Freeport drops SR
JEFFERSON TWP — It was the opening night for high school boys basketball, but Alex Isenberg and Darius Frantz appeared to be in midseason form.
Freeport's guard and forward scored 22 and 16 points, respectively, as the Yellowjackets defeated Slippery Rock 56-45 in the opening game of the King of the Court Classic Friday night at Knoch High.
"We try to run so many offenses and Alex will be doing a lot more than just scoring this year, but he and Darius were both shooting with confidence tonight," said Freeport coach Garrie Davies.
Knoch beat Moniteau 53-31 in the second game.
Slippery Rock's Brent Ayers drained a jumper from the foul line to cut Freeport's lead to 47-42 with 5:27 to play before Isenberg made good on two free throws and Jake Campbell's steal and subsequent free throw pushed the Yellowjackets' lead back to 10 points.
The Rockets wouldn't score again until Brian Giesler's 3-pointer with 1:29 left, which made it a seven-point game at 52-45.
Freeport made four late free throws to ice the win.
"We got a little gassed at the end," said Slippery Rock coach Phil Bushre. "It was two good teams getting after it in that gym."
The Rockets' rebounding advantage kept them close for much of the night. They had a 13-5 edge after one period and a 19-9 advantage at halftime.
For the game, Slippery Rock tallied 32 rebounds to Freeport's 25.
"That's definitely one of our goals: to win on the boards," said Bushre. "It's something we think we can do with our size.
"We just have to be able to do something with the ball after we get it."
Giesler led the Rockets with 17 points and Ryan Gordon had 10.
The Knights rolled to their first victory of the season on the strength of a 34-10 advantage in the second and third quarters.After outscoring the Warriors 10-2 in the second period, the Knights received field goals from five different players in the third, including six points from both Jake McTighe and Robert Zanella.Knoch shot a blistering 11-of-13 (84 percent) from the field in the quarter."We didn't play well (overall) on offense tonight, but in the third quarter we did," said Knoch coach Chris Andreassi. "We got everyone involved."Nathan Junk led Knoch with 12 points and Andrew Wirtz contributed 11.For Moniteau coach Randy Armagost, the opening-night performance was frustrating to watch as the Warriors trailed 45-19 after three quarters."This is not the same team that I've seen play the last six months," Armagost said. "I don't think I saw us set one screen tonight."The kids know what they did wrong. Now we just have to fix it. I think it's a mental thing more than anything else."Zach Sloan paced Moniteau with 14 points.The King of the Court Classic concludes Saturday with Moniteau facing Slippery Rock at 1 p.m. and Freeport taking on Knoch at 4.<B>SLIPPERY ROCK 45</B>Brent Ayers 1 4-6 6, Justin Bennett 2 0-3 4, Brian Giesler 6 1-2 17, Ryan Gordon 5 0-2 10, Alec McDeavitt 3 2-4 8, Andrew Waryanka 0 0-0 0, Ryan Thompson 0 0-0 0, Caleb Whitney 0 0-0 0. <B>Totals:</B> 17 7-17 45.<B>FREEPORT 56</B>Nick Gentile 2 3-4 7, Tyler Collins 1 3-3 5, Darius Frantz 7 2-4 16, Alex Isenberg 6 7-12 22, Jake Campbell 2 1-4 6, Shawn Liberto 0 0-0 0, Tyler Singer 0 0-0 0. <B>Totals:</B> 18 16-27 56.<B>Slippery Rock 13 15 10 7—45Freeport 19 9 19 9—563-point goals: </B>Slippery Rock 4 (Giesler 4); Freeport 4 (Isenberg 3, Campbell).<B>MONITEAU 31</B>Kyle Armagost 2 2-4 6, Zach Sloan 6 2-4 14, Zach McCormick 1 2-2 4, Jereme Loos 2 1-2 5, Mike George 1 0-0 2, Mitch Hunter 0 0-1 0, Lewis Martino 0 0-0 0, Austin Hogsett 0 0-0 0, Heath Lominski 0 0-0 0, Andrew Armagost 0 0-0 0. <B>Totals:</B> 12 7-13 31.<B>KNOCH 53</B>Nathan Junk 5 2-4 12, Corey Miller 0 1-2 1, Andrew Wirtz 4 2-2 11, Chris Cetnar 1 3-4 5, Jake McTighe 4 0-4 8, Robert Zanella 4 0-0 8, Jake Hickey 2 0-0 4, Ryan Schultheis 1 0-0 2, Adam Seger 1 0-0 2, Dan McCormick 0 0-2 0, Kevin Wood 0 0-0 0, Adam Tuzikow 0 0-0 0. <B>Totals:</B> 22 8-18 53.<B>Moniteau 9 2 8 12—31Knoch 11 10 24 8—533-point goals: </B>Knoch (Wirtz).
