Panthers forward too much for Wildcats

February 1, 2017 at 12:10a.m.

Struthers vs East

By DAN HINER

STRUTHERS

With 17.2 seconds remaining, East forward Larry Ransom stood just outside the paint, waiting for his teammate to attempt his free throws. But after a miss, Ransom came down with the offensive rebound to the seal the game.

That offensive rebound didn’t just give East another win, but it also gave Ransom a double-double. He led the Panthers with 17 points, 10 rebounds and a block. His performance was a major reason East beat Struthers 64-58 on Tuesday night.

Ransom said East head coach Dennis Simmons always tells his players to “crash the boards.” He said he wanted to play his best, and when the chances came, made the most of his opportunities.

East (10-7) took an early 14-5 lead after Ransom scored on his first four shot attempts. The Panthers took a 16-10 lead into the second quarter.

“We knew the offense was starting to roll, now we got to start stopping teams,” Simmons said. “If we stop teams, we’ll be good.”

The Wildcats (13-5) started slow, but started to hit their shots in the second quarter. Three straight 3-pointers, one by Ethan Vo and two by Andrew Carbon, helped cut the lead to 23-19.

Later in the third, Struthers forward AJ Musolino converted a three-point play to cut the lead to 25-22. But East responded with a couple 3-pointers of its own, and eventually took a 31-28 lead into halftime.

Musolino was the second leading scorer for the Wildcats with 11 points.

The Wildcats went on a 10-2 run with seven minutes left in the third to take a 42-41 lead—their only lead of the game. Carbon scored seven of his 16 points in the third.

Keshonn Loury hit a 3-pointer to retake the lead, but after a layup by Struthers guard Kevin Traylor, the game was tied at 44 going into the fourth quarter.

After 3-pointers from each team, East went on a 10-0 run with six minutes to go to put the game out of reach.

Struthers was forced to intentionally foul with two minutes to play, and while the Wildcats trimmed into the lead, there wasn’t enough time left.

Simmons said the Wildcats got back into the game because his team is still learning how to win. He said the next step is learning how to put games away after taking the lead.

“We called out our second group, and they took it personally,” Simmons said. “We made some mistakes that allowed them back into the game.

“One of the things we’re learning how to do is once we have the lead, we want to run away with it and come away with it and handle our business.”

East held Struthers to 36.5 percent shooting from the field, and 28 percent from behind the 3-point line. The Panthers also recorded five blocks and nine steals.

“We still made nine [3-point shots] and I felt like we should have made 15 or 20,” Struthers head coach Jim Franceschelli said. “We had a lot of good looks, but the ball just didn’t go in tonight.

“That’s credit to them. They made us hurry our shots, they do the little things right. Give Dennis. That’s the best East team I’ve coach against by far.”

De’amonte Pagan was the second leading scorer for East, scoring 10 points off the bench. Calvaughn Bryant, Terrell Weaver and Keshonn Loury each finished with 10 points.

Ransom said his teammate deserve as much credit as he does for the win. He said the rest of the team stepped up when needed, and while they didn’t accumulate the same stats, did just as much work.

“I wasn’t just the only person who put up points like that,” Ransom said. “My teammates Keshonn and Calvaughn, to me, all put up points like that. This is my time, but they have to get their time, too.”