JOHNSTOWN - Late in the third quarter of Saturday night's 35th annual Mountain Cat Tournament, it looked like Shade would cruise to the tournament title. The Panthers held a 20-point lead at one point in the third frame, and went into the final quarter up 51-35. However, things tightened up in the fourth quarter.
Northern Bedford made a couple of runs at the Panthers, cutting the lead to 11 points on a couple of occasions in the final frame, but it wasn't enough as Shade improved to 6-0 with a 71-54 victory.
Ryan Fyock made all six free throws he attempted down the stretch to seal the victory.
"I think we got a little into their style in the first quarter," Northern Bedford coach Barry Crawford said. "We gave up 24 points in the first quarter. That's not going to cut it. We're not going to beat too many people doing that. We have to play better than that in the first quarter. Then we struggled in the second quarter to get shots. I think we only got five shots in the second quarter, and it's tough to win when you are doing that against really good teams."
Early in the game the points came fast and furious. Both teams combined for 6 3-pointers, 16 baskets, and 45 points in the first quarter.
There were four lead changes in the first 3:30 of the game. A basket by Northern Bedford's Zane Snyder tied it at 15-15. However, the Panthers outscored Northern Bedford, 9-4, to close out the quarter up 24-19.
The Black Panthers were outscored, 15-5, in the second quarter and fell behind, 39-24, at the half. The Panthers opened the frame on a 7-2 run, capped by a Cody Kiser 3-pointer that stretched Shade's advantage to 31-21 with 5:10 left in the half.
The third quarter was more of the same for the Panthers. They pushed their lead to 20 points on two different occasions, and appeared to have the game in control when Fyock hit two foul shots to give the Panthers a 51-33 lead with 1:32 left in the quarter.
Northern Bedford made what seemed to be two meaningless free throws in the final minute of the frame to cut the Shade lead to 16 points with eight minutes to play. However, the free throws were the start of a 15-8 run that trimmed the Panthers advantage to 11, 59-48, points with 4:01 left in the game.
However, Brock Medva responded with a layup to end the run. Northern Bedford was able to cut the lead to 11 points two other times, but that was as close as it would get.
Fyock led the Panthers with 30 points. Northern got 12 points each from Tayler Pressel and Kyler Diehl.
The consolation game featured a unique matchup. For the second weekend in a row, and the second tournament in a row, Conemaugh Township faced Central Cambria.
The Red Devils fell to 1-5, losing 49-33. They lost by 10 points a week ago to the Indians in a tournament game. Tanner Ambrisco led CC with 11 points.
CENTRAL CAMBRIA (33): Hodgson 0 0-0 0, Ambrisco 4 1-1 11, Holsinger 4 0-0 8, Bowman 0 0-0 0, Seymour 2 0-2 4, Tsikalas 1 0-0 2, Zearing 1 3-3 5, Magley 1 0-0 3, Leary 0 0-0 0, Berzonsky 0 0-0 0, Homan 0 0-0 0. Totals - 13 4-7 33.
CONEMAUGH TOWNSHIP (49): Speigle 1 0-0 3, Boyer 7 3-5 19, Fisher 3 1-2 8, Sotosky 3 2-2 8, Burns 1 0-0 2, Maurer 0 0-0 0, Callihan 2 0-3, 4, Steeves 0 1-2 1, Formica 0 2-4 2, Valentine 0 2-2 2. Totals - 17 11-20 49.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Central Cambria 7 5 9 12 - 33
Conemaugh Township 8 7 17 17 - 49
3-point field goals: Central Cambria 3 (Ambrisco 2, Magley); Conemaugh Township 4 (Boyer 2, Speigle, Fisher).
Records: Central Cambria (1-5); Conemaugh Township (3-2).
NORTHERN BEDFORD (54): England 2-4 0-0 6, Z. Pressel 5-8 1-1 12, Diehl 5-6 2-5 12, T. Pressel 3-9 0-0 7, Over 2-10 0-0 5, Litzenberger 0-1 2-2 2, Barnes 1-2 0-0 2, Snyder 3-5 2-2 8, Zimmerman 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 21-45 7-10 54.
SHADE (71): Medva 5-11 1-1 12, N. Walker 1-4 2-4 4, W. Walker 6-8 3-4 16, Fyock 7-16 15-16 30, Kise 2-3 0-2 6, Pyles 1-3 0-0 3, Mains 0-0 0-0 0, Spangler 0-1 0-0 0, Holland 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 22-46 21-27 71.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Northern Bedford 19 5 11 19 - 54
Shade 24 15 12 20 - 71
3-point field goals: Northern Bedford 5 (Engand 2, Z. Pressel, T. Pressel, Over). Shade 6 (Medva, W. Walker, Fyock, Kiser 2, Pyles).
Records: Shade (6-0), Northern Bedford (3-1)
