Staff photo / Greg Macafee. Warren JFK’s Nick Ryan drives past a Wellsville defender during the Eagles’ 70-52 romp in the district semifinal.

ORWELL — Heading into Monday night’s contest against Warren John F. Kennedy, Wellsville boys basketball coach David Thompson did as much scouting as he could.

He knew what Kennedy was going to throw at his Tigers, but it still wasn’t enough.

The No. 5 Eagles (16-8) turned up the defensive pressure throughout the game by utilizing a full-court press and took advantage of their depth en route to a 70-52 Division IV district semifinal victory over Wellsville (17-8), who came into the game as the seventh seed.

“They were too deep for us tonight,” Wellsville coach David Thomspon said. “They were big inside and they shot the ball well. We had 17 turnovers at the half, and that’s what did us in. We couldn’t handle the pressure early.

“I watched some of their games. We knew they were going to trap the first pass and we had to get the ball past it, but we didn’t do that. We held the ball too long.”

The Eagles’ defensive pressure allowed them to jump out to an early 11-2 lead by the 3:50 mark in the first quarter after a Hayden Wait 3-pointer. By the end of the first frame, Kennedy had built a 20-8 lead and never looked back.

It was far from Kennedy’s best game, though. There were times where the offense was clicking and it was running on all cylinders. But, the Eagles also went through spurts where the offense went stagnant.

Through the first three minutes of the second quarter, the Eagles went scoreless until sophomore Michael Condoleon hit a big 3-pointer, his first of three on the night. He also led the Eagles with 13 points.

“You could see it in the first quarter,” Kennedy coach Mark Komlanc said. “We had spurts where we looked really, really good, and then all of a sudden it was like we were just going through the motions. I haven’t seen us play that bad offensively in a long time. It was rough to watch.”

What they didn’t do offensively though, the Eagles made up for on defense.

Kennedy goes four or five deep into its bench, which allows its defense to put as much pressure on its opponents as it can. Guys like Patrick Valent, Antwan Brown Jr., Nico Ciminero and Nick Ryan provided a spark off the bench as part of Kennedy’s “Bench Mob.”

“We call them the ‘Bench Mob’ for a reason, and I thanked them after the game,” Komlanc said. “Those guys come in and even there at the end of the game when it got close, Antwan and those guys, and Pat, provided a lot of defensive pressure that turned into points, which is what we want. That’s when we are at our best and they brought that at moments tonight.”

Off the bench, Brown tallied eight points while Ciminero scored nine, and Valent added four while also providing a solid presence in the paint and on the boards. Nick Ryan scored four off the bench as well.

After somewhat of a low-scoring first half for Wellsville, the game opened up in the second half as both teams started to run. Gavin Kountz scored 10 of his game-high 14 points in the second half for Wellsville while the Eagles were balanced throughout. Jaden Rishel, who came into Monday night’s contest averaging a team-high 16.4 points, scored six of his 10 points in the fourth quarter on two 3-pointers from the left corner.

The Eagles will now move on to take on the winner of No. 1 Mathews and No. 6 Bristol, who play tonight at Grand Valley High School in the second of the district semifinals.

They’ll play Friday at 7 p.m. at Grand Valley High School.

The Eagles have an opportunity to win their third straight district title Friday, but Komlanc knows they need to improve in certain areas before then. One of those areas happens to be getting comfortable against a 2-3 zone, which is something that Wellsville utilized Monday night.

“We didn’t shoot it really well from the perimeter tonight, and we usually shoot it really well from the perimeter. We only had eight 3s tonight,” Komlanc said. “But I’m sure we’ll see a 2-3 zone in the future after that. We’ll be working on it tomorrow.”

Komlanc said he also wants his team to come more prepared when they step on the floor on Friday.

“Friday is a chance for them to be perhaps the best team to ever walk through Kennedy’s halls and there have been some really good teams,” Komlanc said. “We haven’t seen a run like this and I expect them to show up ready to cut down nets but they have to be locked in and focused because whoever we play is going to want it just as much as we do so it’s going to come down to the little details.”

gmacafee@tribtoday.com