By CORY ISENBERG
Johnstown and Bishop McCort squared off on the basketball court Tuesday night for the second time this season.
The Trojans again had the upper hand, dealing the Crimson Crushers a 72-68 loss.
“This is a big rivalry between our two teams, we’re just a couple hundred yards from their school,” said Johnstown coach Neil Cobaugh, whose squad also beat McCort in the championship game of the Pitt-Johnstown Tournament.
“These guys pass each other every day and play each other at the “Y”. They know each other and it’s bragging rights on the street.
“It’s lucky for us that we came out here with win No. 2 over them. We struggled and we didn’t match their intensity at times.
“Some of our guys decided to take over and not be so passive and step up. They played smart at the end.”
The Trojans (7-2, 4-0 Laurel Highlands, 2-0 Section 2) held their biggest lead of the second half, a nine-point advantage, 53-44, heading into the fourth.
But the Crushers whittled away at the lead, pulling even at 63 with 2:29 left on a Mason del Rosario layup. Johnstown had an answer, scoring the next six points, on several steals and rebounds off missed shots.
Bishop McCort cut it to three with 13.8 left on a pair of Jerqual Wilson free throws, but could get no closer.
“Johnstown did a very good job of taking our runs and never letting us get over the top,” Crushers coach Pat Hollern said.
“We’d get it down to two or tie it, but we could never get the next bucket. We’re still learning to take care of the basketball. Johnstown is very long and athletic and they run about eight to 10 to 12 deep at you. You have to be able to withstand their runs and be able to score the ball on your own.”
The game was close throughtout the first half. Johnstown led 19-16 after the first and 37-33 at the half.
The Trojans got 15 points from Cliff Eddins while Richard Agurs had 11. Mark Watson and Quay Thompson each supplied 10 points for Johnstown.
Wilson finished with a game-high 26 points for McCort (4-3, 3-2, 2-1), which also got 13 points from del Rosario and
10 from Patrick O’Reilly.
Johnstown travels to Westmont tonight while Bishop McCort hosts Richland.
“Two back-to-back interesting games for our team,” said Cobaugh, who was a former assistant for Westmont coach Dave Roman Jr. “We have to come out intense in that game and hopefully we learned from tonight.”
