Hornets drop pair of OT losses to Neumann

By: Ed Weaver  /  December 31, 2019

In basketball every now and then you see an overtime game. Very rarely do you see two on the same day. That happened as St. John Neumann handed the Wellsboro Boys Basketball teams a pair of overtime losses on Monday, December 30.

To start off the afternoon between the Hornets and Knights the JV game was back and forth as both teams were knotted at 44 at the end of regulation. Neumann would pull out the win, 50-48, but Wellsboro had a last-second shot attempt that was off the mark that would have tied it again. Freshman Will Kibler led Wellsboro with 21 points while sophomore Drew Manning scored 20.

The JV game was an indication of how the Varsity game would go. Both teams were tied at the end of regulation, the game went into overtime, and Neumann pulled out the slim, 94-90 win. In the Hornets' highest-scoring contest of the season they held an early 23-20 lead after the opening quarter. Neumann would reverse the score and lead by three at halftime. Wellsboro then outscored the Knights 25-19 in the third to go back up by three, 65-62, entering the fourth quarter.

Neumann made up the three points with a 19-16 quarter to tie the game up at 81-all at the end of regulation. Again both teams traded buckets in the overtime period with the score tied late at 90-all. Neumann took advantage of a Wellsboro error and broke the tie late, then added one more bucket, to hang on for the win.

"It was another hard fought game against a quality team," head coach Steve Adams said. "Playing the teams we played this week will make us better. Each game provides us scenarios to learn and improve from. I'm proud off the team's effort."

Junior Joseph Grab led all scorers with 38 points, sophomore Liam Manning tied a career-high with 19 points, freshman Conner Adams had 10 points. Senior Daniel Mitchell had 7 points off the bench, sophomores Isaac Keane and Darryn Callahan scored 6 points each, and senior Ty Morral rounded out the scoring with 4 points.

Manning added his third double-double of the season with 11 rebounds, Grab added 9 assists, and Keane added 4 rebounds. Adams and Mitchell also grabbed 3 rebounds each.

David Hill led Neumann with 32 points, Malaki Parlante scored 23, and Davion Hill added 18.

The loss drops the Hornets' record to 5-4 (3-1 NTL Large School Division). The team is back in action on Friday, January 3 on the road in Wyalusing.