BLOOMSBURG — Southern Columbia started strong and finished with clutch shooting Wednesday in boys basketball action.
Brian Britton scored a game-high 26 points to lift the Tigers past Bloomsburg 64-50. Britton scored 12 first-quarter points, and made all six of his free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter.
“Earlier in the season we had a couple slow starts and it was hard to come back from,” Britton said. “We’ve been getting early leads and coming out strong. We’ve been working hard to keep them and that’s been working for us.”
It certainly worked Wednesday as the Tigers outscored Bloomsburg 19-10 in the opening quarter, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Britton.
“Brian’s been big for us all year,” Southern Columbia coach Mike Woytowich said. “He’s dedicated his life to basketball and it’s starting to show. In tough games like this, he’s confident in his abilities.”
Britton looked plenty confident in the opening eight minutes, and added six points and four rebounds in the middle two quarters.
“My guys were getting me the ball and I was taking shots we practice all the time,” Britton said. “I was just shooting with confidence and they were just falling tonight.”
Britton made all seven shots he took in the fourth quarter, one from the field and six from the line.
“Our whole team has just really been working hard at free throws,” Britton said. “I haven’t had a game where I’ve been perfect from the line. It got to my head.”
As a team, Southern Columbia converted 13 of 19 attempts from the line, making nine of its final 11 attempts.
“We work on free throws every day,” Woytowich said. “The kids probably think I’m nuts. It’s good to see it paying off. I’m proud of my guys and I’m happy about the momentum we have right now.”
Bloomsburg didn’t go down without a fight.
The Panthers struggled from the floor throughout the opening half, making just seven of their 29 attempts from the floor.
That seemed like a distant memory in the third quarter when Bloomsburg opened on a 10-2 run. Jake Evans stole an inbound pass and converted a layup to cut Southern Columbia’s lead down to 35-32.
“It was awesome to just see our guys respond to being down 11 at the half,” Bloomsburg coach Nate Babon said. “They punched us in the face and we responded. We showed them we were going to be there for two more quarters.”
Isaac Carter added 12 points for the Tigers in the win.
Southern Columbia 64, Bloomsburg 50
Southern Columbia 19 14 10 21 — 64 Bloomsburg 10 12 17 11 — 50
Southern Columbia (64) Nate Gallagher 0 1-4 1; Jacob Hoy 3 2-4 8; Jake Toczylousky 0 0-0 0; William Swank 0 0-0 0; Brian Britton 9 6-6 26; Ben Gehret 0 0-0 0; Dom Fetteroff 3 0-0 6; Braydon Griscavage 1 2-2 5; Tyler Arnold 2 0-0 4; Isaac Carter 5 2-3 12; Travis Wegrzhowicz 1 0-0 2. Totals 24 13-19 64. Bloomsburg (50) Andru Williams 1 0-0 2; Katrell Butler 0 0-0 0; Madden Locke 4 6-8 15; Rae Grant 6 2-2 15; Jake Evans 2 2-2 6; Nasir Heard 4 1-2 10; Isaiah Harriot 0 2-2 2. Totals 17 13-16 50. 3-point Goals: Southern Columbia 3 (Britton 2, Griscavage). Bloomsburg 2 (Locke, Grant).
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