Montrose scores win over Tigers

BY HEIDI ZENEFSKI
Sports Correspondent

The Montrose Meteors basketball team collected their first win after two consecutive losses on Friday night when they took on the visiting Tunkhannock Tigers in Montrose.

Tunkhannock started out strong and took an early lead but the Meteors kept plugging away and once they started scoring, they didn’t stop until they had accomplished their goal of adding a win to the record book.

Montrose point guard, Austin Smith, scored 10 points in the first quarter and would lead the Meteors in scoring throughout the game.

Mason Peck helped stop the Tigers scoring drives with two steals in the first and took away much of the momentum that Tunkhannock had going. By the end of the quarter, Montrose had fought back to take a 15-12 lead.

Tunkhannock’s Tony Maloney challenged the Meteors in the second quarter and led his team in scoring. He put in 10 points in the second, including two 3-pointers, which added to his seven points in the first.

Peck’s shooting came alive in the second and he led the Meteors with six points and added another steal.

Montrose dominated under the basket with Brennan Gilhool, Brendan Buck, Travis Birchard, and Andrew Bickford each grabbing two rebounds. Bickford and Birchard also each blocked a Tunkhannock shot, sending the Montrose fans into a frenzy. At half time, the scoreboard had Tunkhannock up by two with a score of 29-27.

After half time, the Meteors doubled up the Tigers points by outscoring them 18-9 and taking back their lead and keeping it for the remainder of the game. The defense held Maloney to just three points, which all came from foul shots. His teammates Ethan Hoefert, Evan Turner, and AC Macko scored a basket each.

Montrose was once again led by Smith on offense who had nine points, two steals, and a blocked shot. The freshman, Gilhool, scored a basket. Bickford fouled while shooting, made the basket and the foul shot. He also had two rebounds and a steal. Todd Lattimore added four more points, one rebound, and one steal for the Meteors. Buck fought under the basket for two rebounds and a block. The score at the end of the third was 45-38 in favor of Montrose.

The fourth quarter was close to even with Montrose leading Tunkhannock in scoring 13-12.

Maloney added two more 3-pointers, for a total of five in the game, two foul shots and a basket for the Tigers. Harder scored another basket for Tunkhannock.

Buck was dominant under the basket for the Meteors with three rebounds and two blocks. Chris Guyette helped out with three rebounds as well. Birchard scored three points, Buck had four and Smith added six to give the Meteors a 58-50 victory.

Maloney lead in points for Tunkhannock with 30 points and Smith was the high scorer for Montrose with 27 points.

The Meteors will face Lakeland at home on Thursday night.

In other basketball play action last week:

At Honesdale, Adam Kelly scored 13 points and Ian Langendoerfer had 11 to lead the fifth-ranked Hornets, 49-41 pver Blue Ridge.

Ty Herbert led Blue Ridge with 12 points.

At Susquehanna, Nick Ganter scored 14 points to lead Wyoming Seminary, 51-35 over the Sabers.

Tyler Williams had 18 points for Susquehanna.

At Lake-Lehman, Cole Tyler and Hunter Watkins each scored 14 points to lead Elk Lake, 68-39 over Lake Lehman.

Bailey Newhart added 12 points for the Warriors.

At Kingston, Patrick Ganter scored 18 points to lead Wyoming Seminary, 48-41 over Mountain View.

Cody Hollister scored a game-high 24 points for Mountain View.