Hornets steamroll Canton in NTL Showdown semis
By: Ed Weaver | NTL Sports | February 11, 2017
The Wellsboro Boys Basketball team advanced to the title game of the NTL Showdown with a 67-31 win over Canton on Friday, February 10.
The Hornets were on fire early as hit three three-pointers, including two from senior Brandon Lamphier, to jump out to an early 18-10 lead. Wellsboro never looked back outscored Canton 16-6 in the second to 34-16 lead at halftime.
"We struggled a little bit I thought with the 3-2 that Canton was running, we have to try to improve on that," said head coach Todd Outman. "A win's a win. We'll take it and it gives us another opportunity to play Mansfield, which is really good before Districts come and it should be a great atmosphere at the University."
Wellsboro went on a tear in the third, outscoring Canton 21-10 to put the game firmly in hand of the top-seeded Showdown team. The Hornets closed out the game with 12 fourth-quarter points.
Lamphier led all scorers with a game-high 17 points, junior Collin Pietropola had 10, senior Jacob Singer scored 8, and junior Dalton Prough finished with 7. Junior Nic Ingerick and sophomore Brandyn Tuttle scored 6 points each, senior Alden Weiner and sophomore Andrew Brelo had 5 points each, junior Quinn Henry scored 2, and sophomore Bergen Weiner rounded out the scoring with 1.
Tuttle grabbed 7 rebounds, Pietropola had 6, and Lamphier had 5. Singer and Ingerick added 2 steals and 2 assists each, and Prough had 4 assists, 3 steals, and 4 rebounds.
Canton's Ridge Moore had 11 and Byron Matthews added 7.
The Hornets must now regroup for their third game with rival North Penn-Mansfield. Both teams split their regular season games this year.
"It's a big rubber match," Outman said of facing the Tigers for a third time this season. "It's good to have that type of competition before we go into Districts. It's always a great game. Every time we've played them at the University it's been packed with about 1,000-1,300 people and it's really good for the kids to experience that type of atmosphere and we're looking forward to it."
Tip-off is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. at Mansfield University's Decker Gym.
Ed Weaver is the owner of Circle W Sports in Wellsboro, PA, is the Sports Director for The Home Page Network and the creator of WellsboroAthletics.com and WellsboroFootball.com. You can follow him on Twitter or friend him on Facebook.
