Dec 15, 2017 4 min read

CANONSBURG — If you’re a fan of fundamental basketball, fast ball movement and good perimeter shooting, the Canon-McMillan boys basketball team put on a clinic for you Friday night.

At least, for a half.

The Big Macs made 13 of their first 14 field-goal attempts and withstood an Upper St. Clair second-half comeback as Canon-McMillan opened section play with a 78-66 victory in Class 6A Section 2.

“It’s a big win,” said Canon-Mac head coach Rick Bell. “I’ve said it a few times now that this is a special group. People expected us to take three steps back after last season, but so far we have come out and won some big games.”

Canon-Mac (1-0, 4-0) led by as many as 19 points in the first-half but saw its lead cut to four late in the third quarter.

A layup by USC’s (0-1, 2-2) Kyle Meinert layup made it a 57-53 contest, but a big three-point shot by Drew Engel late in the quarter put an end to a 16-4 Upper St. Clair run and gave the Big Macs a 62-53 lead.

Engle led all scorers with 26 points, including six three-pointers.

“We’ve been down before,” said Engel. “They had all the momentum in the third quarter and we just had to settle down and make a couple plays. Coach Bell has us ready for those situations.”

A three-pointer by USC’s Brett Moore, who finished with a team-high 22 points, cut the C-M lead to 66-60 midway through the fourth quarter, but the Big Macs did an excellent job closing out the game from the free-throw line. C-M made 18 of 22 free-throw attempts, including a 15 of 18 in the second half.

“That was good to see,” said Bell. “We didn’t shoot them that well in the Latrobe game. We are a bunch of good shooters. I expect us to make free throws at a high percentage.”

Three-point shooting was on the menu early as the first eight field goals in the game came from behind the three-point line.

While the Big Macs’ zone defense eventually gave the Panthers problems, C-M never cooled down, shooting 70.8 percent (17 of 24) from the floor in the first half en route to building a 45-29 halftime lead.

The hot start forced the Panthers, a very good man-to-man defending team, out of their primary defense and into a zone for the rest of the night.

“We were terrible defensively,” said Upper St. Clair head coach Danny Holzer. “Give them credit. They didn’t miss, but we couldn’t stay in front of anyone. We were awful defensively.”

Engel set the tone early for C-M, draining all four of his three-point attempts in the first quarter.

“Coach Bell wants us to be relentless,” Engel said. ‘We played fast, and when we get open looks we took the shots and made them.”

The game was tight early as a Brett Moore layup pulled USC within 17-14 in the first quarter before the Big Macs put together a 21-5 run that carried into the second quarter to take a 38-19 advantage, their biggest lead of the night.

“We are very athletic,” said Bell. “We are tough to guard man-on-man. We took a great man-to man team and made them play a different way. That’s a testament to the work these guys have put in.”

C-M made 10 three-pointers, but once the Panthers switched to the zone, the perimeter looks weren’t there as often, forcing the Big Macs to take ball to the basket for layups. A lot of that was done by Jason Fowlkes, who finished with 17 points.

Getting open shots was much tougher for the Panthers as the Big Macs used their athleticism and zone defense to make it tough on the visitors.

“I thought we played well defensively,” said Bell. “Almost all their shots, even the ones they made, were contested.”

USC went to a full-court trap for most of the second half and got back into the game by forcing plenty of Cannon-Mac turnovers.

“As good as the start was for us, I was even happier with the way we withstood their counterpunch,” Bell said. “We knew it was coming. We are familiar with them and while they got back into the game, we never really panicked.”

Ethan Beachy also finished in double figures for C-M with 14 points. David Pantelis scored in double figures for the Panthers with 10 points.