Employing what essentially boils down to was a five-guard starting lineup, Coudersport head coach Brian Furman will be the first one to admits his Falcons aren’t the tallest team in scholastic boys basketball..
What the Falcons do have is quickness and the ability to run the floor and break close games into blowouts. That, at least,t was the case Saturday at Bradford High, when Coudersport outscored District 6’s United 25-7 in the second quarter to cruise to an 80-45 PIAA Class AA first round victory.
“We’ve talked about that all year and in practice we emphasize that,” Furman said about of getting out in transition after Saturday’s victory. “Tonight, we thought they had a little bit of size and man-for-man we could get down the floor on them. We certainly we wanted to get the ball in bounds and a lot of the time we were able to get a layup right out of the inbounds.”
The up-tempo offense the Falcons love to run benefitted sophomore shooting guard Owen Chambers, who scored 18 in the first half and then added 17 after halftime for a game-high 35 points. In his first game since being named North Tier League Player of the Year, junior Jared Green added 21 points while senior Zach Layag chipped in 10 tallies.
Coudersport advances to the second round of the state tournament and will play Greensburg Central Catholic, a 66-53 winner over West Middlesex on Saturday afternoon. That game will be played Wednesday at a site and time to be determined.
“We’ve seen one game and they’re really good,” Furman said of Greensburg Central Catholic. “Everyone is going to be good when you get into the state playoffs. You’re not going to have very many easy games, especially now that we’re down to the round of 16.”
Offensive scoring balance and a ball-hawking defense helped Coudersport in the first quarter jump out to a 7-0 lead and force United coach Tyler Stokes to burn an early timeout just more than two minutes into the game.
That’s when the tempo slowed and the Lions started a 13-5 run to take a 13-12 lead late in the first quarter. That lead proved to be short-lived, as Chambers hit one of his six 3-pointers to wipe out a 13-12 United first-quarter lead Coudersport the edge after one as Coudersport started to pull away.
Chambers and Green scored 11 and 10, respectively, in the second quarter as the tempo got back to the Falcons’ liking. Coudersport led 40-20 at halftime and 57-33 after three quarters. The Falcons’ lead swelled to as many as 37 points midway through the fourth quarter as both coaches emptied their benches.
AT BRADFORD HIGH
United (45)
Moore 2 4-4 8, Luke Means 6 0-0 16, Silk 1 3-4 5, Fabrizio 3 0-1 6, Mack 2 0-0 4, Aiden Ringler 1 0-0 3, Alex Ringler 0 0-2 0, Stephans 1 1-2 3. Totals: 16 8-11 45.
Coudersport (80)
Zach Layag 4 2-7 10, Wolfinger 2 2-2 6, Owen Chambers 12 5-6 35, Derek Keglovits 1 2-2 4, Jared Green 9 2-5 21, Dillon Keglovits 1 0-0 2, Vanwhy 1 0-0 2. Totals: 30 13-22 80.
United 13 20 33 45
Coudersport 15 40 57 80
Three-point goals: United 5 (Means 4, Aiden Ringler); Coudersport 7 (Chambers 6, Green)
Total fouls: United 15, Coudersport 11. Fouled out: none. Technical foul: Mack (United)
