Wildcat Boys Hoops Down ‘Shore, 78-53

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – It was a rivalry game Tuesday night and so it took a while for either visiting Jersey Shore (3-2, 1-1) or the home-standing Central Mountain (3-1, 2-0) basketball teams to establish any kind of offensive rhythm.

Meanwhile the Wildcat defense set the early tempo, forcing turn-over after turn-over until the offense got untracked. But once the scoring began Central Mountain opened a double-figure first quarter lead and remained in control for the rest of the game in picking up a 78-53 win. The victory put the Wildcats at 3-1 and dropped ‘Shore to 3-2.

Points were hard to come by early on, 3-0 CM after a couple minutes; then Wildcat senior guard Matt Storeman got hot, converting three straight opportunities to open up a 9-0 lead en route to a 14-4 end of the quarter margin. Central Mountain got scoring from six different players in period two, totaling 21 points in opening a 35-18 halftime lead.

Jersey Shore’s Junior Armstrong, a senior in his first year in the Bulldog program, kept his team afloat in period three with 11 of his 18 points on the night. With Storeman and junior standout Collin Jones on the Wildcat bench in foul trouble for part of the period, ‘Shore outscored Central Mountain by a 21-17 margin and at one point cut the ‘Cat lead to 11 at 41-30. But that would be as close as the visitors would get as Central Mountain’s defense forced 29 turnovers overall. Coach Tyler Bardo was able to clear the bench in the final quarter and the game saw nine different Wildcats score, lead by four in double-figures: Jones with 18 (to go along with 11 rebounds), Storeman and Trevor Hanna with 12 each and Izzy McCann with 11. Jake Skrtich came off the bench with 9 points; Tyler Adair had 7, Connor Soo with 5 and Tanner Lavelle with 2.

In addition to Armstrong’s 18 points, ‘Shore got 14 from Nate Ewing, 13 from Jay Dincher and 12 from Tanner Lorson.

Coach Bardo praised his defense afterwards, “The defense helped the offense which was struggling early and helped to set the tempo for the team to get up and down the floor.” He was pleased to have four players finish in double-figures and noted the bench help offensively, including the 9 points from Skrtich.

Next up for Central Mountain is another Heartland Conference contest, at Shikellamy Friday, Dec. 22 at 7:30 p.m.