By Matt Michelone
For the Mirror
EBENSBURG — Penn Cambria’s Zach Grove of the boys’ basketball team has an interesting nickname given for his defensive prowess.
“We call him the cobra because he’s just a beast out there,” teammate Garrett Harrold said. “He’s just one of those guys who knows his role and he takes pride in his defense.”
Saturday afternoon those efforts on the defensive end powered a 23-4 third-quarter outburst as the Panthers went on to defeat Cambria Heights, 74-35, in the Ron Davidson Roundball Classic Championship at Central Cambria High School.
Grove – who finished with eight steals – attributes those efforts to the quickness he and his team possess.
“Our whole team is fast, we’ve got speed all around,” Grove, the tournament MVP, said. “Those defensive steals by everyone gets us the points that we need.”
The Highlanders managed to make it a back-and-forth game early as they buried four three pointers in the opening stanza. Parker Farabaugh hit a pair of them on his way to scoring eight points.
Penn Cambria survived early, thanks to a solid scoring balance. The Panthers got a pair of buckets from Gavin Harrold to give them a 15-14 lead after the opening stanza. They took a 36-23 at the half.
“Typically, I don’t start in our havoc defense,” Penn Cambria coach Jim Ronan said. “I want to see what they do coming out. They were in the fog for a little bit. It tends to happen when you play earlier games.”
Cambria Heights coach Eric Nagel had nothing but praise for the Panthers, while noting that his team is dealing with the challenge of having to start over virtually from scratch with only two returning letterwinners.
“We played four games in five days,” he said. “Penn Cambria in (Class) 4A is the team to beat. Penn Cambria is going to give a run for the Laurel Highlands. We don’t have a returning starter; we have two returning letterwinners. This is one of those things we build on.”
In the second half, the Panthers ran roughshod over the Highlanders as Grove, the tourney MVP, came up with multiple steals and several deflections which turned into Panther points.
Luke Shuagis got the offense going around the 5-minute mark of the third with a layup, and Garrett Harrold later added one of his own as part of the explosion. Shuagis hit a three-pointer with 1:30 to play in the third that activated the running clock.
Garrett Harrold led all scorers with 21 points followed by Vinny Chirdon with 13 and Shuagis with 12.
“(Friday) wasn’t my greatest game,” Garrett Harrold said after scoring eight points in the tourney opener. “My teammates were able to back me up and we were able to get out of there with a win. We just had a great team effort (Saturday) and (it’s) great to have the season start how it is.”
Heights was led by Chris Sodmont with 12 points.
Nagel believes this is part of the overall growing process for his young squad.
“This group of kids has been great,” he said. “We had great workouts, now it’s getting from workouts, to practice, to playing games. I think it will come as younger guys come and just play. It’s more just getting through the nervousness of it.”
Sodmont and Carter Lamb joined Jon Updyke from Conemaugh Township and Nolan Wyrwas from Central Cambria on the all-tournament team.
PENN CAMBRIA (74): Chirdon 4 4-4 13, Grove 2 3-4 7, Gar. Harrold 7 6-6 21, Shuagis 5 0-0 12, Semelsberger 1 4-4 6, McDermott 2 1-2 5, Gav. Harrold 3 0-2 6, Hite 2 0-2 4. Totals: 26 18-24 74.
CAMBRIA HEIGHTS (35): Lamb 1 3-5 5, Rogal 2 0-0 5, Sodmont 5 0-0 12, Yeckley 1 0-0 3, Farabaugh 4 0-0 8, Nelen 0 0-0 0, Garrison 0 0-0 0, Abrams 0 0-0 0, Bender 0 0-0 0, Weiland 0 0-0 0, Kopera 1 0-0 2. Totals: 12 3-5 35.
SCORE BY QUARTER
Penn Wales………………. 15 21 23 15 – 74
Cambria Heights…………….14 9 4 8 – 35
3-point field goals: Penn Cambria 4 (Chirdon, Gar. Harrold, Shuagis 2), Cambria Heights 6 (Rogal, Sodmont 2, Yeckley, Farabaugh 2)
Records: Penn Cambria (2-0), Cambria Heights (2-2).
Officials: Randy Burkett, Shawn Sinclair, Chad Walsh.
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