Cochranton 66 Saegertown 59

Coach Greg Molnar's Saegertown Panthers went to battle tonight against Mel Dainty's Cochranton Cardinals. The Panthers however had to do battle without their tested floor General Jared Campbell due to injury. I always enjoy watching Jared play so I was somewhat disappointed but I still got to see a great game.

It became very evident early on that the Panthers would have trouble scoring inside while in their half court offense due to the shot blocking of Cochranton's 6' 7" Adam Roche. It is only a guess but I would say he had 7-10 blocks and a pile of boards. The first quarter was a back and forth game for awhile until Cochranton put together a 5 and 6 point run to put them up 16-8 at the end of one.

After the teams traded foul shots the Panthers went on the move with their fast-breaking transition game. Run, run, run and that is what Saegertown boys like to do and it is fun to watch. They outscored the Cardinals in the period 22-11 with Josh Ray scoring 11 of his game high 33 point. The halftime score was 30-27 Saegertown.

The Cardinals came out in the 3rd quarter with a hot shooting hand. It seemed like everything they put up was going in. Zac Culberston was fun to watch as he poured in 8 of their total of 22 points in the frame. He shot from 3 land and drove the lane several times with success. Saegertown could only muster 8 points to fall behind 38-49 at the end of three quarters.

The fourth quarter saw Josh Ray and Culbertson trading buckets back and forth with Saegertown trimming the lead to 57-61 with 57.7 seconds left in the game. From that point on Cochranton made their foul shots to hold off the Panthers for a 66-59 win.

BigSkinny Players of the Game: Zac Culbertson of Cochranton with 22 points and Josh Ray of Saegertown with 33 points.

Final thoughts: Saegertown's fast paced running game is fun to watch and when you play them you better be in shape because they just keep running kids off the bench at you. Cochranton on the other hand has some boys who can shoot the rock. The Culbertson kid will let it fly from anywhere and hits a good percentage of them. The Roche boy gives them an excellent inside presence especially on defense.