It was another intense game on Mont Alto's home court Thursday night. It was a perfect atmosphere for a game; a gym full of fans and two solid teams ready to play basketball.
Mont Alto, undefeated in the PSUAC hosted 3-2 Scranton for their first conference game of the semester. Although it was a competitive game, Mont Alto men tallied another PSUAC win to their record.
"We were able to gut out a victory last night even though I do not feel we played a very good game," Head Coach Jack Schenzel comments.
Throughout the first half, both teams took the lead and the score was within a few points. At halftime Scranton was up 35-29. At the start of the second half, the first basket wasn't scored until the 17th minute. And then both teams were fired up. It was a two point game until about two minutes left, Mont Alto took the lead and never looked back.
"In the second half we showed our potential we have as a team. We came out of the locker room and played much better basketball," Coach Schenzel comments. "Coach Sload is doing a good job with his first year at Scranton and has some very good players and is utilizing them to their max potential."
Sharif Welton (Sullivan County, PA/Sullivan County) led Mont Alto on offense with 20 points. Evan Ehrhart (York, PA/Red Lion) came in off the bench and scored 12 points during his 10 minutes of play. Jerome Evans (Carlisle, PA/Carlisle) recorded 12 boards and nine points. Devonte Merritt (Chambersburg, PA/Chambersburg) also went into double digits, contributing 10 rebounds.
"Our bench came through tonight. Sharif with 20 points and made some crucial plays down the stretch. Evan really sparked the offense early in the second half with some really big three point shots. Bobby also made some huge shots to give us the lead late in the game and played solid defense."
On Saturday Mont Alto, ranked 4th in USCAA will travel to USCAA 3rd ranked York for a 3:00 p.m. game. Mont Alto remains ranked number one overall in the USCAA power rankings.
