BY PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Isaiah Preston led four in double figures, and the Penfield Patriots overcame a slow start to defeat the Webster Thomas Titans 59-46 in Section V boys’ basketball action Tuesday night at O’Rourke Gymnasium.
Preston scored the first four points of the second quarter as Penfield took the lead and did not trail again for the remainder of the contest.
“Just trying to attack the basket,” the senior guard said. “My jumper wasn’t feeling too hot today, so I was trying to get to the basket and help my team out any way I could.”
He grabbed a defensive rebound on the first possession of the stanza and went the length of the floor for a layup. He followed with a pair of free throws to give Penfield its first lead of the night at 16-15.
Later in the quarter he scored in the lane and finished the night with a game-high 22 points.
“He wants to win,” Penfield coach Jason Ellis said of Preston who entered play averaging 23.3 points per game. “He’s hungry. He’s a shark. You put a little blood in the water, and he’s going to circle. He’s a special player. This is my third year with him. I’m privileged to watch him play and work with him.”
After surrendering the first six points of the game and eventually trailing 13-7, Penfield extended its defensive pressure. With Bryson Scott at the front of a 1-2-2 zone, the Patriots held Thomas without a field goal for 14 straight possessions.
“He’s 6-foot-4 with his hands down,” Ellis said of Scott. “He’s probably 7-foot-1, 7-foot-2 with those hands high. That’s nice.
“Our 1-2-2 has helped us play at the pace we want to. We started the season jumping out of a man-to-man. Depending on who we play and how we play it, we can pack that right down to a half court. Tonight we bRought it pretty high.”
The Patriots forced turnovers on back-to-back possessions, and the Thomas bench called a timeout. Two trips down the floor later Penfield’s Patrick Piampiano drilled a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer from the right wing to flip the advantage to a 21-15 Penfield lead.
“We have a lot of long, athletic and quick guys in the back and with me up in the front,” said Bryson Scott who scored 10 of his 12 points in the first half. “It disturbs the offense. It’s hard to get the ball through.”
Piampiano converted a steal and layup to push the lead to double digits at 28-18. The Patriots led 30-24 at the half.
For Ellis the early deficit is a recurring theme the third-year coach would rather his team put behind them.
“Spotting a team in the first quarter is a mentality for us right now unfortunately,” Ellis noted. “If you go back to the books, we’ve played three quarters of basketball a lot this season. Unfortunately we’ve gotten good at taking a punch in the face early. What’s nice is we now can take that punch…It was nice to absorb some blows and still persevere.”
Andrew Mason and Will Johnson combined to score eight straight as Thomas knotted the score late in the third quarter. Mason connected on one of his four 3-pointers on the night. The sophomore followed with a floater along the baseline. Johnson hit from long range to tie the score at 38 with 1:22 to go in the third quarter.
“They’re good,” Ellis said of Thomas which fell to 5-4 with the loss. “That’s a team that is going to go far. They’ve got a lot of the pieces.”
Preston converted a pair of traditional three-point plays and took a pass from Bryson Scott into the open court for a layup as Penfield rattled off nine straight in a 15-3 run to push the lead back to double digits.
Dyllon Scott hits the turnaround jumper for 2 of his 13 points on the night. @PenfieldBball pic.twitter.com/ImzK3fJxDG
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) January 3, 2018
“He’s a big factor,” Scott said of his teammate, Preston. “When he plays well, a lot of us other players do well. We kinda feed off each other’ s energy.”
Dyllon Scott scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half. Piampiano added 10 points on the night. Ryan Novy chipped in two.
Penfield improved to 6-4 with its third straight win.
Mason matched Preston with a game-high 22 points. Johnson added 14. The duo hit four 3-pointers apiece. Dannie Palmer scored six. Caden Hann and Stephen Katz chipped in two apiece for Thomas.
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