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By John Hartsock
jhartsock@altoonamirror.com
TYRONE -- Penn Cambria got off to a sluggish start in its first-round game against Bellwood-Antis in the Judge Fred B. Miller Memorial Tyrone Holiday Basketball Tournament Friday evening.
The Panthers caught their second wind in the middle of the game, however, building a 33-20 lead after three quarters en route to posting a 47-30 victory.
The win earns Penn Cambria a berth in tonight's 7:30 p.m. boys championship game against host Tyrone, which beat Claysburg-Kimmel, 77-48, in Friday's other first-round game.
This tournament, starting Friday and continuing henceforth, is being named after the honorable late Judge Miller, who had served as the long-time chairperson and director for the event -- which is sponsored chiefly by Reliance Bank and the Northern Kiwanis Club. Miller died at the age of 54 earlier this year after a battle with cancer.
Led by senior guard Brandon Rabish's game-high 19 points, Penn Cambria (3-3) shook off some early doldrums to gain a strong leg up during a 14-point run that began midway through the second quarter and culminated midway through the third, leaving the Panthers with a 29-13 lead.
A putback bucket by Bellwood junior forward Martin Fatzinger pulled the Blue Devils to within two points, 15-13, midway though the second period, but Penn Cambria closed the quarter by scoring eight unanswered points to take a 23-13 halftime lead.
Senior forward Isaac Strittmatter ignited the spurt with a jumper from the top of the key, and Rabish followed with another field goal on a floater and a 3-point bomb from the right corner -- one of three trifectas that he made in the game. Junior guard Blake Lilly added a free throw to put Penn Cambria up 23-13.
Penn Cambria scored the first six points of the third quarter, on a duck-under layup by junior forward Caden Gibbons that was sandwiched in between two Gibbons free throws, before Rabish came up with a steal and layup to give Penn Cambria its 29-13 bulge.
"This game was slow-paced and sloppy at the beginning tonight, and we had been lacking some energy,'' Penn Cambria coach Jim Ronan said. "That was bothersome, and we needed to get back to what is Penn Cambria's fast-paced, high-intensity style.
"I think that we played well defensively all night long, but we just weren't putting the ball in the hoop early in the game tonight,'' Ronan added. "There in the third quarter, we got some looks, and we shot the ball better.''
Gibbons chipped in 11 points and senior Gavin Harrold collected a game-high eight rebounds for Penn Cambria, which also got seven rebounds apiece from Gibbons and Lilly.
Bellwood (0-5) got 11 points apiece from Fatzinger and sophomore guard Jackson Dorminy, whose six rebounds earned him a share of the Blue Devils' team lead in that category with senior guard Holden Schreier.
Bellwood, which faces Claysburg-Kimmel in today's 4:30 p.m. boys consolation game, couldn't get closer to Penn Cambria than 11 points in the fourth quarter, but Blue Devils coach Tyler Mertiff saw a silver lining in his team's performance.
"Penn Cambria is a proven program, and we're a very young team that is still learning how to compete,'' Mertiff said. "We were in the game up until the fourth quarter, and I loved our effort and the way that we competed tonight.
"It was a two-point game in the second quarter, and then, we couldn't find the bottom of the basket for a while,'' Mertiff added. "We've had those kinds of spells this season, and those spells have really put us behind the 8-ball in our games.''
PENN CAMBRIA (47): Harrold 1 0-0 2, C. Gibbons 4 3-6 11, Strittmatter 1 0-2 2, Lilly 2 1-2 6, Rabish 7 2-2 19, Farabaugh 1 0-0 2, Jones 0 1-2 1, Marshall 0 0-0 0, Price 0 0-0 0, Nadolsky 0 0-0 0, Gides 0 0-0 0, Davison 0 0-0 0, Mallory 2 0-0 4, Himmer 0 0-0 0. Totals - 18 7-14 47.
BELLWOOD-ANTIS (30): Schreier 2 0-0 4, Fatzinger 3 5-6 11, Mayes 2 0-0 4, Dorminy 3 3-6 11, Shedlock 0 0-0 0, Worthing 0 0-0 0, McNelis 0 0-0 0, McClennan 0 0-0 0, Shanafelt 0 0-0 0. Totals - 10 8-12 30.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Penn Cambria 13 10 10 14 -- 47
Bellwood-Antis 8 5 7 10 -- 30
3-point goals: Penn Cambria 4 (Rabish 3, Lilly); Bellwood-Antis 2 (Dorminy 2).
Records: Penn Cambria (3-3); Bellwood-Antis (0-5).
Officials: Derrick Soellner, Brad Martz, Tracy Cornelius.