Montour edged out Moon in a hard-fought game between two of the top teams in the 5A classification. The first quarter was highlighted by Montour senior, and Mercyhurst football commit, Kaleb Platz. Platz had the first nine points of the game for the Spartans, going three for three from three to start the game. Sow was quiet offensively early on, but he did still have three blocks in the first quarter.
The second quarter continued the theme of low scoring, methodical basketball. Neither team was forcing shots or pushing the ball in transition. This was by design from Moon.
Montour likes to play fast, push the pace, and move the ball. Moon’s entire gameplan revolved around making Montour play half court basketball and force someone other than the 6’10” UT Martin commit, Ama Tening Sow, to beat them. Moon big ma, Caleb Waclawski, did a tremendous job of keeping Sow off the offensive glass by boxing him out hard as soon as a shot went up, and at the half Montour led narrowly by a score of 23-20 with Sow having just 5 points.
The grind it out nature of this one was exemplified in the third quarter where Moon outscored Montour just 10-9 in the quarter. Both teams were playing great defense, as neither side was letting up easy shots. This led to lengthy possessions where the ball handlers for each team were surveying the defense, moving the ball around the perimeter, and looking for their opportunities, which did not come easy in this one. Moon senior, Carter Tumulty tied the game at 28 late in the third quarter with a two-handed slam on a breakaway, but after three quarters, Montour held a slim lead of 32-30 over Moon.
Things heated up a bit in the fourth quarter with the stars of each team getting going. The teams would trade baskets early in the quarter with the Moon deficit remaining at just two points throughout most of it. With the fouls beginning to pile up for both teams, Moon was able to cut the Montour lead to just one as we approached the one-minute mark in the game. Montour attempted to burn clock while Moon upped the defensive pressure to try to force a turnover. They trapped Montour in the corner multiple times, but the Spartans bailed themselves out with timeouts.
With no timeouts left and needing to get the ball in, Montour picked up a costly offensive foul and handed the ball back to Moon with under a minute to go. Moon turned the ball over and was forced to foul Montour, who went one for two from the line to make the score 40-38 in favor of the Spartans. Trailing by two, Moon drew up their best play which had their star and Nova Southeastern commit, Michael Santicola, driving to the basket. Santicola missed the baseline floater and the putback on the offensive rebound, but the ball bounced right to Waclawski of Moon who would miss a third game-tying attempt for the Tigers.
With just a few seconds remaining, Moon was forced to foul and send Kaleb Platz to the line with a chance to ice the game for Montour. Platz would miss the first and make the second, putting Montour up three with 2.4 seconds remaining in the game. Albeit a quiet night offensively, Moon threw a long inbounds pass to Michael Santicola, who caught the ball near midcourt, took one dribble, and launched a prayer from the left wing. As the buzzer sounded, Santicola’s shot was on its way through the hoop and we were headed to overtime.
The score was tied at 41 and with fouls carrying over from the fourth quarter, each team was in the bonus the entire overtime with both Sow and Santicola entering the final four-minute frame with four fouls a piece. Sow was able to grab an offensive rebound early in overtime and get the and-1 to go to put Montour up three.
Moon’s Amir Turner would hit two free throws at the other end to get it back to a one-point game before Platz got the push shot in the low post to fall, giving Montour at 46-43 lead. Sow would knock down two more free throws for Montour and increase the lead to five with just over a minute to go. Down two possessions, Santicola would answer the bell again for Moon and get the layup to go, cutting the Montour lead to just three. 48-45 would be as close as Moon got as Montour hit three of their final four free throws to hold on and win by a score of 51-45.
Even though he wasn’t as dominant as usual, Sow still put up yet another double-double with 14 points, 14 rebounds, and several blocks. Colton Straight finished with a game-high 16 points for Montour and Platz was also in double figures as he finished with 14 points, including a 9-point first quarter. Tumulty and Santicola led the way for the Tigers with 13 and 11 points respectively.
Up next for Montour is a back-to-back with Lincoln Park on Friday and Mars on Saturday. Moon has Friday off, but will head to Allderdice in a non-conference game on Saturday before traveling to Chartiers Valley next week in another matchup of top 5A teams.