(December 18th, 2014) – PETTISVILLE: Teams generally play better on their home floor. The sense of familiarity that can only come from practice after practice after practice takes over, and the rim just seems wider.
This is the best way to describe Pettisville’s 68-45 victory over the Cadets of Hilltop.
The Blackbirds made 63% of their field goals in the contest. That includes an astounding 71% average from the three-point line, based on 7 attempts. Overall, Pettisville took 38 shots , making nearly 2 out of every 3 attempts. This made them almost unbeatable.
Hilltop, on the other hand, couldn’t compare to the evening their opponents were having. Shooting 30% from the field, the Cadets put up 53 total shots. From three-point range the team was just 19%, taking 16 threes in the game.
Eli King gave the Blackbirds a massive boost with his 21 points, the highest total scored by any single player in the contest, regardless of team. Tate Kauffman, a senior, added 16 points to the Pettisville collective, powered by 3 successful shots from beyond the arc. Josh Liechty hit a pair of threes on his own, as he contributed 12 points to the victory as well.
The Cadets followed the lead of senior Jalen Towers as he scored 14 points, also bringing in 4 rebounds and 3 steals. Erik Stipe made a couple of three-pointers on his way to 10 points. Quinn Smith, a sophomore, lead the team in assists with 3.
Rebounding proved to be a disadvantage for the Hilltop boys. Pettisville pulled down 32 boards, while the Cadets only managed to get 18. Some of this discrepancy comes from the high number of shots the Blackbirds made throughout the course of the game. Yet Hilltop needed to rebound the ball better offensively if they were to have a chance against such a hot shooting team. Every possession had to be maximized, or else they’d get left behind.
An impressive win for the Blackbirds, it will be interesting to see if they can replicate this same level of play when they travel to West Unity later on in the season.