Feb 4, 2020 3 min read

CHARLEROI – The Charleroi boys basketball team entered its Class 3A Section 4 contest Tuesday night against McGuffey knowing a win would clinch at least a share of the section title.

However, McGuffey used a stifling defense to smother Charleroi into its worst shooting night of the season as the Highlanders pulled out a 51-39 win in front of a raucous crowd on Senior Night.

“Early on, it wasn’t pretty, and we struggled,” said McGuffey coach Mike Fatigante. “But we will take an ugly win and I am proud of our players.

“Charleroi has some good players and we had to execute our defensive game plan and we were able to hold them to 39 points.”

Charleroi coach Bill Wiltz discussed the outcome.

“We needed this type of atmosphere, it was a great atmosphere and we came out a little tight,” he said. “It was a big game for us and McGuffey had nothing to lose.

“They pressured our outside shooters and we struggled to get our outside shooters open.”

According to Fatigante, outside shooting and free throws were keys offensively for the Highlanders (8-3, 15-5) as they made eight three-pointers and made nine out of their 11 foul shots.

“We hit threes and made our free throws,” he said. “CJ (Cole) made some plays for us and Ethan Janovich stepped up.”

Cole finished with a game-high 24 points and seven steals, and Janovich made four three-pointers and finished with 16 points.

“We told the guys before the game that if we held Cole to 20 or under, we would win this because we didn’t think anyone else could hurt us, but (Janovich) did,” Wiltz said. “Cole hit those two shots at the buzzer and it was five points that were a difference.”

The game was ugly early as the teams combined for six turnovers and six missed shots in the first two minutes before Nick Dinka scored the first bucket to give McGuffey a 2-0 lead.

Cole’s heave at the buzzer from just inside the midcourt line gave McGuffey a 12-10 lead going into the second quarter.

Points were at a premium in the second, and Cole hit a second buzzer-beater, this one on a layup at the horn, to give McGuffey a 25-19 lead at the half.

Charleroi (10-2, 15-6) would get no closer than four points the rest of the game and Cole scored 10 points in the fourth to put the game away.

Will Wagner led Charleroi with 22 points and took advantage of McGuffey trying to shut down Joe Caruso and Zack Usher.

“It looked like Will wanted to take the game on his back,” said Wiltz. “He started taking the ball to the hole and did a nice job.”

Caruso finished with 10 points for Charleroi. Legend Davis had seven rebounds, two blocked shots and two steals.

McGuffey had 21 turnovers while Charleroi committed 17.

The Cougars can still share a piece of their first section title since 2014-15 with Washington if the Prexies lose to either Soutmoreland or McGuffey in their remaining section games.