Dec 30, 2014 4 min read

Over their last three games, Canon-McMillan has drained 33 three-pointers, including 11 last night in shooting away its rival Trinity 65-50 in the championship game of the Trinity Holiday Tournament.

“We shot the ball really well,” Canon-Mac head coach Rick Bell said. “The reason why is the type of shots that we are getting. We are shooting the ball well but we are passing the ball really well, too. We have a lot of kids who can shoot the ball.”

On the night, the Big Macs (5-4) had five players connect on at least two from beyond the arc and were led by sophomore Britton Beachy with three. Beachy also had a game-high 21 points.

“We have a lot of kids who love basketball,” Bell said. “There are kids who play basketball and then there are kids who love basketball. The kids who love basketball work on their game. We have a lot of guys who get in the gym and work on their game. That’s why we shoot the ball well.”

The Big Macs were able to handle the Hillers’ 2-3 zone defense early on, sinking their first four 3-point attempts. As hot as they were, the Big Macs still couldn’t escape the pesky nature of Trinity.

“For us, we relish an opportunity to play Canon-Mac,” Trinity head coach Tim Tessmer said. “That is our No. 1 rivalry. We proved to ourselves we can play with them but we also saw what we need to improve on.”

Both teams were tied 17-17 after the first and stayed neck-and-neck for the first five minutes of the second, but then the experience of the Big Macs and inexperience of the Hillers started to come out and the same time.

With the score tied at 24-24, Canon-Mac went on a 8-4 run in the final two minutes to open a 32-28 lead at the half.

“The way they shoot the ball you don’t get away with playing the zone for too long,” Tessmer said. “We were going to have to guard them at some point. Our thing is to just keep that level of intensity for 32 minutes. We are playing a lot of young guys. You have to be focused.”

The Big Macs came out of the half running, scoring the first five points to open up a nine point lead. They found their first double digit lead at 46-43 on a three by Beachy.

“We get really good interior post passing,” Bell said about beating the zone. “Those guys do a great job of throwing it in. When you make shots the zone is going to spread out. It feels good right now. We are getting better and better every day.

“I knew this would be a tough game. We respect those guys. (Timmy) is doing a great job. He is playing a lot of young kids. They are playing hard.”

The Hillers (4-6) were playing without two of their starters because of illness and an injury, which allowed Tessmer to give a lot of his younger players some varsity minutes and his seniors, Nick Moretti and Beau Baldwin, to step up. Moretti had a team-high 11 points and Baldwin followed with 10.

“Our guys need to take the opportunity when given and make the best of it,” Tessmer said. “They are getting their time to play varsity minutes and they are learning. It is just a matter of having that confidence.”

As for the Big Macs, winning a championship, whether it is a tournament or section title, is setting Bell’s team up for a run he hopes is similar to the one the Canon-Mac girls soccer team had this fall, when it advanced to the WPIAL and PIAA title games.

“Any time you win a championship, whether it is a tournament or section, it feels great,” Bell said. “If we make the playoffs, then we will be battle-tested.”