Jan 13, 2015 4 min read

McMURRAY – It wasn’t the prettiest of wins but it was a must-win game for the Peters Township Indians boys basketball team on Tuesday night in front of a raucous home crowd against rival, Canon-McMillan.

The Indians (2-4, 6-6) led from the opening tip to the final whistle, disposing of the Big Macs (1-4, 6-7), 48-33.

“They are all must-wins for us at this point,” Peters head coach Gary Goga said. “That is a really good team. Coach (Bell) does a great job. We are just happy that we won. We had two tough losses but practiced well. We have a great group of guys. They aren’t going to quit. It is up to me to push the right buttons, and sometimes I don’t but they never quit.”

Both teams, known for their stout defenses, brought much of that to the court. The Indians’ 2-3 zone wrecked havoc on the Big Macs’ perimeter shooters. Canon-McMillan was 5-of-24 from three-point range.

“Our team defense was great,” Goga said. “We worked on the zone a lot yesterday. They have one of the best backcourts in the WPIAL. We wanted to stay in front of them. We tried to space the zone out and hoped that they would miss some shots. We were fortunate that we were able to get stops.”

“That is three games in a row that we have seen the zone,” Canon-Mac coach Rick Bell said. “We can shoot the ball really well, and it is a good move. (Britton) Beachy and (Sam) Bohn have the ability to penetrate in man-to-man. It is a lot harder against the zone.”

Through the first quarter, the game had a feeling as if the two teams were still in their warm up gear as they combined for 12 points in the first eight minutes.

After that, the Indians created some turnovers and got some easy fast breaks off of missed three-pointers on Canon-Mac’s end.

“We have a shooter’s mentality,” Bell said. “You can’t be afraid. When you are you are going to become tentative or doubtful with your shots. We weren’t shooting the ball quite as well.”

That also would be an accurate statement for the Big Macs at the free-throw line where they missed on all five of their opportunities.

For the Indians, their clutch free throw shooting was a primary reason they were victorious. Peters Township made its final 16 attempts after missing its first four.

“We struggled shooting free throws at times early in the season but we have gotten better at it,” Goga said. “That is a testament to the kids. They are battling and really stepped up today and knocked them down.”

Although they trailed from start to finish, there the Big Macs were down just 20-14 at the half and seven early in the fourth quarter.

“I am proud of our defensive effort for the most part,” Bell said. “We gave up some easy ones when we started to press but the defense kept us in the game. We liked where we were at halftime. We were in striking distance. We were fighting uphill all night.

“I’ve know coach Goga for a long time. They were desperate and we talked about that last night. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We knew it was going to be a dogfight.”

Junior Nick Valentic led two Indians in double figures with 17 points. He also chipped in eight rebounds. Junior Ben Doyle followed with 13 points. Senior Tim Swoope narrowly missed a double-double, securing 12 rebounds to go with his nine points.

Bohn led the Big Macs with 13 points, while Beachy had 12.