Upper Dauphin defeats EJ in up-tempo battle
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COCOLAMUS -- Despite outscoring Upper Dauphin in the second half, East Juniata couldn't recover from its struggles in the first half as the Tigers fell 72-55 to the Trojans in a Tri-Valley League boys basketball game Friday night.
It looked more like a track meet than a basketball game in the opening quarter of the game as both teams were running and gunning the ball in the net. Both teams had five different players score at least one basket in the frame.
As the quarter went on, Upper Dauphin slowly began to pull a head behind the shooting of Nathan Wise, Hayden Bellis and Macklin Ayers giving the Trojans a 18-10 lead at the end of the first.
The Tigers struggled to get going offensively in large part due to the tight defense from Upper Dauphin who didn't allow many clean looks at the basket. East Juniata was only able to score six points in the quarter.
On the flip side the Trojans were running wild offensively keeping a fast pace from the first quarter scoring a total of 22 points in the quarter with most of which came in transition. Upper Dauphin took a 40-16 lead into the break.
"We didn't really shoot well in the first half," Tigers coach Chris Wolfkill said. "We got back on defense. We were a little out of sync cause we didn't run our offense and we didn't get our open shots so things happen."
East Juniata came out of the break a completely different team going shot for shot with Upper Dauphin. Anytime it looked as if the Trojans went on a run, the Tigers responded with a big run of their own. The Tigers scored more points in the third quarter than they did in the first half with 19 in the frame. In fact, East Juniata had outscored Upper Dauphin 39-31 in the second half of the game.
"Second half was better, you see we executed the offense a lot better," Wolfkill said. "We went into a man-to-man at the end of the first half which helped. We don't play man to man much as a team but tonight, I thought we played well in the second half."
Wise was a major part of the Upper Dauphin offense scoring 25 points in the game. Wise hit seven shots from beyond the arc. The Trojans as a team dropped nine 3-pointers on the night. Ayers added another 19 points.
"We knew Wise was a shooter and we go into the game and we just didn't cover," Wolfkill said.
Xavier Clement led the way for the Tigers with a team-high 13 points doing most of his damage in the fourth quarter, scoring seven in the frame while Wayne Dressler Jr. and Tanner Barth both dropped 12 for the game.
"Xavier, he was a little off tonight, he stepped up there in the fourth quarter," Wolfkill said. "Wayne will be Wayne, he'll get to the hole for us, he'll rebound for us, he plays hard. Tanner is pretty much a floor leader for me right now. He plays good defense, he takes care of the ball."
The Tigers also lost the JV game as well by the final score of 47-43 with Jake Brackbill led with a team high of 20 points.
East Juniata falls to (6-11, 5-8) and will travel to face Millersburg today.
Upper Dauphin 72, East Juniata 55
EAST JUNIATA
Xavier Clement 5 3-5 13, Evan Reichenbach 2 1-2 5, Ethan Roer 1 0-0 2, Brody Powell 1 0-0 2, Wayne Dressler Jr 4 3-7 12, Andrew Hunter 2 0-0 4, Tanner Barth 4 4-4 12, Jeremiah Brackbill 2 0-0 5. Totals: 21 11-18 55
3-point goals: Dressler Jr, Brackbill
Did not score: Carter Freed, Rowan Smith
UPPER DAUPHIN
Grant Stoner 1 0-0 3, Nathan Wise 8 2-4 25, Will Laskowski 1 3-4 5, Hayden Bellis 3 0-2 6, Sam Kerwin 3 2-2 8, Malson Grow 1 0-0 3, Macklin Ayers 7 5-8 19, Hayden Lentz1 1-4 3. Totals: 25 13-24 72
3-point goals: Stoner, Wise 7, Grow
Score by quarters
Upper Dauphin 18-22-20-11 -- 72
East Juniata 10-6-19-20 -- 55