Wildcats Fall to Danville, 62-53 on the Road

DANVILLE – Central Mountain battled the Ironmen in their first PHAC contest of the season, falling to the hosts 62-52 on the road.

Danville set the tone early doubling up on the Wildcats 19-8 in the first quarter, though CM responded in the second quarter outpacing the Ironmen 13-10 their hosts still held a 29-21 advantage at the break.

It was Danville once again setting the pace in the third quarter with a 23-12 effort to give the Ironman a comfortable 52-33 lead with only 8 minutes remaining in the game.

Central Mountain would respond with 19 points in the fourth quarter, 14 of those points coming from Collin Jones. That effort wasn’t enough as Danville put up 10 points of their own to fend off the Central Mountain rally for the 62-52 win.

“We got off to a really slow start and played them even the rest of the game,” said CM head coach Tyler Bardo, “We know that we can’t afford that type of beginning to a game, however, we were pleased to see multiple contributions on both sides of the ball tonight.”

Collin Jones led the ‘Cats in scoring with 23 points and 15 rebounds with Tanner Lavelle adding 11 points and 5 boards and Conner Soo dropped in 11 points for CM. Jake Skrtich and Aiden Major each had 3 points and Logan Fisher with 2 points.

“Danville is a very good team for this early in the season and we finally saw our team let loose a bit and play basketball,” Bardo Observed, “We feel that really good things are happening and it’s now a matter of becoming more consistent and efficient. Opening a season with three road games and against the most experienced returning district team and two of the projected top teams in the conference … That’s not an easy road when developing four new starters and inexperience in youth on the bench. We can be excited about our growth and maturity even this early in the year. The key is not to become complacent and satisfied with a moral victory.”

The loss takes Central Mountain to 0-2 on the season and 0-1 in PHAC play.

The Wildcats will next take to the hardwood when they travel to Shamokin on Friday, Dec. 14, 2018.