Shadyside grabs road win over Frontier
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NEW MATAMORAS --Frontier dug itself into a 10-point first quarter hole and couldn't dig out of it. That set the stage for a loss at the hands of Shadyside, 61-47.
The Cougars (3-9) struggled to get going in front of the home crowd at the Hank Morus Gymnasium, as Breckin Hoff and Jacob Gutberlet combined for the team's five points in the opening quarter. Defensively, FHS held tough with the Tigers up until the last 1:44 of the quarter. Then, the Cougars couldn't find an answer for Shadyside's Korey Beckett. The sophomore opened his 13-point night with six of his team's final eight points of the frame. The last basket made was a bankshot 3-ball that beat the buzzer to give his side a 15-5 advantage.
From there, FHS had too many missed opportunities to get back in the game, according to head coach Roger Kirkpatrick. The second quarter was closer, but this was already an uphill battle.
"We missed some easy shots in the first quarter," Kirkpatrick said. "We've got to make those shots against athletic teams. We fought back and fought back. We shot the ball better in the fourth quarter, but the bottom line is that they made shots. We didn't. Every time we'd cut it to six, eight, ten, we'd turn it over or miss a foul shot. Until we do the little fundamental things right, we're never going to win, consistently"
It was a balanced scoring night for the Cougars between the top scorers. Gutberlet nailed a trio of triples en route to his 11 points, but it was Tanner Bills who led the FHS effort with 13. Hoff and Caleb Reynolds weren't far behind with eight and seven points, respectively.
Hoff had a tough assignment in the paint, since Elijah Brock crashed the boards when needed. The center tallied 20 points and 10 rebounds in the victory. That wasn't the only 20-point performance for the 5-8 Tigers, as Jacob Visnic drained eight shots from the floor for his total.
While Frontier couldn't get the deficit down to single-digits, it worked the deficit down to 10, three separate times. A Bills putback with 6:50 left in the first half made it 17-7, but a pair of Visnic 3-balls stretched the lead back out. A quick run after Visnic's second make helped Frontier claw back, as Reynolds struck first to kick off the 8-2 run.
Lucas Cox followed that up with a pullup jumper from inside the free throw line. Bills then found Gutberlet for a layup under the basket for a well-placed assist. Following a layup from Brock, William Hendershot was in the right place at the right time for a putback to make it 25-15 with 2:25 remaining. The deficit mostly stayed there, as Shadyside attacked Frontier's zone with physical inside play and open shots from beyond the arc.The game fully got away when the Tigers outscored the hosts, 18-11 in the third.
Kirkpatrick's crew is still searching for the pieces to put consistent performances together, and he wants the team to keep moving forward, despite this setback.
"We've got to take care of the basketball, we've got to make better decisions, and the bottom line is that the ball's got to go in the hoop," he said. "You've got to make shots, and in the last couple games, we haven't made shots. We finally got everybody back. We've just got to get into some kind of rythym. We've got River tomorrow night and Fort Frye on Tuesday, so it gets no easier."
Contact Josh Hughes at jhughes@newsandsentinel.com