Bucks struggle in home opener, fall to Neumann 68-47
By Bees O’Brien
FARWELL- Bucktail opened their 2025-26 home schedule on Tuesday evening against Mid Penn Conference rivals St John Neumann. The Bucks turned over the ball 22 times, while managing just 10 take aways of their own and failed to rally after falling behind by double digits at the half. The Golden Knights came out of Farwell with the 68-47 victory.
The Bucks rallied behind Gavin Pick. Pick hit his first basket to give Bucktail a quick 2-0 lead, but Pick collected his second personal foul at the 4:02 mark in the first frame. This forced head coach Travis Fantaskey to pull his leading scorer.
With Pick out of the game, Neumann took advantage. The Golden Knights connected on two three-point baskets in a row to begin a 14-0 run that was finally silenced by a Landon Charcalla three-point basket with 2:50 remaining.
Neumann countered with a Daiton Thompson three, but Bucktail’s Aidan Ditty matched the Golden Knight shot by nailing one from beyond the arc.
The Bucks trailed Neumann 19-11 after one quarter.
St. John Neumann continued to cash in on the Bucktail miscues and scored at will off of turnovers and continued uncontested drives to the basket.
Pick re-entered and drilled a three-point basket to pull the Bucks to within 27-18, but at the 3:30 mark he’d be sent to the bench for the remainder of the half when he picked up his third personal foul.
Despite coughing up 15 turnovers in the half, they only found themselves down by just 12 at 37-25. The 10 point and 6 rebound effort from Daidan Ditty in the first half had them still in a tight battle.
The Bucks cleaned things up in the second half
Landon Charcalla, making his varsity start of his career connected on his second three-pointer of the night to bring the Golden Knights’ lead to single digits at 37-28.
Neumann went on a 14-1 run to build a 7-1 run to build a 44-29 lead.
The Bucks kept up with Neumann in the third frame by only being outscored by a count of 15-14.
In the final quarter, following another short Neumann run the Bucks cleared their bench. The Golden Knights used a 16-8 final quarter to pull out the 68-47 road win.
Despite sitting most of the first half, Gavin Pick finished with a strong night by scoring 14 points and grabbing 10 rebounds to collect a double-double. Even more impressive was his three blocked shots, that all came when the Bucktail junior had three personal fouls.
Aidan Ditty finished a strong night to for the Bucks. Ditty finished with 12 points and 9 rebounds. Corbin Pentz dropped in 12 points for the Bucks, too.
Now 1-2, The Bucks are set to host Montgomery (0-2) in Farwell on Friday night.
SJN1918151668
Bucktail111414847
Bucktail (47)
Pick 5 3-4 14, A. Ditty 5 0-0 12, Stone 1 0-2 2, Pentz 5 1-3 12, Charcalla 2 0-0 6, J. Ditty 0 1-2 1, Mansfield 0 0-0 0, Emerick 0 0-0 0, Graw 0 0-0 0, Steele 0 0-0 0, Pedokus 0 0-0 0, Robinson 0 0-2 0, TOTALS- 18 5-13 47
3FG- 6 (Charcalla 2, A. Ditty 2, Pick, Pentz) Rebounds- 34 (Pick 10) Assists- 12 (A. Ditty 3, Pentz 3) Steals- 10 (Stone 3) Blocks- 4 (Pick 3, Pentz)
