Dec 16, 2006 By Mike Ciarochi 3 min read

PERRYOPOLIS – Jim Traynor led a balanced Frazier scoring attack and the Commodores beat Geibel Catholic, 67-53, in non-section boys basketball action Friday night at Frazier. Greg Johnson and Vince Conti scored 14 apiece, as Frazier remained Fayette County’s only unbeaten basketball team at 5-0.

“These kids enjoy winning and tonight it was a gallant effort,” Commodores coach Larry Mikesell said. “This team is more resilient than our recent teams. We play as a team and we’re able to hold on when other teams make a run at us.”

Friday’s game against Geibel Catholic provided a perfect example. The Gators battled back from a 28-17 halftime deficit to get within six, the last instance coming at 34-28 on a Rob Orange basket midway through the third quarter.

Instead of going into a shell, the Commodores responded in a big way. First, Traynor nailed a three-pointer to boost the lead to nine. After Mark Gira answered for Geibel to make it 37-30, Mike Dziak scored underneath for Frazier and Conti followed with another three-pointer to make it 42-30 with two minutes left in the third.

“We played the whole game in spurts,” Geibel Catholic coach Ken Misiak said. “We cut their lead to six, then we gave up back-to-back three-pointers. You can’t do that.”

Johnson got in the act with his third three-pointer of the game and Joe Kulikoski scored to stretch Frazier’s lead to 47-31 late in the third and the Gators never seriously threatened again.

Orange led Geibel Catholic with 19 points and nine rebounds, while Josh Herman added 11 points.

It was just the scoring that Frazier spread around. The Commodores also had five players with at least four rebounds, led by Dziak’s seven.

“Give Frazier credit,” Misiak said. “They out-played us and out-hustled us. They deserved to win tonight. We didn’t play very smart on defense and we just couldn’t get our offense going.”

“We struggled at the beginning, but I thought we played well overall,” Mikesell said, referring to the very early stages when Geibel Catholic held its only leads, the last at 6-5. “We managed to get a little spread there, but that’s the game of basketball. We distributed the ball well.”

That little spread boosted Frazier to a 22-10 lead early in the second quarter and they kept it in double figures until Geibel Catholic’s 7-2 run closed it to six.

Even though he retired from teaching, Mikesell reverted to some trigonometry lingo to describe his team’s play.

“We like to play like a sine wave,” he said. “We’re up and down. Even when we really get it going, we’ll kind of slow ourselves down with turnovers. But these kids have worked hard and they are getting better. I’m glad they are enjoying some positive results.”

The Commodores host California Tuesday, while Geibel Catholic hosts Avella Wednesday.