by Steve Bradley
HF 55 Stillwater 45
Last Friday evening the Panther boys basketball team hosted the Stillwater Warriors. In the early going in the first quarter, Connor McCart and Austin Pitt led the Panthers to a high single digit lead. It was a good thing they did. That gap stayed about 10 points for the remainder of the game. The Panthers just couldn’t pull away, and the Warriors, try as they might, just couldn’t catch up. The score at the half was 31 – 20.
The Panthers used a balanced scoring attack in this win. Pitt scored 12; McCart ended the night with 11 points. Andrew Hoag, Mark Hackett and Willy Bradley each scored 9 points. The team is playing excellent defense and held Stillwater’s top scorer, Mitch Wayand, to a season low of 12 points. Wayand came in averaging 23 points per game.
HF 42 Greenwich 38
On Wednesday the Panthers traveled up to Greenwich to face the Witches. The Panthers jumped out to 13 – 6 lead, then led the entire game until Greenwich roared back and tied the game late in the fourth quarter. With under five minutes to play, Greenwich was rolling, and Panther shots wouldn’t fall. The Panthers were getting good shots, but they just wouldn’t drop. With under two minutes to play, Willy Bradley hit two three-pointers to bring the Panthers back from a 32 – 38 deficit to even the score at 38. Bradley then scored two on a baseline drive to give the Panthers a 40 – 38 lead. Andrew Hoag tacked on two fouls shots to put the game out of reach for the Witches.
This week will be a busy week for the Panthers. Between January 16 and 24 the team will play six games over a nine day stretch. Beginning Friday, January 16, the team makes the trek up Route 22 to Granville (7:30 pm start). The next afternoon, Saturday, January 17, the Panthers will face Cohoes in the HFCS gym (3 pm start). On Monday, January 19, the Mount Anthony Patriots will visit HFCS (7:30 pm start). Wednesday, January 21, will find Tamarac coming to visit the Panthers in the Panther Den (7:30 pm start), then on Friday, January 23, the Panthers will travel over to Mechanicville to face the Red Raiders (7:30 pm start). To top it all off, the Panthers will head up to Lake George to face the Joel Winkowski led Warriors on Saturday, January 24 (6 pm start).