Chris Masse on boys basketball: Montgomery has been motivated by three heartbreaking losses
- MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Montgomery’s Damaj Stewart-Williams (4) chases down the ball after intercepting a pass intended for North Penn Liberty’s Blake Oakley (11) in the first quarter.
- MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Montgomery coach Rivers Parrish talks with Damaj Stewart-Williams during a game this year. The Red Raiders are using three heartbreaking losses recently as motivation.

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Montgomery's Damaj Stewart-Williams (4) chases down the ball after intercepting a pass intended for North Penn Liberty's Blake Oakley (11) in the first quarter.
Three heartbreaking losses by three points each did not rattle Montgomery. Conversely, it angered and motivated the Red Raiders.
Montgomery played with a boulder sized chip on its collective shoulder last week, continuing the program’s best start of the 2000s by blowing out Millville and then rallying for a 51-47 win against perennial District 4 Class A contender Sullivan County.
Montgomery (8-3) entered the week coming off a gut bunch of a 66-63 loss at Bucktail, but only used that loss as fuel. Even after two first quarter injuries sidelined starters Hayden Wilt and Damaj Stewart-Williams against Sullivan County, Montgomery refused to be denied and fought back in the fourth quarter for the win.
The message appears clear. Forget the past, because this team is blazing its own trail. Montgomery believes and that is powerful because it has the talent, returning four starters from last year and also getting Stewart-Williams back after he took his sophomore season off.
Because of its past, others might be writing off Montgomery as a serious District 4 Class AA contender. The Raiders really don’t care what others think. They simply care about leaving their mark.

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Montgomery coach Rivers Parrish talks with Damaj Stewart-Williams during a game this year. The Red Raiders are using three heartbreaking losses recently as motivation.
“This is only a small glimpse of what’s to come,” guard Parker Bennett said following a 75-50 win against Millville. “We finally started heating up tonight. If we keep heating up, I think we’re going to be one of the most dangerous teams on the court.”
Montgomery certainly has the arsenal. Bennett leads the area in scoring, averaging nearly 23 points per game. Wilt is an excellent point guard and combines with Stewart-Williams to give Montgomery to outstanding defenders out front.
Briar Persing moved to point guard when Wilt was injured Friday and handled it well, scoring 10 points while also facilitating things. He, Wilt and Bennett all averaged in double figures last year and Jace Hanford and Ethan Tupper both are coming on strong, both also providing versatility and experience.
Freshman Brady O’Rourke is an exciting player who generated 14 points and four rebounds off the bench against Millville. Cody Sechrist and Chase Bennett then came up big Friday, providing valuable minutes off the bench following the first quarter injuries.
Three days after the gut punch at Bucktail, Montgomery unloaded. The Red Raiders made 20 of their first 25 shots, racked up assists, did damage on the perimeter and in the paint and scored 47 points in the game’s first 14 minutes.
“They wanted vengeance (last Tuesday), so they started on fire. It wasn’t just one guy scoring either,” Montgomery coach Rivers Parrish said. “The nice thing about the team is we have the area’s leading scorer but the other seven guys score as well. A game like this is going to open a lot of people’s eyes.”
If that Millville win highlighted Montgomery’s explosiveness, the Sullivan County win showcased its toughness. Losing two starters in the first quarter gave Montgomery a ready-made excuse if it felt like packing it in against the Mid-Penn East’s second-place team. Instead, the Raiders chose to fight and found a way to gut out a big win.
It was a similar story in an early season overtime victory against Meadowbrook Christian. Yes, Montgomery has lost three games by three points each, but it also has rallied for three fourth quarter comeback wins. A shot here or there in those defeats and Montgomery could be undefeated.
That’s all hypothetical, though. The reality is Montgomery is a team and program on the rise. It made nice strides over the last few years and is now eager to break through.
“I’ve said over and over our goal is a district championship,” Parrish said. “We’re here and we’re hungry.”
FIGHTING BACK: Like Montgomery, St. John Neumann is roaring back. The Knights opened the season 1-8, losing some hard-fought games but are squarely back in the playoff hunt after winning three straight games last week.
Neumann (4-8) started turning the corner with an impressive 82-66 win against Hughesville before heading to Laporte a night later and defeating Sullivan, 53-46. The Knights closed the week with a 68-33 win against CMVT, shaking off a slow start. In the three victories, every starter scored at least eight points and Daiton Thompson, Andrew Walter and Jager Woodring all produced at least one 20-point game.
They started slow, but the Knights are coming on strong.
“We’re coming together,” Thompson said after the Hughesville win. “We have a lot of good players on our team that can score.”
Neumann had shown its potential in some explosive spurts against teams like Loyalsock, Muncy and Central Mountain. Now the Knights are turning those flurries into more consistency. And with that, comes confidence,
A year ago, the Knights closed the regular season 12-10 but came within a basket of winning the District 4 Class AA championship. Nearly every player is in a new role this season but all of them played a role in that run to both the final and states, so they know it’s not about the start but the finish.
There’s a long way to go in writing this comeback story, but last week certainly provided a strong start.
PUTBACKS
Hughesville produced a memorable victory Saturday at Loyalsock, thundering back from a 16-point third quarter deficit and winning, 73-65 in overtime. The Spartans defeated Loyalsock for the first time since 2017 and for the first time at Loyalsock since 2011. Kevin Bobak (more on him later) burst onto the scene and Alex Schultz was outstanding in the post, scoring a career-high 23 points and pulling down 12 rebounds. Gavin Knarr and Ithel Miley both scored 11 points and Hughesville outscored Loyalsock, 12-4 in overtime. Three nights earlier Hughesville received a lift from Mckelvey Brink off the bench against Bloomsburg with Brink pulling down 10 rebounds, including seven offensive boards as a young team continued pulling together. Isiah Jennings scored 22 points, Cadyn Plank 14 and Jalil Coates 12 for Loyalsock which hosted Montoursville Monday night in a game which ended after press time … Speaking of Montoursville, Kingston Fisher produced his second double-double which featured 15 rebounds in his last four games Saturday at Lewisburg. Fisher scored 13 points and pulled down 15 boards … North Penn-Liberty (6-5, 2-1) stayed in the NTL-II title picture with consecutive wins against Williamson and Canton. Adynn Wheeland scored a career-high 28 points and made seven steals against Canton, while Evan McTish totaled 13 points, 15 rebounds and five steals. Ben Fitch scored 25 points for a second straight game for Canton … South Williamsport entered the week riding a four-game winning streak after thumping Benton and Millville on the road. Levi Butler scored a career-high 24 points for the Mounties (8-3) in the Millville victory and Radley Knapp had 20 at Benton with sophomore Chance Quimby adding 13. South has exceeded last year’s win total and remains within a game of first place in the Mid-Penn West Division … Wellsboro (6-5) has won three straight games and highlighted its surge with a hard-fought 51-48 win against Towanda. Mitchel Lechler and Colin Fletcher both scored in double figures in both wins last week.
Chris Masse may be reached at cmasse@sungazette.com. Follow him on Twitter at @docmasse.
DR. MASSE’S TOP 5 RANKINGS
1. Warrior Run (10-2): Teams dedicate a lot of resources toward slowing Aiden McKee but Warrior Run continues showing it features many weapons and Landon Polcyn scored 20 points in Saturday’s 69-60 comeback win at Mifflinburg. He also drained six straight fourth quarter free throws, while Cooper Wilkins scored 16 points and James Keifer dealt six assists. McKee produced double-duobles in both games and has 11 this season. Warrior Run has come back strong after an 0-2 showing at the Shamokin Tournament and what looked like a negative there might be a positive.
“It was the best thing for us at the time. It was exactly what we needed,” Warrior Run coach Eric Wertman said. “It kind of leveled us and kind of showed us this is what we’re not doing well. It showed us that we need to work on these things, and if we correct these things, the sky is the limit.”
2. Lewisburg (9-4): The Green Dragons are another team which seemingly has grown stronger following a defeat, winning their last three games by double-digit margins. Lewisburg generated 25 assists on 28 field goals in Saturday’s 67-53 win against Montoursville and point guard Tai Britto dished a game-high 11. Gabe Pawling, Jaylen Walker and Leon Tucker II have provided big lifts off the bench and Lewisburg used good ball movement to hit 11 3-pointers against Montoursville. Five players scored at least nine points in a 69-50 win against Milton and both Nazir Meredith (8 points, 11 rebounds) and Rebira Jemana (13 points, 8 rebounds) made runs at double-doubles against Montoursville.
3. Muncy (10-2): Defending Mid-Penn champion Northwest thumped Muncy, 54-30 last Tuesday but the Indians bounced back and routed Benton, 64-24 three nights later. A year ago, Muncy came storming back from a double-digit loss against Northwest in the Mid-Penn final, capturing a second straight District 4 Class AA championship. In one sense, that has no bearing on this season, but in another its lets Muncy know that its not a regular or conference final loss which defines a team but what it does following that. Dominic Guardini is back from an ankle injury and scored 17 points while adding eight rebounds against Benton. Nate Rogers (11 points, 11 rebounds) produced a double-double, Jaxton Frantz scored 12 points and Carter Feigles dealt seven assists.
4. North Penn-Mansfield (9-2): Talk about great balance. All five starters reached double figures in North Penn-Mansfield’s 65-35 win against Wyalusing. Alex Davis and Brady Stetter both scored 13 points and Cooper Shaw, Tayton Strange and Andy Hermansen all had 11. That was the sixth time this season North Penn-Mansfield has had at least three double digit scorers in a game. Not surprisingly, the Tigers are undefeated in those games. North Penn-Mansfield went 2-0 last week and Shaw (18 points, 10 rebounds) produced his fourth double-double in a 62-35 win at Athens
5. Jersey Shore (7-4): Losses against Central Mountain and Shamokin snapped Jersey Shore’s six-game winning streak, but the Bulldogs still are one of the season’s best comeback stories and are a victory from matching their win total over the three previous seasons combined. Landon Lathan scored a career-high 19 points against Central Mountain and Ben Dalton collected double-doubles in both games, upping his total to eight this season. Dalton showcased his strength against HAC-I leading Shamokin, scoring 17 points, grabbing 14 rebounds and making five steals.
Players of the Week
Daiton Thompson, Neumann and Kevin Bobak, Hughesville: Thompson has come back strong from an early-season ankle injury and stuffed the sheet three in his team’s three wins last week. The junior point guard averaged 21.7 points per game, totaling at least 19 in each victory and produced a double-double against Hughesville, grabbing 12 rebounds, dealing six assists and adding two steals. Bobak impressed off the bench against Neumann and earned his first varsity start at Loyalsock. What a performance it was, too. Bobak scored 19 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dealt four assists, helping Hughesville storm back for the win. He was cool under pressure, too, hitting a go-ahead 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter and sinking four straight clutch foul shots in overtime.
Game of the Week
Sullivan County at Muncy: Tuesday’s game is a rematch of an early-season game which Muncy rallied to win, 47-38 at the Mountain Madness Tip-Off Tournament. Two years ago both teams split two games and both also captured district championships. Each has championship aspirations again this season, so this should be a good battle between two well-coached programs.