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Fort Cherry regroups, lets defense win

3 min read
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Fort Cherry’s Owen Norman (25) pulls up in front of Chartiers Houston’s Manny Ntumngia and opens the scoring for the Rangers with the first of his team-leading 22 points.

Mark Marietta/For the O-R

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Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter

Owen Norman drives for a late-game layup as he leads his team to a 55-45 victory over Chartiers-Houston.

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Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter

Fort Cherry's Derek Errett works past C-H's Avery Molek for first-half basket.

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Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter

Fort Cherry’s Matt Sieg breaks past Chartiers Houston’s Cole Pawich on his way to the basket.

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Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter

Fort Cherry's Matt Sieg (3) leaps to shoot against Chartiers Houston's Manny Ntumngia.

HOUSTON – The first quarter was a disaster for Fort Cherry’s boys basketball team.

Chartiers-Houston led 16-8 after the first eight minutes. The Bucs outscored Fort Cherry 14-3 to end the period and started the second quarter in good shape.

Fort Cherry coach Eugene Briggs described it as “such as bad first quarter.

“We didn’t play our game. In the second quarter, we come out and play our defense like we’ve played lately. That’s the key for us. Our defense.”

Fort Cherry answered with a 10-0 run to start the second quarter and ended up outscoring the Bucs 16-2.

Both head coaches agreed that the second quarter was a turning point.

“I think, in the second quarter, we got some looks that we wanted that didn’t fall,” Char-Houston coach Rich Tranquill said. “They held us to two points in the second quarter, they extended that zone out, which, they’re a good defensive team. But I think a few shots fall for us and its probably a little bit different story.”

The Rangers held on for a 55-45 win to take soul possession of first-place in Class 2A Section 3.

Senior Owen Norman led Fort Cherry (4-0, 11-2) with 22 points, Freshman Matt Sieg added 15.

Sieg and Norman are Fort Cherry’s new backcourt duo this season after Dylan Rogers graduated. For Briggs, the two are coming along “slowy but surely.”

Chartiers-Houston (4-1, 10-4) held its own in the third quarter and entered the last eight minutes down 42-35.

“I thought our guys responded well and came back and we kind of kept it within striking distance for the game,” Tranquill said.

But Fort Cherry kept the lead for the whole fourth quarter and won by double digits.

Fort Cherry made it to the WPIAL championship game for the first time since the 1960s last season. Briggs said the team “has a lot of work to do yet,” to get back there.

“The defensive effort, the athleticism’s there,” Briggs said. “Just a little more execution and a little better work on offense in the half court. We haven’t had to do it much because we get into transition so much.”

As for holding first place in the section?

“We’ve only played four games, so we have eight more section games to go,” Briggs said. “It doesn’t mean too much right now.”

On the other side, Chartiers-Houston’s season has been a good one thus far. The team went 9-14 last season and has already eclipsed its win total.

“We stacked a lot of wins up, and were 4-0 in the section coming into tonight, and that’s right where we want to be playing Fort Cherry,” Tranquill said. “So, we’re right where we want to be.

“We’re going to move on. This one is done and over with, and we’re going to learn from it, and we’ll go back and focus tomorrow and get ready for the next game.”

Char-Houston’s next game is Tuesday night at Carmichaels at 7:30.

Fort Cherry will look to stay undefeated in section play this Friday night against Carmichaels. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30.

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