Millionaires too Much for the Wildcats

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP — The Williamsport Millionaires came to Central Mountain High School Wednesday night and showed why they have one of the premier big school basketball programs in the central part of the state.

While the hometown Wildcats battled throughout, the Millionaires put on constant defensive pressure and for all intents and purposes decided the issue in the first half on the way to a 67-47 victory. The win put Williamsport at 7-3 on the year and dropped the Wildcats to 5-2 with a key Heartland Conference contest lined up for Friday at Selinsgrove.

Central Mountain stayed with Williamsport through the first several minutes and held its only lead of the night at 7-6 after Kyle Everhart swished a 3-pointer. But the rest of the first half was all the Millionaires, outscoring the Wildcats by a 38-14 clip to open up a 44-21 halftime lead on the way to the 67-47 triumph.

Williamsport forced 12 Wildcat turnovers in the first half. CM coach Scott Baker thought his team handled the back court pressure okay but was disappointed at how the visitors disrupted his team’s offensive sets. He also noted Williamsport “physically manhandled” his smaller team on the offensive glass.

Baker said, “The loss doesn’t distract from our goals of winning league and district titles.” He said his squad would show up for practice Thursday, “grow from the loss” and prepare for the Friday showdown at 6-2 Selinsgrove. Both the Wildcats and the Seals are 2-0 in early Heartland league play.

Central Mountain got 13 points each from Brody Baker and Everhart. Justin Neff followed with 6, Trevor Hanna with 5, Matt Storeman and Collin Jones each with 4 and Wyatt Bumbarger and Yash Adroja each with 2. Division I prospect Stanley Scott led Williamsport with 20 points.