Dec 13, 2017 By Adam Brewer for The 4 min read

WAYNESBURG — Waynesburg Central’s Darton McIntire poured in 35 points and the Raiders were solid behind the arc and at the charity stripe in an 80-50 triumph over Charleroi, Tuesday night, in non-section boys’ basketball action.

McIntire, who went over 1,000 career points last Friday in the season opener against Laurel Highlands, had five 3-pointers and went 4-for-6 at the foul line with eight rebounds and six assists.

“I work on my shot the whole year and I take a lot of pride in my offense,” McIntire said. “These guys have been great to play with and they have a lot of confidence in me. It’s definitely a shooter’s mentality out there and I don’t want to mess up the flow of our offense. We controlled the tempo and turnovers tonight.”

The Raiders (1-2) had eight other players reach the score sheet, as Lucas Garber and Richard Bortz scored eight points apiece.

Waynesburg dictated the tempo from the onset and never looked back with their high-powered offense and a relentless defense.

“It feels good to get this first win under our belts,” Waynesburg coach Kirk King said. “We brought the right mindset tonight and I think the guys really valued every possession. We had two close losses to Laurel Highlands and Albert Gallatin, and at times we took some possessions off. We had good intensity throughout the night.”

The Cougars (0-3) only managed 22 points in the second half after cutting the halftime deficit to 37-28. High scorers for Charleroi were Caleb Carson (10) and Lee Zanardini (9).

“We kept with them in the first half and I thought we were in a good position at halftime,” Charleroi coach Bill Wiltz said. “We just couldn’t keep up with their shooting in the second half. The kids started to look at the scoreboard and get down on themselves. It was very deflating. I liked the tempo of the game because we have some good athletes on our team.”

Trailing 4-3 in the opening quarter, Waynesburg ended the frame with a 21-9 run. McIntire and Garber hit a pair of treys in the quarter.

Charleroi scored five of the opening six points in the second stanza to cut the deficit to 25-18. After the teams exchanged baskets, the Raiders ended the first half on an 8-5 spurt.

Leading 44-36 midway through the third quarter, Waynesburg grabbed the momentum and ended the period with a 13-4 spree for a 57-40 advantage heading into the fourth.

“Tempo is so key for us,” King said. “We work on it so much in practice and we want to dictate the speed of the game at both ends of the floor. We mix up our presses on defense and got some turnovers off of it. I really liked our transition and our shot selection. On defense, we did a good job of staying in front of our man.”

The Raiders gained separation midway through the fourth with a 16-2 rally over a three-minute span that was capped off by an old-fashioned three-point play by McIntire.

“I just care about getting wins,” McIntire said. “We have a lot of depth and we have a pack of wolves’ mentality when we are on the court. We rally to the ball and we swarm on defense to get those steals. It’s a total team effort and we got a lot of contributions from a lot of guys. We pressed well and we pushed the floor on offense.”

McIntire collected 12 points in the final eight minutes of regulation.

“Darton is big for us, but I really like what our whole entire team did tonight,” King said. “We can run about 10 or 11 guys deep, and every one of those guys contributed. Colin Rose played a good game on the inside. Lucas Garber and Richard Bortz made some shots for us too.”

“We have three seniors that comes off the bench (Blake Brewer, Aaron Yorio and Brandon Turcheck) and all three played really tough defense. They made some really nice plays for us.”

Waynesburg connected on eight shots from beyond the arc and shot 70 percent (14-20) at the free throw line. Charleroi had their struggles at the charity stripe, shooting 33 percent (7-21) on the line.

“I liked our man-to-man defense at times tonight,” Wiltz said. “We have a couple of athletic kids out there, but we don’t have the size. We can’t afford to play a half-court game with teams. Our shooting has been a little inconsistent. We are young, and we just have to work together to fix some things.”