Sentinel photo by MIKE GOSS
Owen Wise (25), who led Mifflin County in scoring Monday, drives to the hoop over Selinsgrove’s Gavin Bastian during their nonleague game in Lewistown.
LEWISTOWN — Mifflin County refused to allow Selinsgrove to ruin its senior night, and it was seniors Cade Penepacker and Owen Wise who carried the Huskies past the Seals, 64-59 in overtime in a nonleague boys basketball game Monday.
“(It was a) great win for us. The first half didn’t go the way we had scripted it,” Huskies coach Wade Curry said. “In the second half we told them a couple things in the locker room and just said look you’ve got to beat them on the offensive side of the boards.
Selinsgrove led 52-50 in the final minute, but Penepacker was fouled shooting and hit two from the line to force overtime.
In overtime the Huskies pulled ahead to a 61-56 lead with 55.9 seconds remaining. Selinsgrove’s Spencer George hammered in a big 3-point shot to close the gap, but Mifflin County remained poised and was able to run out the clock and connect with foul shots to put the game on ice.
“I thought it was progress for us we ended the game the way we wanted to, controlled the basketball, make good choices and hit our fouls shots when we needed to,” Curry said.
The Huskies were down 25-18 going into the third and it turned out to be the best quarter of the night for Mifflin County, which scored more points in the period than the entire first half.
Mifflin County opened the frame with a 7-0 run to tie the game. The Seals got back on track with a little run of their own, but Penepacker and Wise refused to let their team down.
Penepacker made his presence known inside the paint while Wise was nailing shots from beyond the arc. The duo combined for 15 of the team’s 20 points for the period, which ended at 38-all.
“I think what carried us through the second half was committing to rebounding the basketball,” he said. “The second half we owned them on the boards and got a bunch of second effort opportunities to get putbacks and to that was the difference in the game.”
Mifflin County continued to kick, scratch and claw while the Seals zeroed in on Penepacker and Wise. That left the door wide open for Aiden Reed to jump in and grabbed some rebounds and putbacks. Tagg Silfies also went on the attack as his speed was difficult for the Seals. Silfies had six points on the night and Reed scored eight off the bench.
“I don’t want to take anything away from the seniors, they had a great day,” Curry said. “The performance from our sophomores was tremendous … (it) really made a difference in the game.”
Penepacker led the Huskies with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
“We played great as a team, that was a huge team effort on senior night, everybody came together. The second half we showed what king of basketball team we can be,” Penepacker said. “They kind of took it easy after the first half. I think they thought that they were far enough ahead that we were going to fold and we didn’t.”
Wise was the Huskies’ top scorer of the evening with 18 points, including five 3-pointers,
The rest of the seven seniors honored at the game were Alex Kline and Conner Zimmerman, who each had four points, C.J. Gill, Ty Felmlee and Quinton Hepner.
Selinsgrove won the JV game, 47-42. Mifflin County (2-7, 0-3) travels to Mechanicsburg today.
Mifflin County 64, Selinsgrove 59 (OT)
MIFFLIN COUNTY
Quinton Hepner 0 0-0 0, Alex Kline 1 2-4 4, Cade Penepacker 6 4-5 16, Owen Wise 6 1-1 18, Conner Zimmerman 2 0-0 4, Landen Eichhorn 2 3-4 8, CJ Gill 0 0-0 0, Ty Felmlee 0 0-0 0, Tagg Silfies 3 0-1 6, Aiden Freed 4 0-0 8. Totals: 223 10-15 64
3-point goals: Wise 5
SELINSGROVE
Reis Naugle 1 2-2 4, Isaiah Ulrich 6 3-3 19, Nate Hackenberger 0 0-0 0, Ryan Reich 5 2-4 13, Tyrell Gates 3 0-0 6, Gavin Bastion 0 2-2 2, Connor Andretta 0 0-0 0, Blake Haddon 1 0-0 3, Spencer George 5 0-1 12. Totals: 21 9-12 59
3-point goals: Ulrich 4, Reich, Haddon, George 2
Score by quarters
S 14-11-13-14-7 — 59
MC 8-10-20-14-12 — 64