BY RYAN GEORGE
JOHNSTOWN — The Johnstown boys basketball team netted the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference championship with a decisive 70-41 win over Central Cambria Saturday evening at Richland High School.
A complete team effort by the Trojans with relentless pursuit and pressure earned Greater Johnstown the title.
“Our kids have bought into playing as a team and that’s how we were able to win a championship tonight,’’ Johnstown coach Neil Cobaugh said following the trophy presentation.
The Trojans (18-3) jumped out to a lead moments into the first, pressed hard and dominated both ends of the court in the victory.
“We’re a pressing team. That’s what our team does. We got off to a good start by pressure,’’ Cobaugh said outside the team locker room. “We got the early lead and stuck with it.”
For the Trojans, points came from the entire team, spreading the scoring.
Cliff Eddins and Mark Watson led Johnstown with 12 points respectively, while Josh Konar smoothly executed three 3-pointers in a nine-point effort.
“The points are spread around,” Cobaugh said. “That’s how we play the game. We don’t have a player that scores 25 points. Any one of these kids could do that but we spread it around and all our kids play well.”
Meanwhile Central Cambria (16-7) turned the ball over consistently and failed to make the shots after managing to pull within 10 at 32-22 late in the second quarter.
“We didn’t shoot the ball well, but that’s because of their defense (Johnstown),” Red Devil coach Steve Traino said.
“We kept asking ourselves ‘Where is the trap coming from?’ ”
After a six-point run pulled the game within 10, Traino hoped the momentum would catapult his team back into the contest.
“We were in the game late in the second after pulling within 10 points, but then a turnover and an easy trey was a momentum swing for Johnstown,’’ Traino said. “We couldn’t slow down the game in order to play our style. They don’t let you hold on to the ball and we couldn’t manage to keep them on the perimeter.”
Johnstown defeated Central Cambria earlier this week 71-35 without the presence of
6-foot-10 Red Devil forward Brian Holsinger. In the championship contest, despite scoring a team-high nine points, Holsinger’s presence was stymied by the speed and agility of the fast attack of Johnstown.
“He got a few rebounds on us because of his size but we did pretty well inside,’’ said Cobaugh, whose team seemed to only struggle at the foul line, going 7-for-15. “We had a rough game foul shooting but fortunately we were up enough that it couldn’t hurt us.”
Traino asserted following the contest, “You have to credit Johnstown. They maintain a high level of athleticism. That was on display tonight.”
Both squads head into the District 6 playoffs this week with the Trojans the third seed in Class AAA and Central Cambria the second seed in Class AA.
