Panthers race past Trojans
Wiss honors Compas for 1,000th point before game
LOWER GWYNEDD » Cheltenham bounced back from its first loss of the season with a 60-32 win over Wissahickon Monday night at Wissahickon High School.
The Panthers (12-1) went on a 20-0 first-half run that lasted more than a quarter and never looked back.
After falling behind 2-0, Cheltenham scored the final 19 points of the first quarter. The defense forced seven turnovers during the Panthers dominant stretch.
“Once we got our first basket, we could start playing defense and start running,” Justin Savage, who scored seven of his teamhigh 12 points in the first quarter, said. “Once we start running and getting stops, it’s just layups all day.
“We really had a bad game versus Upper Moreland. We had to come out, get stops and push the ball.”
Wissahickon’s Matt Compas kept the deficit from growing in the second quarter. He scored 12 points in the frame and had all 14 of the Trojans (11-9) points as they went to halftime trailing, 32-14.
The first points from someone other than Compas for Wissa
sahickon came 1:45 into the second half, but the Trojans never threatened to rally. Michael Mcclain scored six points in the third for Cheltenham while Elias Walker added four to build a 49-24 lead heading to the fourth.
The Panthers lead ballooned to 30 points in the fourth quarter before closing out the win, 60-32.
“I’ve been doing this a long time,” Wissahickon coach Kyle Wilson said. “In 20 years I’ve never seen a team come out so flat. “I don’t know if we ran an offense at all. It seemed like a comedy of errors except there was no humor. It’s tough. I feel for the kids because that’s not the way they planned to come out here tonight. Certain nights you just don’t have it.”
Mcclain joined Savage in double figures with 10 points while Walker added eight for a balanced Cheltenham offense.
Compas led Wissahickon with a game-high 18 points. COMPAS CELEBRATES 1000 >> Prior to Monday night’s game, the Trojans honored Compas for scoring his 1,000th point. The senior reached the milestone on a three-pointer in the fourth quarter of a win over Lower Moreland Saturday.
Compas reflected on the accomplishment: “Hard work, being in the gym all the time, all the AAU coaches that prepared me for moments like these to be in the scorer’s position. That’s what it means to me — just hard work.”
“Matt’s been a foundation of our program over the last three years,” Wilson said. “I’m really happy for Matt. Well-deserved and a kid who’s worked his butt off.”
Compas, who’s been a varsity player since his sophomore season, is the eighth player in program history to score 1,000 points and the first since Chase Wilson in 2014.