MILL HALL–The Central Mountain and Jersey Shore boys basketball rivalry most certainly lived up to the hype–well at least for the first two quarters. After an 11-point halftime lead, the Wildcats stormed ahead with a 29-point third quarter to put them well on their way to win number 11 on the season. Central Mountain defeated Shore 87-63 in wire-to-wire fashion where the Bulldogs couldn’t overcome the Wildcats dynamic scoring.

What helped Central Mountain’s big third quarter scoring run was targeting the smaller sized Shore defenders inside the paint. With Hayden Pardoe’s 6’6 size and length, the Bulldogs simply had no answer for him in the post. Pardoe finished with 28 on the night.

Pardoe and frontcourt mate Levi Schlesinger, who finished with 10, led with inside presence which opened up the Wildcats slashing and eventual outside shooting. The two’s dominant post presence and offensive rebounding opened up shooting and driving opportunities for Jack Hanna, Xavier Persun and Dom Longworth, who combined for 33 points.

Along with Central Mountain’s dynamite scoring presence inside and out in the third, their defensive intensity turned up a notch as well. Hunter Hoy and Essex Taylor were responsible for their defensive pressure on Shore’s guards as they got steals and forced several turnovers that turned into easy Wildcat points on the other end.

Central Mountain opened up the game with their scoring in the paint. Whether it was post-ups for Pardoe or steals by multiple Wildcat defenders, they were able to get easy points to push their lead ahead. Once Central Mountain gets going on both ends of the floor–and multiple players get involved–they’re a tough team to beat.

Both teams got off to a quick start, with the Bulldogs and Wildcats trading baskets and keeping the score within a point. But in the lasting minutes of the opening quarter, both teams cooled off. While the Bulldogs struggled on the defensive end with six team fouls, the Wildcats went to their bench for an energy boost.

“I think what we saw were some old habits,” Central Mountain coach Tyler Bardo said. “We talked about making some adjustments in the second half of the season to be playing our best basketball at the right time. Our bench guys came in knowing what they were asked to do, why they were going in and they did a good job to bring that energy.”

In the second quarter, the game became about runs for both teams. Central Mountain came out attacking right away with eight quick points. Pardoe was responsible for six of those eight Wildcat points, but Jersey Shore responded well. Shore’s Ben Dalton responded with back-to-back buckets to keep the Bulldogs in it.

With over two minutes to go until the half, Hanna hit Pardoe on a two-on-one fastbreak opportunity off the glass for an alley-oop that had Central Mountain fans jumping out the gym. Following the dunk, Hoy got a steal and a layup of his own and all of a sudden the Wildcats led 34-19.

“I think it got the energy in the gym going a little bit,” Bardo said of the highlight play from his two seniors. “When we went to our 2-3 defense it got us into a different mindset where we had to stop focusing on the atmosphere and start focusing on ourselves and assignments.”

But that didn’t deter Shore. The Bulldogs ended the half with two consecutive baskets, including a corner 3-pointer from Kaimen West to beat the buzzer and send both teams into the locker room with the score 37-26. The Wildcats held the lead, but it felt like Shore was still hanging in there.

“We talked at halftime about playing through the physicality,” coach Bardo said. “Jersey Shore did a nice job mixing it up and challenging us physically. We had to play through it.”

Bardo continued: “I didn’t think we were doing a good enough job playing through it. They looked for some seals inside, not just finding space, and that resulted in some easy buckets.”

Then came the third quarter, where the Wildcats completely took over. Although the Wildcats had an offensive burst in the third, West and Gage Moiser–who had eight in the quarter–did their best to keep the Bulldogs in it. But it wasn’t good enough to overcome the overall team effort from Central Mountain.

In the fourth, Central Mountain’s starters continued their offensive onslaught of baskets by executing their offense and keeping Shore from scoring. With five minutes remaining, the Wildcats went ahead by 25 as the benches cleared and the Wildcats were on their way to an 87-63 victory.

Coming into the contest, Jersey Shore had a record of 2-8 and looked to be struggling in the first half of the season on paper. With coach Kirkpatrick in his early stages of his first season at the helm for the Bulldogs, the boys team in Jersey Shore fought hard. Coach Bardo and his staff know the next meeting at Jersey Shore will be just as much of a battle.

” I give coach Kirkpatrick a lot of credit, they won some loose balls against us,” Bardo concluded. “He had them playing well tonight. Second half of the season they’re going to continue getting better and I expect it to be just as tough a battle in a couple weeks.”

CENTRAL MOUNTAIN (87)

Jack Hanna 6 5-5 17, Essex Taylor 2 0-0 4, Hunter Hoy 3 2-2 8, Hayden Pardoe 10 8-12 28, Brady Myers 1 0-0 2, Dom Longworth 2 1-2 6, Xavier Persun 4 0-0 10, Caleb Mahoney 1 2-2 4, Levi Schlesinger 5 0-2 10. Totals 34 18-26 87.

JERSEY SHORE (63)

Caden Jolin 1 0-0 2, Jager Woodling 0 1-2 1, Hunter Fink 3 0-1 6, Eliah Freeman 1 0-0 2, Derrick High 2 0-0 4, Ben Dalton 2 0-0 4, Ben Moiser 9 4-6 23, Mason Miller 2 0-0 4, Spencer Brion 1 0-0 3, Kaimen West 4 0-0 10, Shyhead Jordan 1 0-0 3. Totals 26 7-9 63.

3-pointers: CM 3 (Persun 2, Longworth) Shore 5 (West 2, Jordan, Brion, Woodling).