The freshman Wildcats destroyed Poland in the championship February 11 in Struthers Fieldhouse. The Cats won 51-34. The freshman boys are officially undefeated in their basketball season.
Already having a win against Poland and then beating out the rest of the teams they played, their mindset was positive, and they went into the championship knowing they will win this if they keep up the great teamwork. The Wildcats made sure they were doing the plays correctly by beating them by 17 points. Being undefeated this season will really set a good tone for the next season.
The Wildcats started off the first quarter by taking it away, Landon Fox with back to back threes. Mason Wortman and Joey Minno came in making layups which made the score 10-0. Poland ended up getting a layup, the ball back to Struthers leading to Carman Farina getting a layup ending the first quarter 16-6.
Bradley Miller expressed going against Poland is on another level considering Poland is big opponents to Struthers. Also heated words exchange with each other making the game more extreme.
Freshman Miller says, “Playing Poland is a big difference since it’s our rival. And there’s usually a lot of trash talk coming from their teams and the games are more intense.”
The second quarter rolled in, and the Wildcats stayed making threes from Minno and Fox, while Farina and Mannie Perez added some layups. The Cats were providing hard defense and ending the quarter off 31-12.
Miller felt when his teammate Landon Fox was making the baskets it shifted the energy the rest of the tournament.
Freshman Miller says, “When we came out, Landon hit a 3 to get us all hype. It changed the momentum of the rest of the game.”
In the third quarter, the Wildcats had a little drought letting Poland get their way back up until Wortman and Fox had many layups ending the quarter 39-25. Struthers pulled the lead in fourth quarter Miller making them layups while Poland got a few points ending the championship 51-34.
Miller and the rest of the team kept each other positive during tough times and to progress next time. The coach explained what they needed to fix and boosted their energy.
Miller says, “We all encouraged them to do better the next play and the coach told them what they did wrong and hyped them up.”
