Panthers pull away from Pirates in the fourth

PERKINS TWP. — It took St. Mary Central Catholic a while to find get back into varsity basketball.Once the Panthers did, their experience and balance won out over the youth of Perkins for a 54-45 non-conference win Friday at Perkins High School."It was what we thought it would be," said SMCC coach Chris Ceccoli. "We knew coming here that Perkins was going to defend well and be physical, but it was nice to see our kids respond. To have that kind of adversity in the first game, that kind of physical game this early in the season is only going to make us better down the road."The Panthers finished with four players in double digits, led by Dylan Christian's double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds. Cole Kromer toss in a team-high 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while Myles Bruno scored 14 and Nate Roesch finished with 12."I think that speaks to the balance of our team and it's something we want to continue to harp on with our guys that on any given night it could be anyone who steps up for guys," Ceccoli said.Sam Siegel toss in 21 to lead all scorers, but the junior also had nine of the 15 baskets recorded by Pirates, which started a senior, two sophomores and a freshman with Siegel."I thought we fought like crazy and I thought we gave ourselves a chance to win, and that's all I can ask," said Perkins coach Scott McVeigh. "I thought our effort from Wednesday (a 61-34 loss to Willard at Rocket Mortgage Field House) in Cleveland until tonight raised by leaps and bounds. Our effort and intensity and focus was much better than Wednesday. We just have to continue to grow from that."Perkins scored the first three points of the third quarter to take their only lead of the game, fell quickly behind and then rallied again to knot the score at 32-32 on a Siegel lay-up and free throw with 2:22 left in the quarter. St. Mary answered with an 11-3 spurt over the time remaining in the third and the first 90 seconds of the fourth to take a 43-35 lead."We were trying to find a rhythm offensively, a part of that was the defenses Perkins was throwing at us," Ceccoli said. "I thought there was a key stretch during the third quarter where are bench — Gus Roth and Anderson Gennari and Luke Covol — gave us great minutes and held the line, We were in a little foul trouble and winded, but those jus came in and did a great job for us."McVeigh pointed to the Panthers' 8-2 spurt in the fourth that put the game away."I thought there was about a two-minute stretch in that fourth quarter where we gave up about three easy buckets in a row when the posted Roesch and our weak-side was non-exsistant," he said. "I think that was the ballgame right there. We just need to make sure we keep getting better. I thought we got better tonight, even through it didn't show in the win column."Zach Voight, the lone senior on the Perkins rosters, chipped in 10 points while freshman Drake Veneruci finished with a team-high eight rebounds."We told our kids it seemed like we were playing not to lose instead of to win," Ceccoli said. "We told them to just go out there and be aggressive and whatever happens happens, and the kids did a nice job of responding. We got some things in transition and, defensively, we strung together a couple of stops which I thought were big for us."There was a lot of teaching moments from this game, but that's what you want."St. Mary posted a 40-29 victory in the jayvee contest.ST. MARY CC (1-0)Cole Kromer 7 1-4 15, Jaden Bell 0 2-2 2, Dylan Christian 5 0-3 11, Myles Bruno 6 1-4 14, Nate Roesch 6 0-0 12, Nick Patchen 0 0-1 0. TOTALS 24 4-14 54PERKINS (0-2)Sam Siegel 9 2-5 21, Sam Oddo 1 2-2 4, Zach Voight 1 8-10 10, Drake Venerucci 1 0-0 2, Tyler Yingling 1 0-0 2, Dyson Leffler 2 0-0 6. TOTALS 15 12-17 45St. Mary CC 10 16 10 18 — 54Perkins 10 14 8 13 — 453-point FGs: St. Mary CC 2 (Christian 1, Bruno 1); Perkins 3 (Siegel 1, Leffler 2)Jayvees: St. Mary CC 40-29