Zalonis, Muncy down Bucktail in opener 69-30

By Bees O’Brien

MUNCY- Patrick Zalonis has been on a roll lately. The Muncy sharpshooter entered Wednesday’s game against Bucktail fresh off of a game against St. John Neumann where he buried 6 three-point baskets. He would outdo his previous night’s effort by draining 8 from beyond the arc and scoring a game-high 26 points as the Indians would take advantage of 35 turnovers and cruise to a 69-30 Mid Penn Conference victory.

“You can’t win a game when you have more turnovers than points.” said a frustrated Travis Fantaskey following his team’s loss. He was right.

Bucktail’s Braylon Fantaski would get his team off on the right foot with a three point basket to give Bucktail an early 3-0 lead. Brody Pentz’s inside basket would give the Bucks a 5-3 lead, but the defending District IV 2A champions would begin to swarm the Bucks. Muncy would close out the quarter by scoring 14 points off of 9 first quarter turnovers. Despite the sloppy play from the Bucks, they only found themselves down 19-15 after one quarter.

Zalonis would then take over by dropping in five straight three-point baskets in the second quarter. Muncy’s 24-point second quarter to Bucktail’s 5 points, all from Pentz would see the Bucks trailing 39-20 at the break.

The Bucks would manage just 10 points in the entire second half to Muncy’s 26 to set the 69-30 final.

Braylon Fantaski would lead the Bucks with 8 points and Pentz would finish with 9 rebounds to go along with his 7 points.

Konner Shearer netted 13 for the Indians, while teammate Noah Confer added 11 points.

Bucktail (0-1, 0-1) will be back in conference play Friday when they host the team that knocked them out of the postseason to end last season. Sullivan County (1-2) enters Farwell for what should be an exciting contest as the Bucks hope to gain revenge on the Griffins, the defending District IV 1A champions.

Bucktail1554630

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Bucktail (30)

Pentz 2 2-2 7, Steele 2 0-0 5, Mason 1 0-0 2, Fantaski 3 0-0 8, Green 2 0-0 5, Whipp 1 1-2 3, Shearer 0 0-0 0, Pick 0 0-0 0, Mathews 0 0-0 0, TOTALS- 11 3-4 30

3FG- 5 (Fantaski 2, Pentz, Green, Steele)