Sunday, December 16, 2012
Deontay Scott and Terrell McClain led East high over Liberty
By Greg Gulas
YOUNGSTOWN
East High’s Deontay Scott has been on a tear to start the season while teammate Terrell McClain has played like a man on a mission.
The Liberty Leopards on the other hand have started the season by playing six games in 16 days and three games in the past five days alone.
That loaded early season schedule might just have taken its toll on the Leopards.
Scott scored a game-high 23 points and added 15 rebounds while McClain added 18 points and six rebounds as the Panthers defeated the Leopards, 73-47 Saturday at the East Gymnasium.
“What Deontay does in and around the basket speaks for itself and he has been a mark of consistency for us in the early going,” first-year Panthers coach Dennis Simmons said. Terrell on the other hand is someone with plenty of potential and someone that I ride pretty hard, both in practice and during a game.
“I’ve been waiting for Terrell to show and tonight he did just that, playing an all-around game at both ends of the court.”
The Panthers (4-1) raced to an early 19-11 lead behind McClain’s eight first quarter points, stretching their margin to 36-23 at the intermission when Scott hooped seven of his 23 points in the second quarter.
“We paid a lot of attention to conditioning this week and our game plan was to run up and down the court, looking first to fast break and then score in transition,” McClain said.
Eight more points by Scott and six by McClain keyed a 24-12 third quarter run by the Panthers as they increased their lead to 60-35 with one period remaining.
“When you play hard and work together as a team, good things usually happen,” Scott said. “After losing that close game to Cardinal Mooney, we didn’t want to feel like that again so we came out focused and played with plenty of intensity.”
Asim Pleas, Jr. notched four of his team-high 11 points for the Leopards (4-2) in the fourth quarter.
“We got jumped on tonight by an excellent East team,” Liberty coach Dan Bubon said. “We’ll take it, learn from this and realize that this probably wasn’t the best time to play them on their home court.
“They’re an excellent Division I team, but we also feel like we’re a pretty good Division III team. We play them the last game of the year at our place so that will be a really good gauge as to how far both teams will have come at the end of the year.”
The Panthers held a 39-29 rebounding edge with Danny Markulin hauling in a team-high seven rebounds for the Leopards.
East had 19 steals and 13 assists, forcing a game-high 29 Liberty turnovers.