Wright leads Panthers to first win of season
BY BOB BENZ THE LEADER

ERIC WENSEL/THE LEADER Campbell-Savona's Tim Parker dives for a ball on its

CAMPBELL - Through three games, Campbell- Savona head coach Merlin Button believes one of his squad's biggest problem areas is its transition game.

And this has nothing to do with how polished the Panthers look while working the fast break.

The four-time defending sectional champion Panthers are still working out the kinks of meshing five returning varsity players with six new faces up from the JV squad.

Although the play got sloppy at times Tuesday, Nov. 27, Campbell-Savona did enough right to pick up its first win of the season with a 55-48 victory over Odessa-Montour.

Perhaps not surprisingly, senior Camden Wright - one of just two remaining links from the team's state championship squad of 2006 - led the way for the Panthers, pouring in a game-high 23 points. Wright's play helped Campbell-Savona overcome 21 turn overs for the game.

"That's been our nemesis so far this year - turn overs," Button said. "We've just turned the ball over way too much trying to make the difficult pass instead of the easy pass. And that sometimes happens with kids who are transitioning from JVs to varsity. You're a second late with the pass and a second slow and so both of those combine for two seconds too much and somebody picks them off."

Wright had a hand in two key third-quarter runs that helped Campbell-Savona seize control.

Following a 10-0 Odessa- Montour run between the second and third quarters that cut Campbell-Savona's lead to two, the Panthers answered with a 10-0 spurt of their own to reestablish a double-digit cushion. Wright capped the runs with back-to-back layups in transition that were set up by the Panthers' full-court pressure.

Although the Indians briefly countered with five straight points, the Panthers finished the quarter on an 8-0 run, ignited by one of Wright's four 3- pointers.

"Camden Wright stepped it up - he had 23 and I think most of his points came in the th ird and he kind of single-handedly beat us," Odessa-Montour head coach Brad Clark said.

Wright also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, dished out six assists and came up with two steals to lead the Panthers.

"Cam needs to be the leader on the floor and he needs to be the leader out there and he did that pretty well most of the time - he stepped up pretty well," Button said.

Odessa-Montour stayed within striking distance in the fourth quarter, but never got closer to the sixpoint deficit it faced following a 3-pointer from Matt Shutter with less than two minutes to play.

Shutter netted 12 points for the Indians and teammate Bobby Hornick scored a team-high 15 points.

The Panthers drained a total of seven 3-pointers, between Wright's four and three from senior Tim Parker, who added 11 points. Senior Maynard Crane chipped in with eight points and dished out a team-best three assists. Teammate Adam Matula scored four points and had four steals for the Panthers.

"He's got some real quick guys and they looked young," Clark said. "They still turn it over more than any other Campbell-Savona team that I've seen, but they're going to get better."

Campbell-Savona (1-2) will host Avoca at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4. Odessa- Montour (0-1) hosted Newfield at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30.