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Bad start, and finish, doom Panthers

By Rick Weaver

For The Mirror

RURAL VALLEY — Penn Cambria basketball coach Jim Ronan has seen this play out for most of the season. More of the same led to an early playoff exit for the Panthers.

A cold start followed by a brutal fourth quarter proved to be too much for Penn Cambria to overcome in its 46-38 loss to host West Shamokin in a District 6 Class 3A first-round playoff loss Monday night.

The Panthers finished the year 9-14. The Heritage Conference Wolves travel to top-seeded Richland Wednesday night.

Penn Cambria fell behind, 11-2 in the game’s first four minutes.

“That’s been the story of our season,” Ronan said. “We go through these long stretches where we can’t score. We had every open look that we wanted tonight, and we just couldn’t put the nail in the coffin.”

The only reason the Panthers managed to stay in the game was a tenacious, and often, frustrating defense that forced 21 turnovers and put the Wolves out of sorts.

“We played great defense. We played our tails off defensively,” Ronan said. “We caused so much trouble defensively. We did everything we wanted to do defensively.”

“We knew that they like to play fast. That’s been something we’ve been working on all year; to try to take to better care of the basketball. It was priority No. 1 coming into the game,” West Shamokin coach Judd McCullough said.

Penn Cambria out-scored the Wolves, 7-1, over the last three minutes of the first half and trailed, 24-21. A three-point play by Tanner Perrone, and a put back by Jacob Shuagis, gave the Panthers their first lead at 26-24.

Shuagis led all players with 17 points, followed by Perrone (16). That was fine with McCullough.

“Braedon O’Donnell and Mason Ronan were our two biggest focal points,” McCullough said. “We knew Shuagis was a very good player as well, and they have some great supporting cast members as well. But we wanted to focus on having other guys beat us and other guys did step up for them. But we were fortunate enough to come out on top.”

Ronan managed nine rebounds but made only 1 of 5 from the free-throw line.

Penn Cambria took a 34-32 lead into the fourth period, during which it managed only four points and missed its first seven free throws.

“That doesn’t help. You don’t win games like that,” Ronan said. “We scored four points in the last 11 minutes. You don’t win games like that. But we’ve had stretches that bad this entire season. And when you have stretches that bad you can’t win in the playoffs. You can’t win against good teams.”

Drew Orlosky led the Wolves with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Carson DeWitt added 11 points. Ethan Libengood also pulled down 10 rebounds for West Shamokin.

“Obviously we made enough plays and played good enough defense to come out on top,” McCullough.

The loss brought an end to a season in which Perrone, O’Donnell, Ronan, Shuagis, all senior starters, played together for the last time.

“This was a special group to me,” coach Ronan said. “My son’s on the team. But the other three seniors on the team were like kids to me. They spent all the time in my house growing up from kindergarten on. So, it’s always harder to say goodbye to a group like this. But it’s been special; a lot of memories, a lot of stress, and a lot of gray hairs coming out. But that’s part of the game; it’s part of coaching.

“And that’s why coaching’s so great; because there are so many roller-coaster rides throughout. And if you like roller-coasters, then coaching is the profession you want to be in.”

PENN CAMBRIA (38): O’Donnell 0 1-3 1, Shuagis 7 0-0 17. T.Perrone 5 3-5 16, Ronan 0 1-5 1, Smith 0 1-2 1, Garrett 1 0-0 2, R.Perrone 0 0-0 0, Tsikalas 0 0-0 0. Totals — 13 6-15 38.

WEST SHAMOKIN (46): Orlosky 5 2-2 14, Skami 0 0-0 0, Lightcap 2 1-2 5, DeWitt 4 2-4 11, Libengood 2 3-4 7, Zik 1 0-0 2, Haswell 0 0-0 0, Sweeney 2 0-0 4, Allen 1 0-0 2, Smulik 0 1-2 1. Totals — 17 9-14 46.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Penn Cambria 7 14 13 4 — 38

West Shamokin 13 11 8 14 — 46

3-point field goals: Penn Cambria 6 (Shuagis 3, T.Perrone 3), West Shamokin 3 (Orlosky 2, DeWitt).

Officials: Chuck Glasser, Tony Sottile, Todd McGee.

Team records: Penn Cambria (9-14), West Shamokin (12-11).

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