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By Ron Musselman
For The Mirror
HOLLIDAYSBURG -- The Hollidaysburg boys basketball team got a slam dunk to start Wednesday night's game from Mason Goodman, off a nifty feed along the baseline from Jake Hileman.
"That's the first time I ever started a game with a dunk," Goodman said, smiling.
Goodman's slam, his fifth of the year, got the Golden Tigers off to a fast start in their Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference East Division matchup against Penns Valley.
In the end, host Hollidaysburg's height advantage wore down the much smaller Rams and helped them secure a 61-51 victory.
Hileman, a 6-foot-1 guard, finished with a team-high 14 points despite being in foul trouble. Goodman, a 6-2 senior guard, contributed 13 points and 6-6 senior center Jon Holsopple came off the bench to add 11, all in the second half.
Hollidaysburg improved to 5-0 in the LHAC East and 7-2 overall with its fifth win in six games.
Penns Valley (2-7, 1-5 LHAC East) had its two game winning streak stopped. The Rams opened the season by dropping their first six games.
"We are extremely happy that we won," Tigers coach Brad Lear said. "We beat a good team that has a bad record. Penns Valley isn't really a 2-7 team, no matter what their record says.
"Mason and Jake did a lot of good things and Jon had some good minutes off the bench. When the Holsopple kid can score like that, we become a much better team."
After Hollidaysburg's quick start, Penns Valley rebounded to take a 13-12 lead after one quarter on senior forward Jackson Romig's back-to-back layups. The Tigers eventually regained a 21-19 advantage on Cole Walters' 3-pointer with six minutes left in the second quarter.
Hollidaysburg led the rest of the period, including 33-30 at halftime. Overall, there were five lead changes in the opening 16 minutes.
"I thought (the dunk) got the game going for us," Goodman said. "We went on a run the first part of the game for a bit, but we had a long middle with our turnovers. Our biggest thing this year has been closing the game out, and we closed this one out the right way.
"I thought we did a better job of sharing the ball with everyone and the points were spread out pretty evenly. I thought we also did a real good job of finishing around the rim compared to other games."
Romig, the Rams' tallest starter at 5-11, scored 15 of his game-high 17 points in the first half. He picked up his third foul 17 seconds into the third quarter and sat on the bench for nearly seven minutes.
By the time he finally returned, the Tigers had built up an 11-point lead.
"He just wasn't the same player when he came back in," Lear said.
Sophomore guard Fletcher Ironside netted eight of his 14 points for the Rams in the second half, when it was a case of too little, too late. He also spent some time on the bench with foul problems.
"It was a good win for us," junior guard Jay Albarano said. "We had some good moments on offense and defense."
Hollidaysburg will play the nightcap of a boys-girls LHAC doubleheader Friday at Forest Hills. The girls game starts at 6 p.m. followed by the boys at 7:30.
PENNS VALLEY (51): F. Ironside 5 3-4 14, C. Ironside 1 0-0 3, Webster 2 0-0 6, Romig 7 3-4 17, Althouse 2 1-2 5, Mast 0 0-0 0, Patel 1 0-0 2, Niewinski 2 0-0 4, Ripple 0 0-0 0. Totals -- 20 7-10 51.
HOLLIDAYSBURG (61): Goodman 5 1-1 13 Albarano 2 0-0 5, Rhodes 3 0-0 6, Steiner 0 0-0 0, Hileman 7 0-0 14, Weimert 4 1-2 9, Metzgar 0 0-0 0, Walters 1 0-0 3, Holsopple 5 1-2 11, Zimmerman 0 0-0 0. Totals -- 27 3-5 61.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Penns Valley 13 17 11 10 - 51
Hollidaysburg 12 21 15 13 - 61
3-point field goals: Penns Valley 4 (Webster 2, F. Ironside, C. Ironside), Hollidaysburg 4 (Goodman 2, Alabarno. Walters).
Records: Penns Valley (2-7, 1-5 LHAC East), Hollidaysburg (7-2, 5-0 LHAC East).
Officials: Clark Adelman, Jack McDougal, Randy Burkett.
JV: Hollidaysburg, 32-27. High scorers: Zimmerman, H, 10 points.