Intensity, Balance Drive Wildcats to 66-50 Win Over DuBois

AdminJanuary 25, 2016

2 minutes read

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – The Wildcat boys’ basketball team seems to have established a more definitive personality. Intensity and balance. That recipe garnered them another win to move to 10-5 on the season with a 66-50 win over visiting Du Bois (9-6).

Intensity with a relentless pace to overwhelm their competition early in the process … and balance on both offense and defense with the entire roster contributing value in the process when opportunities occur.

“Another really good start in the first quarter. It’s the second game in a row where we came out with a lot of fire,” head coach Scott Baker said of the 21-8 first quarter effort by the Wildcats, ” We knocked down some shots to have that big start. We’ve got a lot of guys stepping up and making plays.

Indeed, with relentless pressure on both ends of the court, depth becomes important in order to keep fresh legs and minds on the court. That depth proved valuable because it was instrumental in allowing four players to reach double figures in scoring on the night, with eight players in all contributing.

“We knew early on in the season we had guys who could play. One of the problems we had then was continuity. Now our guys understand their roles better and we have that continuity,” Baker explained.

That continuity comes in handy when the unexpected arises.

Late in the contest as DuBois was working feverishly to close the gap, Cole Reeder came down hard on his ankle and had to leave the game. Reeder had been dominating in the paint on both ends of the court with several key blocks and rebounds … as well as multiple put-backs and inside shooting from the post at the offensive end. While Reeder was icing his ankle, Wyatt Koch came off the bench and immediately took over the spot with a solid put-back of his own to solidify that continuity.

“It’s the ‘Next man up’ kind of thing,” coach Baker explained, “One guy goes down, the next guy steps up. Fortunately, we have 10-11 guys we have a lot of confidence in. Some of them get a lot of minutes, some don’t get as many minutes, but when someone goes down, someone else steps up.”

While the early going gave the Wildcats a comfortable edge, DuBois did battle back in the second period slightly edging the hosts 13-12, though, still trailing 33-21 at the half.

In the third quarter, the Beavers did manage to outscore Central Mountain 20-15, closing the gap to 48-41 heading into the last period.

In the fourth quarter, the Wildcats rediscovered their intensity and dominated DuBois 18-9 to seal the 16 point victory 66-50.

Offensively, Reeder led the Central Mountain with 16 points followed closely by Kyle Everhart and Alex Garbrick, each with 14. Justin Neff netted 11 points for CM. Rounding out the scoring was Wyatt Bumbarger, 4; Cordell Muther, 3; Landon Breon, 2; and Wyatt Koch, 2.

Next up is a home game this Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016 with Shamokin which will be live video stream here on the record-online.com.