The last time the Panthers faced off against the Salisbury Falcons they lost in overtime. And while several of the Panthers were under the weather and not feeling 100 percent healthy, they were determined to play strong, play hard and beat the Falcons in their league game Tuesday night.
Senior co-captain Will Smith was on fire in this game. He came out strong and scored three baskets in a row, putting 8 points on the scoreboard for the Panthers in the very beginning of the game. The Panthers kept the momentum the rest of the first quarter with Cam Allen, Jake Nichols and Aiden Zawodny adding points to bring the score to 18-10 Panthers at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter saw a lot of back and forth between the two teams. While the Falcons did manage to get past the Panthers’ defense several times, the Panthers kept their lead with a score of 25-20 at the end of the second quarter.
During halftime, the 4th/5th grade youth team, the Buckeyes, broke into two teams and played each other.
The Panthers’ level of play started slipping in the third quarter. The Falcons knew they had the chance to come back and they took advantage of every opportunity they had, capitalizing on turnovers. Although Saucon’s Cole Gilotti, Allen, Smith and Nichols scored, the Falcons pulled ahead at the end of the 3rd quarter with a score of 43-35 Salisbury.
Saucon’s head coach Matt Brown obviously had some words of wisdom to share with his players during a timeout and the Panthers started to come back in the last quarter.
While they were down, the Panthers were determined to come back and come back strong. They scored first and gained their momentum back. Saucon started playing offensively and it was obvious that they intended to win the game. Josh Snead’s foul shots in the last several seconds of the game gave the Panthers a comfortable lead and ensured the win with a final score of 55-50 Panthers. The Panthers have proven that with good team effort and not giving up, they can come back from behind with a decisive win.
Lead scorer Will Smith reflected on the last few games saying, “We know we lost four close games in a row. We had to pull a good win out. Hopefully this starts our run.”
