High School Sports

Bristol beats PV, stays atop NAC

BRISTOLVILLE -- In the battle for Northeastern Athletic Conference supremacy on Tuesday night, Bristol turned up its defensive pressure in the second half to beat visiting Pymatuning Valley, 67-55, in front of a sizable and boisterous crowd.

While the Church brothers were able to put up some divine numbers for the Panthers, senior point guard Mike Wiebe posted a career-high 25 points and proved to be the difference-maker for the hosts.

"Everything was flowing in the second half and my shot felt good tonight," said Wiebe, who scored 18 points in the second half as the Panthers pulled away from a 27-all halftime score. "It's the most points I've ever had in a game. This is one of the biggest wins I've had in my high school career because it sets us up (to win the league title), and they've been one of our main rivals these past few years. Beating them twice is huge."

The Panthers improved to 13-3 overall and 11-0 in the NAC, while the Lakers dipped to 14-4 and 10-2, but remained in second place in the league standings.

"It's possible that fatigue caught up with us a little bit in the second half," Pymatuning Valley coach Ryan Shontz said. "Plus, the foul count was pretty high on our side, so we mixed in some guys who don't usually get that much playing time. A couple of my guys also had to play a little passive because of their foul trouble. It changed the whole game.

"Our point guard, Noah Wilkerson, and our top player, Tanner Rhoades on the wing, both were in foul trouble in the first half and spent a good deal of time on the bench. In the second half, they just had to be more passive on defense. It changed the whole complexion of the game when we had to go to the bench."

The Lakers led 14-10 after the first quarter as Rhoades scored six of his 11 points in the period. Robert Verba tallied eight of his team-high 24 points in the second quarter for the Lakers, but Rhoades and Wilkerson had combined for eight points by intermission. Wilkerson finished with six points.

The Panthers used a 10-2 spurt in the third quarter en route to a 21-10 scoring advantage to stake a 48-37 lead entering the final canto.

Wiebe made a pair of 3-pointers and totaled eight points in the third quarter, with Matt Church netting a 3-pointer and seven of his 20 points in those eight minutes.

"Everyone was doing their part," Wiebe said. "Them trying to take Matt away from our offense kind of opened things up a bit for all of us, but he still ended up getting his points, too. In the first quarter, we weren't zoned in mentally. We got a ripping from our coach and I think that got us going. We started to find our groove in the second quarter and our defense was very good in the second half.

"Defensively, we came in knowing we had to take away (Wilkerson), and we did a great job with that throughout the whole game, and we executed our stuff down the stretch to get the win."

Matt Church added nine assists and seven rebounds to his 20 points. Nick Church supplied nine points and eight rebounds.

"Matt Church is averaging 20 points a game and he's a very good player," Bristol coach Craig Giesy said. "In the last three or four games, teams are trying to take him away and limit his touches. He's smart enough to pass out of the double teams and try to get his teammates opportunities. He's getting more second-chance opportunities because he's working hard on the glass and isn't seeing the ball as much in the flow of the offense. But that shows you how smart he is and how hard he works."

Shontz said his team struggled defensively.

"(Bristol is) tough to defend," he said. "If you try to slow down Matt Church, they just go to someone else. The Wiebe kid had a big game tonight. We were just trying to play them all honest, but they have a lot of guys who can score it.

"We need to improve defensively. We're still a work in progress."

Mason Inman added 10 points for the Lakers and Seth Mooney contributed eight boards for Bristol.

"In the first quarter, we were out of sorts," Giesy said. "We played a step too fast offensively. Defensively, we did some good things, but they also got some leakouts. We had guys designated to get back, they just weren't doing it. We also had six or seven turnovers in the first six minutes and when we did get good looks, we were missing some easy layups.

"That improved in the second quarter, but it was still tied. In th second half, we did a great job taking away their transition, and we stopped turning the ball over offensively and that let us get into some of our stuff. Good things happen when you don't throw the ball away."

bemerine@tribtoday.com