Perry tops West Middlesex, 64-57

The Panthers lost twice to the Big Red during regular season play.
By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
FARRELL, Pa. -- The Commodore Perry High boys basketball team proved that the third time can be a charm.
After losing a pair of regular season games to West Middlesex (13-12), the Panthers (13-13) turned the tables on the Big Reds for a 64-57 victory in District 10 Class A semifinal action Tuesday.
"We know them very well and they also know us very well," Commodore Perry coach Jeff Briggs said. "I have been here for four years and coming into tonight's game, we were 0-9 against them.
"We would get close at times, but we just couldn't figure out a way to beat them," Briggs said. "It was just hard for us to get over that hump, but tonight we were able to do it."
Close all they way
After Perry scored the first six points of the game, neither team led by more than five throughout until the final buzzer.
However, every time the Panthers would break away, the Big Reds battled their way back.
After putting the perimeter game to good use for the first three periods, Briggs and his Panthers decided to take their game into the paint -- and it worked.
Behind the strong efforts of J.J. Leffler, who scored eight of Perry's first 10 points of the final period to finish with 13 for the game, the Panthers were able to steadily pull away.
"We were shooting 3s early, trying to get them loosened up," Briggs said. "Then in the fourth quarter, we wanted to take the ball inside to our big guys because we figured they [West Middlesex] would be tired and we could get some easy buckets.
"That was our plan going in and it worked," Briggs said. "He [Leffler] was able to work inside and he got some really nice points in that fourth quarter."
For West Middlesex, Paul Fair led with a game-high 26 points. Josh Holzworth added 11.