By DAN IRWIN
d_irwin@ncnewsonline.com

Even Chase Frederick’s hot hand couldn’t finish off Summit Academy.

But Elexis Rosario’s misplaced ones did.

Frederick enjoyed a breakout 20-point performance — including five 3-pointers — in Mohawk High’s 59-57 homecourt win over the Knights last night. The victory boosted Mohawk to 5-0 in WPIAL Section 2-AA play (7-4 overall) and set up a battle of conference unbeatens at Riverside (5-0, 13-1) on Tuesday.

Despite Frederick’s star turn — he was averaging just 7.9 ppg. and had only two treys prior to last night’s game — the Warriors needed two free throws from Matt Jura with 7.4 seconds remaining to dispatch Summit. Jura got that opportunity when Rosario, apparently thinking that his team was still trailing despite Derrick Elliott’s game-tying layup with 11 seconds to go, grabbed Jura at midcourt as he brought the ball upcourt.

“I thought it was tied, but then he grabbed me, and I didn’t know what was going on, really,” said Jura, who had been just 3-of-4 from the charity stripe on the season prior to last night’s clutch foul shots.

“I was never that nervous in a game in my life,” he went on. “We practice them (free throws) every day in practice, so I’m just taking deep breaths, trying to keep my cool.”

Mohawk head coach Kevin Wrona said he had no intention of calling a timeout in the waning seconds following Elliott’s basket. But he wasn’t complaining about the stoppage in play prompted by Rosario’s foul.

“Our philosophy is, in that situation, we’re going to play it out,” he said. “We think we have a better chance trying to score in transition, not allowing the defense to set up.

“Fortunately, it paid off — not the way we envisioned, but it still paid off for us.”

Mohawk had appeared on the verge of taking charge of the game late in the third period and early in the fourth. Summit (1-4, 6-7) had rallied from a 34-27 deficit to take only its second lead of the game, 40-38, on an Elliott bucket from underneath with 1:52 to go in the third.

The Warriors, though, countered with a 13-3 run, powered by three 3-pointers from Frederick, who wound up shooting 7 of 14 from the floor, including 5 of 8 from beyond the arc.

Frederick admitted his performance was not typical of his season to date.

“No,” he said. “I wish. But I had a good practice yesterday, and kept it going tonight. This was a good night to have it.”

Wrona noted that Frederick has put a lot of effort into improving his game.

“He’s been struggling shooting the ball, but we’ve talked about it, and he’s been staying after practice, and working on it before practice,” Wrona said. “Yesterday in practice, he shot it the same way you saw tonight.

“When he hit that first three (in the first quarter), we thought, ‘You know what? He may have a big one tonight.’ And sure enough, he did.”

Summit, which got 21 points from Matt Vaughn and 15 from Elliott, had one last chance after Jura’s free throws, but Laron Green’s 15-footer at the buzzer found nothing but iron, leaving the Warriors ready to match unblemished section records with Riverside next week.

“It’s a big game, and it’s exciting,” said Wrona, whose team also benefited from Matt Lorello’s 13 points and Michael Henry’s 11 markers and 10 rebounds.

“Maybe we put a little more pressure on ourselves for this game, maybe thinking about that in the back of our minds. But we’re definitely looking forward to it.”