Dec 19, 2017 3 min read

CHARLEROI – The Burgettstown High School boys basketball team continued its hot start to the young season with a 68-53 Section 4-AAA win at Charleroi Tuesday night.

The Blue Devils (4-1, 2-0) defeated Charleroi (1-5, 0-1) for the second time in 11 days and was aided by 29 Cougars turnovers.

“We caught them off-guard (with full-court pressure) in the opener and knew it would be a little more challenging the second time around,” said Burgettstown coach Tim Murray. “The half-court (pressure) is something we added after the season started and are getting better and better at.”

Murray said the team’s depth allows it to play a pressuring style.

“We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t have the depth that we have,” he said. “We have 10 or 12 guys that can play and us not have a dropoff so this is a way to get as many guys involved and make them feel invested in our success.

“Whether they play two minutes or 20 minutes, they are all a big part of our success.”

Charleroi coach Bill Wiltz talked about the turnovers and also the 35-21 rebounding edge that the Blue Devils had.

“We broke the press in the full-court setting but turned it over in the half-court,” he said. “We turned the ball over about 38 percent of our possessions tonight. … We didn’t rebound well and struggled mightily.”

With the game tied at 10-10 halfway through the first quarter, Burgettstown went on a 5-0 run to take a 15-10 lead, but Charleroi’s Caleb Carson sandwiched three-pointers around a Joe Caruso basket to give Charleroi an 18-15 lead.

However, Charleroi did not score again until there was 3:56 to play in the half. By that point, Burgettstown went on a 12-0 run to take a 27-18 lead.

Charleroi countered 7-0 run to make the score 27-25, but the Blue Devils closed the half on an 8-5 run for a 35-30 lead into the half. The spurt included a three-pointer by Garrett Dhans right before the buzzer.

Charleroi got no closer than three points in the second half, but it had chances.

Burgettstown did not shoot well, and it only made four of 21 three-pointers, but Charleroi could not trim the lead and Burgettstown slowly pulled away.

“We haven’t shot the ball well but feel that we are a good shooting team,” said Murray. “We need to get more confidence in our shots.”

For the young Cougars, Wiltz said he is seeing gains in certain aspects, but each time his team does something right, it seems they do something wrong.

“We only have one kid out there with any real varsity experience and that is Carson,” he said. “Hardly anyone else got varsity minutes and we knew coming in that it would be a process.

“We took a step forward with the Ringgold win but took a step back tonight.”

Dhans led the Blue Devils with 20 points and Jacob Schrockman added 15 points and 10 rebounds. Jarred John had 10 points.

Carson led Charleroi with 16 points and seven rebounds. Joe Caruso added 13 points and five steals.