Hornets steamroll Canton in NTL Showdown semis

By: Ed Weaver  /  February 11, 2017

The Wellsboro Boys Basketball team advanced to the title game of the NTL Showdown with a 67-31 win over Canton on Friday, February 10.

The Hornets were on fire early as hit three three-pointers, including two from senior Brandon Lamphier, to jump out to an early 18-10 lead. Wellsboro never looked back outscored Canton 16-6 in the second to 34-16 lead at halftime.

"We struggled a little bit I thought with the 3-2 that Canton was running, we have to try to improve on that," said head coach Todd Outman. "A win's a win. We'll take it and it gives us another opportunity to play Mansfield, which is really good before Districts come and it should be a great atmosphere at the University."

Wellsboro went on a tear in the third, outscoring Canton 21-10 to put the game firmly in hand of the top-seeded Showdown team. The Hornets closed out the game with 12 fourth-quarter points.

Lamphier led all scorers with a game-high 17 points, junior Collin Pietropola had 10, senior Jacob Singer scored 8, and junior Dalton Prough finished with 7. Junior Nic Ingerick and sophomore Brandyn Tuttle scored 6 points each, senior Alden Weiner and sophomore Andrew Brelo had 5 points each, junior Quinn Henry scored 2, and sophomore Bergen Weiner rounded out the scoring with 1.

Tuttle grabbed 7 rebounds, Pietropola had 6, and Lamphier had 5. Singer and Ingerick added 2 steals and 2 assists each, and Prough had 4 assists, 3 steals, and 4 rebounds.

Canton's Ridge Moore had 11 and Byron Matthews added 7.

The Hornets must now regroup for their third game with rival North Penn-Mansfield. Both teams split their regular season games this year.

"It's a big rubber match," Outman said of facing the Tigers for a third time this season. "It's good to have that type of competition before we go into Districts. It's always a great game. Every time we've played them at the University it's been packed with about 1,000-1,300 people and it's really good for the kids to experience that type of atmosphere and we're looking forward to it."

Tip-off is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. at Mansfield University's Decker Gym.