by Ben Gaines
The JV Panthers traveled to Greenwich on the 12th to see what the Witches had brewing. This is a good squad all the way down the bench, and they really put on a show from start to finish on the road. The starting five – Noah Chani, Jake Nolan, Justin Gaines, Mark Hackett and Connor McCart – had their hands full for a few minutes with Joe Bushong and Jake Pett underneath the net. Noah drew first blood by stealing the ball from the Witches who rebounded a missed Panther shot. Chani changed directions and made a layup. Gaines and Pett would be dripping with sweat in short order from all the boxing out of each other and running the floor while the score board steadily clicked up. The Witches were not going to let the Panthers have any points without a challenge. The first half ended, 40-22 in favor of the Panthers.
The third quarter was played at a much slower pace ending 54-32. Coach Dan Flynn, of Greenwich had done a good job in the locker room directing his squad on how to contain the Panthers, but his spell would be broken by the two freshmen he had not seen yet.
Jeremy St. Onge and Tyler Gaines had been setting on the bench like two hungry Panthers, watching their prey. When Coach Chris Fleming released their bindings, it was game on. They came into the game and pounced, stealing the ball three times each, when it got past half court. It was a show that infuriated a few of the Witches. One player stole the ball from Kellan Skott, who had dribbled along the base line with a recovered rebound, the Witch turned toward the hoop where Tyler took possession back. A fraction of a second later, Gaines flew through the air from a two handed launching and landed hard, quite a distance away, and sled to a stop to the deafening sound of two whistles. Teammate Kellen Skott helped Gaines to his feet while Remington Hickey stood guard and the ref assigned an intentional foul to the Witches for the action, but it didn’t stop Remington Hickey, Kellen Skott, Josh Woods, Jeremy St.Onge and Tyler Gaines from charging forward to the second highest scoring quarter of the game, one less than the first, holding Greenwich to their lowest, to close the game with a 71-39 Panther Victory. Scorers for the Panthers were Hackett with 16, Chani and McCart with 15, Jeremy St.Onge and Tyler Gaines with 8, Woods with 6, Noah LaBarge with 5, Hickey and Justin Gaines with 2. Top three rebounds were J. Gaines at 11, T. Gaines with 10 and Hackett with 6. The squad went on the road, worked hard and were rewarded with another win in the streak to make it 20 in a row.