JOHNSTOWN —
The 1980s throwback theme at Doc Stofko Gymnasium featured a super-sized replica of action hero Chuck Norris’ head, colorful Pac-Man ghosts and Super Mario posters.
On the basketball court, Johnstown High and crosstown rival Bishop McCort played a spirited back-and-forth game that had Trojans coach Neil Cobaugh reflecting on the storied series.
“You don’t see this too much in high school basketball anymore,” Cobaugh said after his Trojans won 55-50 Friday in front of a loud standing-room-only crowd whose noise level was boosted by a pep band and two enthusiastic student sections. “The gym was packed with fans from both places and even fans from other school districts, people who just wanted to come and watch a basketball game.
“We’re a far ways from the days where they used to pack the War Memorial with 5,000 to 6,000 people. But nowadays, that’s a pretty good crowd for both teams.”
The game was pretty good, too.
Johnstown outscored the Crushers 30-24 in the second half to win a contest that still was undecided until the closing seconds.
Johnstown is 7-1 overall with a 4-0 LHAC record and 1-0 Section 2 mark. McCort is 6-2, 5-1, 0-1.
“Both teams played hard. The crowd was good. That’s good for us,” said McCort coach Pat Hollern, whose team led 26-25 at halftime and held a 47-43 fourth-quarter advantage after a Jerqual Wilson 3-pointer. “It’s a good learning experience for the kids. We handled the magnitude of the situation well. We’re just still learning.”
The Trojans’ lineup benefited from the return this week of versatile 6-foot-3 senior swing man Isaiah Haselrig, who scored 10 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Haselrig had a second-quarter 3-pointer and added a key steal and a crucial blocked shot late in the fourth.
Haselrig had been out with an injury.
“Snoop (Haselrig) is such a key to our team,” Cobaugh said. “He’s always the guy in the right spot. He’s not back yet. He’s still out of shape a little bit. That shows you what kind of player he is. The guy hasn’t played for a couple months and wasn’t able to even run for a couple months, and he was able to come out and knock down a couple big shots.”
Johnstown senior guard Mark Watson had 18 points, including four 3-pointers. He had nine points in the third quarter.
“Watson played lights out,” Cobaugh said. “He kept us in the game in the first half with some big shots and passes.”
Alkwan Williams had nine rebounds before fouling out with 58.7 seconds left.
McCort sophomore Nemo Trexler had 14 points and eight rebounds. He was a force under the basket before fouling out with 30.4 left. Wilson had 13 points, with three 3-pointers. McCort used a 2-3 zone effectively against the Trojans, especially in the first half.
“We see a lot of zone and we know how to attack a zone,” Cobaugh said. “We just didn’t attack it tonight. That’s a credit to them. They played it well and made it difficult to score. We got out of our rhythm and didn’t get into our flow and uptempo style.”
Johnstown fared better in the second half.
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