California coasts over Gators, 65-37
CONNELLSVILLE TWP. — California boys’ basketball coach Bruno Pappasergi knows that when his team is working well together, the Trojans are difficult to stop. That was the case on Thursday when the Trojans defeated host Geibel Catholic 65-37.
“We were able to pay up-tempo and defensively we got some steals and deflections,” Pappasergi said afterwards.
Two factors that contributed to the win were the hot first half shooting of Trojan senior guard Tray Mathews, and the absence of Geibel Catholic power forward Matt Mammarella because of illness.
Mathews scored all 21 of his points in the first half and led a 20-3 run that broke the game open. Mathews was actually second high scorer for the Trojans as sophomore Kass Taylor scored 22 points.
Pappasergi said the Trojans are able to rotate seven to eight players into the game, “who understand what to do with the ball.”
When asked about his hot shooting performance, Mathews deflected credit to his teammates. “We played really good together,” Mathews said. “We practiced hard and try to play for the best shot and get everyone involved.”
Geibel Catholic (2-1, 4-2) led just twice; after Kyle Toth’s opening basket, and after a James Ewing free throw and basket by Nick Speeney put the Gators ahead 8-7.
That’s when Mathews got hot, scoring 14 of his team’s points on a 20-3 run that built a 19-8 first quarter lead, with the run continuing into the first 12 points of the second quarter. Taylor had the other six points of the run, while Ewing’s three-point basket early in the second quarter interrupted the first 14 points of the run.
The Trojans led 45-20 at halftime, with five players getting into the scoring column.
Scoring slowed in the second half, with California outscoring Geibel Catholic just 20-19, and Ewing scoring six of his team-high 12 points for the Gators.
Both of Geibel Catholic’s losses have been at home to California and coach Bill Hughes credited the Trojans with creating turnovers that turned the tide early in the game.
“My hat is off to coach Pappasergi. He had his team ready to play. They forced turnovers and we made some unforced turnovers. We’ll look at the film to correct the unforced errors.”
Hughes would not use Mammarella’s absence as an excuse and looked ahead to GC’s next game at Monessen on Tuesday, where he said, “It doesn’t get any easier.”