer Jamire Braxton, who is the Ãå±±½ûµØ All-Area Boys Basketball Team Player of the Year.

Braxton had a remarkable all-around season and seemed to play his best in big games.

The 6-foot-2 guard-forward led the Red Raiders with 516 points, 18.4 points per game and a 3-point shooting percentage of 40%, and was second on the team in rebounding (6.3 per game) and assists (3.8) and third in steals (2.0) and blocked shots (0.4) and field goal percentage (51%). Braxton was a solid defensive player as well.

The Coach of the Year for the second season in a row is Kezmarsky. Dealing with the pressure that surrounds Uniontown basketball isn’t easy but Kezmarsky handled his team brilliantly and got the most out of his squad.

Other coaches who guided teams to section titles, along with at least one playoff win, were Dan Bosnic of Monessen, who got the Greyhounds into the PIAA tournament, and Jim Nesser of Yough. West Greene coach Jim Romanus guided the senior-less Pioneers to a split with Monessen and only their second playoff win in program history in their first home playoff game.

Also guiding their teams into the postseason were Belle Vernon’s Joe Salvino, Southmoreland’s Frank Muccino, Frazier’s Zach Keefer, Jefferson-Morgan’s Brandon Lawless, California’s Cabe Powell, Mount Pleasant’s Annie Malkowiak and Elizabeth Forward’s Nolan Larry.

Braxton is one of five players on the All-Area First Team.

He’s joined by another key member of the Red Raiders, junior Notorious Grooms, along with Belle Vernon junior Zion Moore, who won the WPIAL regular-season scoring title, Yough senior Terek Crosby, who went over the 2,000-point mark for his career this year, and Monessen’s Lorenzo Gardner, whose 64-point effort against California matched the second-best single-game output in WPIAL history and the most by a Westmoreland County player.

Second Team members are Uniontown’s Calvin Winfrey III, who had his season partially derailed by an ankle injury, and K’Adrian McLee, Yough’s Austin Matthews, the area’s best true center, Southmoreland’s Ty Keffer, Belle Vernon’s Alonzo Wade, Albert Gallatin’s Blake White, Jefferson-Morgan’s Dayten Marion, Carmichaels’ Dominic Colarusso, Elizabeth Forward’s Isaiah Turner and West Greene’s Lane Allison.

The area’s top 10 regular-season scorers, according to statistics from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, were Moore (26.3), Crosby (25.8), Gardner (25.2), Keffer (19.7), Allison (19.1), Braxton (18.4), Turner (18.0), White (16.9), Frazier’s Dailan McManus (16.8) and Bentworth’s Ben Hays (16.8).

The complete Ãå±±½ûµØ All-Area Boys Basketball team is listed below:

Player of the Year: Jamire Braxton, Uniontown

Coach of the Year: Rob Kezmarsky, Uniontown

First Team

Jamire Braxton, Uniontown

Zion Moore, Belle Vernon

Terek Crosby, Yough

Notorious Grooms, Uniontown

Lorenzo Gardner, Monessen

Second Team

Calvin Winfrey III and K’Adrian McLee, Uniontown; Austin Matthews, Yough; Ty Keffer, Southmoreland; Blake White, Albert Gallatin; Alonzo Wade, Belle Vernon; Dominic Colarusso, Carmichaels; Dayten Marion, Jefferson-Morgan; Isaiah Turner, Elizabeth Forward; Lane Allison, West Greene.

Honorable Mention

Jeremiah Hager, Kelan Milsom, Uniontown; Trent Wible, Harlan Davis, Brownsville; Aidan Black, Ethan Hoffer, Laurel Highlands; Noah Felentzer, Southmoreland; Mykel Belt, Shymere Wilson, Albert Gallatin; Dalian McManus, Brock Alekson, Brennen Stewart, Frazier; Daryl Tolliver, Ringgold; Tommy Davis, Belle Vernon; Dante Giallonardo, Mount Pleasant; Parker Burns, Patrick Durbin, West Greene; Vincent Manzella, California; Jase Bedilion, Jefferson-Morgan; Tommy Kolencik, Gary Tarbuk, Geibel Catholic; AJ Vanata, Mapletown; Anthony Piasecki, Bruce Giles, Connellsville; Brody Tharp, Beth-Center; Ben Hays, Bentworth; Cole Headlee, Dane Woods, Waynesburg Central.