Danville Outlasts Central Mountain, 50-48

AdminFebruary 14, 2018

2 minutes read

SUNBURY – It came down to the wire in a classic high school basketball contest with Danville outlasting the Wildcats at the finish. With 1:41 remaining, Danville had a 49-42 lead and the ‘Cats would claw their way back and had an opportunity to knot the score at the final buzzer that was blocked.

It was a high pace fast moving game from the tipoff with both teams running and gunning though the Ironmen had a slim 19-16 lead after one period of play. The second quarter started out much the same way, though about 4 minutes in, both teams had trouble scoring as they traded missed shots, turnovers and wayward rebounds with the score tied at 19-19 for several minutes of play. Danville, once again had a slight advantage outscoring the Wildcats 6-5 to hold a 25-21 lead at the half.

It was a head-to-head battle once again in the third quarter with Danville inching away outscoring Central Mountain 14-13 to set a 39-34 lead with one period to go.

Early in the fourth quarter, Danville stretched their lead to 10 points but the ‘Cats kept chipping away at that lead until with 13 seconds remaining in the game, Central Mountain committed a foul sending Danville to the free throw line for a 1-1 situation. The first foul shot banged off the rim and the Wildcats put the ball in play which ended up in senior Matt Storeman’s hands. As Storeman went up for a 2-point jumper that would tie the score, his shot was blocked as the buzzer sounded to preserve the Danville win.

It has been a tough stretch for the Wildcats in February as the schedule had them face a formidable list of opponents that included Montoursville, Loyalsock, Mifflinburg and Williamsport.

“We’ve now had 4 losses for a combined 23 points this season,” remarked CM head coach Tyler Bardo, “At some point we have got to get past this and stop putting ourselves in this position where we have to come back late in the game.”

The competition of the top four teams was even across the board as Loyalsock got past Mount Carmel 53-51 in the late game at Shik tonight. ‘Sock will now face Danville on Friday for the title. These two teams met on Monday for their last regular season game when the Lancers edged the Ironmen 49-47.

“We kind of thought it was going to be a wide open conference this season,” said Bardo of the near parody in the PHAC competition, “This is not where we wanted to end up, for sure,” Bardo added.

Collin Jones, led the Wildcats with 19 points followed by Trevor Hanna with 12. Isaiah McCann and Jake Skrtich each had 5 points on the night. Storeman finished with 4 points and Tyler Adair added 3 points on the night.

Central Mountain is back in action on Monday, Feb. 19, 2018 for a District 6 5A first round game as they host Bellefonte for a 7 p.m. tipoff.

“We have Bellefonte coming in Monday and has been playing very well and have won 4 of their last 5 games,” said Bardo of the Wildcats next playoff opportunity, “They are going to want to come back to ur gym and get a different result from what they had at the start of the season.”