Hornets come back to top Montoursville

By: Ed Weaver  /  December 28, 2016

The Wellsboro Varsity Boys Basketball team outscored Montoursville 23-16 in the fourth quarter to win 64-58 on Tuesday, December 27.

Montoursville got up 5-0 early on the Hornets and outscored them 16-9 in the first behind 8 points from Brycen Mussina. The Hornets made up ground in the second by scoring 18 points to Montoursville's 12 to trail 28-27 at halftime. After being held scoreless in the first quarter, junior Dalton Prough scored 10 points in the second to lead Wellsboro.

Both teams scored 14 points each after the break, with Montoursville holding onto a slim 42-41 lead entering the final quarter. After being down by as much as 7 in the fourth, the Hornets' defense caused multiple turnovers on Montoursville resulting in fast-break layups. The quarter belonged to senior Jacob Singer, who scored 10 of his points, including two technical foul shots to get Wellsboro back into contention.

As the Hornets fought back, they held onto a slim lead with under a minute remaining. After crucial layups from Prough and junior Collin Pietropola, the Hornets held a 62-58 lead, but Montoursville threatened with a three-pointer, but missed. Wellsboro grabbed the defensive rebound and Prough advanced the ball up the floor. Prough missed the layup, but senior Alden Weiner cleaned up the miss and scored as time expired.

"We struggled a little bit and Montoursville is a really good team," said Wellsboro head coach Todd Outman. "Our defense hurt us a bit tonight but the kids found a way to win. They played hard and hung with it and we were fortunate enough to come away with a victory."

Prough scored a team-high 20 points, Singer had 16, Pietropola had 14, and Weiner had 10. Lamphier and sophomore Brandyn Tuttle each scored 2 points each. Pietropola led the team with 8 rebounds, Prough had 7, and Singer had 6. Lamphier and Prough both had 6 assists, Pietropola had 3 steals, and Singer had a blocked shot.

Mussina led all scorers with 23 points, 15 of those coming from behind the three-point line. Noah Fagnano (14) and Abdiel Rodriguez-Polanco (10) were the other scorers in double figures.

In the JV game, Wellsboro won 53-48 in double overtime to improve to 6-0. Tuttle led all scorers with 27 points. Sophomore Holden Kennedy scored 11 and sophomore Andrew Brelo added 10.

The win improves the Hornets' record to 7-1 (4-0 NTL). The team will be back in action on Thursday for an afternoon, non-league game in Lewisburg.

"We haven't won against them since we started playing them," Outman concluded. "We're definitely going to have to play better than we played tonight to win that game."