Wildcats cruise past Seals
BY BARB KROHN
MIFFLINBURG — Mifflinburg closed out the first half of the Heartland Athletic Conference Division I Saturday night with what in the end was a convincing 76-60 win over Selinsgrove.
The win gave the Wildcats a perfect 7-0 record in league play and extended their winning streak to 13. Mifflinburg is now 14-1, suffering its only loss to Hughesville in the second game of the season.
It was perhaps significant that the close of the first half was a game with the Seals, a team that historically has given the Wildcats fits.
“They are so athletic,” said Mifflinburg coach Eldon Hoy. “We knew it would be a tough game.” And despite the final score, it was a war out on the court for the first three-and-a-half periods. the teams traded baskets almost at will although Mifflinburg held a slight lead at the end of each quarter - 19-17, 31-30 and 48-47.
Defensively Seals senior Ryan Keiser, who finished with 20 points on the night, proved almost impossible to stop. “Ryan Keiser was fantastic,” said the Wildcats coach. “We threw good defenders at him, but as a team we didn’t handle it well.” In a stroke of luck for the home team, Keiser fouled out in the middle of the fourth quarter. Offensively Selinsgrove took Mifflinburg out of its usual game plan. “Tonight was really different,” said Eldon Hoy. “They forced us drive the ball. It’s not the way we’ve been winning, but it was nice to see that we could.”
Junior Zac Hoy led the dribble penetrate attack racking up a game-high 27 points, 10 of them freebies earned via Seals fouls. “(Coach) told me to start being more offensive,” said Zac Hoy. “Jim (Sowers) set some nice picks, there were a lot of them from the whole team, and that opened up the driving lanes.”
Also coming up big was sophomore Connor Pierce who came off the bench to score 13. “He had some big defensive plays too,” said the Mifflinburg coach. “I tried to bring energy off the bench,” said Pierce.
Coach Hoy said Saturday’s game was an example of how the Wildcats are finding ways to win. “Kids are starting to feel more poised and confident that if things don’t go well at first, it will later. Or (as was the case Saturday night) we’ll just have to adjust and make it happen.”
Mifflinburg will have another challenge on Wednesday when it hosts Shamokin, sitting just behind the Wildcats in HAC-I with just one loss. “We told them to enjoy (winning the HAC-I) first half,” said Eldon Hoy. “But we have a team one game behind us on Wednesday.”
Posted: January 25th, 2010 under JV-Varsity.
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