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Panthers claim seventh straight SCAA title
Campbell-Savona's 45-43 win over the Vikings Thursday, Feb. 15, gave the Panthers their seventh consecutive Steuben County tournament victory and allowed the No. 1 ranked team in Class C to take some extra momentum in to the upcoming sectionals. "Beating this team again is great momentum for us," Campbell-Savona head coach Merlin Button said. "Prattsburgh is a great team - probably as good as we'll see for a while. The guys are feeling pretty confident." "It was just another great basketball game," Prattsburgh head coach Jim Burke said. "We've got no complaints." Unlike the first meeting between the clubs, Campbell-Savona got off to a good start. After the topranked Class D Vikings took a 6-5 lead following a Patrick Wright basket, the Panthers rattled off one of their patented 12-0 runs in a 2:30 span as Maynard Crane dominated the paint to with eight points. Campbell-Savona finished the quarter with a 21-10 advantage. "We worked really hard making sure we set good screens and got off the offensive blocks. We did that pretty well," Button said. "Defensively, we were horrible," Burke said. "We wanted to stop their transition and we wanted to stop their penetration on offense and we did a poor job of doing that in the first half." Sean Mourhess opened the second quarter with his second 3-pointer of the contest to push the Panthers' lead to 14 points, before Prattsburgh got its offense on track. Led by four points from Wade Fuller and a 3-pointer from Kyle Parker, the Vikings put together a 9-0 run of its own. Back-to-back baskets from Will Cornett allowed Campbell-Savona to take a 28-19 lead into halftime. Both teams battled hard in the second half, but it was Prattsburgh that found ways to cut into Campbell- Savona's lead. In the third quarter, Parker scored seven points during a 9-2 run that pulled the Vikings to with in four of the lead - which is how they entered the fourth quarter. "When you play Prattsburgh, you know they're going to come after you and they're going to have some runs - and they did," Button said. With five minutes remaining in regulation, Mourhess netted a pair of free throws to push Campbell-Savona to a 40-34 lead. On their next trip down the floor, Parker was fouled making a basket and went to the line. He missed the free throw, which was rebounded by the Panthers, but a quick steal got the ball back into Parker's hands and he netted his third 3-pointer of the game to cut Campbell-Savona's lead to 40-39 with 4:15 remaining. Unfortunately for the Vikings, the Panthers kept responding. A Crane basket pushed the lead back to three points before Eli Applebaum banked a shot off the glass to get Prattsburgh within one again. With 2:50 left in the fourth quarter, Mourhess knocked down a trey from the left corner to make the Panthers' lead four points. Mourhess finished with a team-high 17 points- 15 more than in the team's first meeting, due to foul trouble. "I couldn't stand sitting on the bench the first game, knowing that I couldn't do anything about helping the team," Mourhess said. "I knew that I needed to contribute more, because they were playing a box-and-one on Will (Cornett). He's the one who usually makes the plays happen." After Fuller hit a pair of free throws with 1:58 left in the game, neither team got anything to fall- not for a lack of effort. With 12 seconds left, Prattsburgh had the ball and used a pair of time outs trying to set up its final shot . Mourhess blocked the Vikings' first attempt, before a second try for the tie came up short. "We did everything right to give us the chance," Burke said. "We had a couple of opportunities, but it didn't go our way. "But I'm proud of them. The kids played well in the second half- just a super job." Cornett and Crane finished with 12 points each for Campbell-Savona, while Parker led the Vikings with 17 points. |
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