Wildcats Pick Up Solid 67-60 Win over Braves

AdminJanuary 4, 2019Last Updated: January 4, 2019

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BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – It came later than everyone hoped but the Wildcat basketball team finally secured a win this season with a solid 67-60 victory over visiting Shikellamy.

Central Mountain set the pace in the early going by playing with purpose, executing well-placed shots while getting some success from the perimeter that opened up more opportunities for the inside game. As a team, the Wildcats were 8-20 from outside the arc and steady on their free throws with a 7-14 effort.

“We talked about playing with purpose over our second preseason, over holiday break,” said CM head coach, Tyler Bardo,” What I was most pleased with is we came out and forced the issue. We saw how easy the shots can come by doing that.”

The Wildcats held a 19-11 advantage, then exploded in the second quarter for 23 points while the Braves only managed 11 more points before the break giving CM a solid 42-22 lead.

When the second half opened, Shik turned the tables on their hosts and snatched the momentum with a 22-12 effort to close the CM lead to 54-44 at the close of the third quarter punctuated by a solid buzzer-beater from downtown by Collin Jones that appeared to recapture the momentum for the Wildcats for the remainder of the game.

The Braves did manage to reduce the Wildcat lead to as few as 5 points on several occasions late in the game, but the ‘Cats would settle in and drop in their shots to maintain their advantage, keyed by 3-8 effort from the penalty stripe and converting 10 points from the field. Even though Shik outscored the Wildcats 16-13 in the final period, their effort fell short with CM prevailing 67-60 for their first win of the season.

“We got away from what was working early in the second half but we held strong,” explained Bardo, “The exact same thing happened to us a week and a half ago and we didn’t respond. Tonight we took the shots we wanted and had a high volume of shots because of the pace. I’m glad they shot with confidence and they can see now what we did.”

“To get that first win by understanding how to play with a lead and put a nail in it at the end was a new situation for us,” Bardo observed.

Once again it was CM senior, Collin Jones leading the way with 23 points, including 2 buckets from 3-point land and 12 rebounds while Conner Soo netted 17 points, hitting 3-4 3-pointers on the night. Zane Probst scored 9 points with Tanner Lavelle dropping in 8 points. Jake Skrtich scored 5, Cayde McCloskey 3 and Aiden Major with 2.

Central Mountain moves to 1-5 overall and 1-3 in PHAC play this season.

It won’t get easier for the Wildcats any time soon as they will travel to perennial power house Loyalsock on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019