Gators open season with 64-15 win over Maples
CONNELLSVILLE TWP. — Geibel Catholic opened its season Friday night with a 64-15 win over an inexperienced Mapletown team in the first game of the Gators Tip-Off Tournament.
The Gators, who are also a team trying to find the right combinations on the floor, controlled the game from the opening tip and managed to get every player that dressed into the game.
Three Geibel players reached double figures with Kyle Toth scoring a game-high 26 points, connecting on four 3-pointers along the way. Jesse Yourish and Caleb Miller scored 11 apiece for the Gators. Alix Gennette battled his way to six points to lead the Maples.
“It was a good team effort tonight, even though we showed our inexperience at times,” Geibel’s Bill Hughes said. “We didn’t score a point the first four minutes of the second quarter and then put up 20 points after that. Our scoring came in spurts. That’s something that is going to happen until we can get more experience as a team.”
The Gators raced out to a 9-0 lead on their way to a 19-4 lead in the opening quarter. Yourish and Miller scored five apiece to pace the Gators. Dustin Lemley scored for the Maples to open the second quarter as they fought to hold the Gators scoreless until about the four-minute mark. The Gators started getting their shots to fall, scoring 18 unanswered points opening up a 37-6 lead.
They put up 21 points in the quarter with Toth going on a tear, scoring nine straight points to put up a total of 18 points in the quarter to help the Gators to a 40-8 halftime lead.
“We have a lot of work to do with these kids,” Mapletown’s Rick Hill said. “I tell people you’ve got to learn how to ride the bike and right now we have training wheels on with this program at the moment. The kids are working very hard and have improved a lot since we’ve started. I have four kids that have never played basketball before. So, as you can see, this is a work in progress.”
Hill, who is in his first year with the Maples, played basketball and ran track at California University of Pa. and said he got off to a late start with the kids. He told them right now wins and losses don’t matter as long as they work to improve every day. He says he is starting to see signs of that.
The Gators were able to put up another 21 points in the third to open up a 61-15 lead and managed to push their lead to 40 in the fourth quarter, putting the basketball version of the mercy rule into effect.
“We had a good night. We had a couple of players pick up their first points in a varsity game,” Hughes said. “We wanted to get them some experience, because with experience comes confidence. We’re going to need that when we face some of the more experienced teams during the season.”
Gators Tip-Off Tournament
Mapletown 4-4-7-0 — 15
Geibel Catholic 19-21-21-3 — 64
Mapletown: Alix Gennette 6. Geibel Catholic: Kyle Toth 26, Jesse Yourish 11, Caleb Miller 11. Records: Mapletown (0-1), Geibel Catholic (1-0).