Fox Chapel Fends off Latrobe, 63-47
The top two teams in Section 3-6A from a year ago faced off in their section openers Monday night. After getting swept a year ago, it was the Foxes of Fox Chapel who came out on top against Latrobe, 63-47.
The game got off to a choppy start, but about four minutes in both teams started to find their offensive rhythm trading baskets all quarter long and after a quarter Latrobe led 14-12. Near the end of the second quarter, Fox Chapel started to separate themselves with a 29-22 lead but a blown layup and a three pointer for Latrobe only allowed Fox Chapel to have a 29-25 lead at the half.
The third quarter saw both defenses pick up, Latrobe began to increase the pressure forcing Fox Chapel into mistakes while the Foxes played fundamentally sound and forced Latrobe into bad shots. Eli Yofan made two huge defensive plays in the quarter amidst a 11-0 run, both steals leading to points for Fox Chapel but Latrobe’s Michael Noonan banked in a three pointer at the buzzer and Latrobe was still in the game trailing 42-37 heading into the fourth.
The fourth quarter was all Fox Chapel as they got some timely free throw shooting and forced Latrobe to turn the ball over. The Foxes outscored the Wildcats of Latrobe 21-10 in the quarter and ran away with the game.
Yofan finished with 13 points, 11 of them in the second half and was named the PlayerPager Player of the Game with plenty of big defensive plays and set up Will Livingston and Arnold Vento all night long. Livingston had 11 points and Vento had 17. Lorenzo Jenkins also added 10 points.
Noonan had 15 points while Ryan Sickenberger and Chase Sickenberger both had 10 points for Latrobe.
The win was Fox Chapel’s seventh straight win to start the year and they improve to 7-0 overall, 1-0 in Section 3-6A. The Foxes head to the Shady Side Holiday Tournament on Friday where they will take on tournament host Shady Side Academy at 3:30 pm.
Latrobe falls to 2-8 overall and 0-1 in Section 3-6A. The Wildcats will not be in action again until 2020 when they head to Penn-Trafford on January 3rd in another Section 3-6A game.