SUNBURY — Tyler Pratt kept Shikellamy in the game in the third quarter Wednesday, scoring all seven of the Braves’ points. He then got some help in the fourth.
Pratt finished with a game-high 23 points, and teammates Taylor Mantz and Benny Delgado also scored in double figures as Shikellamy pulled away from Shamokin late for a 52-46 victory in Heartland Athletic Conference Division I action at the Field House.
“We played well enough to win,” said Braves coach Tim Foor, whose team ended a two-game losing streak. “We’ve played better. But I was very pleased with how we ended the game.”
Mantz scored 11 points to go with his game-high 15 rebounds. Delgado added 10, with half of those points coming in the fourth.
“We got into a little offensive flow,” Foor said, “hit some free throws down the stretch, and played some pretty good defense.”
Mantz played brilliantly in the fourth, scoring eight and grabbing seven boards. His putback off of a missed free throw by Andrew Eyster in the final seconds all but iced the game.
“They didn’t move their big guy (Kevin Carsto) from the other box to guard me,” Mantz said of his offensive board.
Senior guard Devon Craft scored a team-high 14 points for the Indians (10-10, 5-7), but 11 of those came in the first quarter.
“After Craft got off to a good start, I thought (Eyster) played much better defense on him,” Foor said. “He only had three the rest of the way.”
Shamokin is still seeking its 11th win, which it needs to clinch a playoff berth. The Indians travel to Mifflinburg on Saturday and then host Midd-West next week.
“It definitely hurts,” said Shamokin assistant Chris Zimmerman, who is running the team while head coach Joe Klebon fights a back injury. “We’ve been in situations like this (before); in probably seven of our 10 losses it comes down to the last three minutes of the game. Right now, the big problem is finding a way to get it to go in the basket.
“We’ve been struggling to score all year.”
There were five ties and four lead changes in the game.
The Indians took a 33-32 lead into the fourth, and then they grabbed their biggest lead of the night when Craft buried a 3-pointer to make it 36-32 with 5:18 remaining.
But Shikellamy (14-5, 9-3) responded with a 13-0 run. Mantz tied the game at 36 with a layup off a Delgado feed with 4:08 to go.
Delgado then gave the Braves the lead for good when he converted a three-point play less than a minute later.
“(Delgado) picked up his scoring a little bit,” Foor said. “He drove to the basket and hit a couple of free throws for us.”
Shikellamy canned its foul shots down the stretch, making 10 of 13 in the fourth quarter. For the game, the Braves connected on 14 of their 17 attempts from the charity stripe.
“As (Foor) says, it’s about toughness,” Mantz said. “That’s what he’s pushing right now on us, and I think it showed in the end.”
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Related Photos
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Shamokin's Keemee Newborn and Shikellamy's CJ Tyler go up for a rebound during the second half of their game Wednesday night in Sunbury.
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Shikellamy's Zach Herbster stays tight on Shamokin's Mike Spade during their game Tuesday night Feb. 8, 2012 in Sunbury.
Discussion
Shikellamy Braves pull away from Shamokin
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