Dec 6, 2014 3 min read

CANONSBURG – Once Britton Beachy cracked Canon-McMillan’s rotation last season as a freshman, he provided head coach Rick Bell and the Big Macs with instant offense.

Now a sophomore, Beachy has picked up where he left off a season ago.

Beachy knocked down a trio of three-point field goals in the first quarter en route to a 27-point night as the Big Macs knocked off Wash High, 51-45, in the Canon-McMillan Tip-Off Tournament.

More important, Beachy helped the Big Macs improve to 2-0.

“That Wash High team is a ranked team,” said Bell. “That is a big win for us. Saying that, I’m not stupid. I know they have a couple key guys out, but we will take it. That’s the type of game we are going to see all year in our section.”

Beachy scored 15 of his game-high 27 points in the first half, knocking down four of his five three-point shots.

“Between Britton, Sam (Bohn) and Alex (Hammers), we know someone is going to get hot every night,” said Bell. “Alex got going (Friday) night, but tonight it was Britton. He was outstanding for us.”

The Big Macs had problems extending their early first-half lead as Wash High (1-1) wouldn’t go away and C-M never led by more than seven.

Wash High senior DeQuay Isbell, who scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in Friday’s win against Trinity, was held scoreless throughout the first half and finished with only five points.

“To me, DeQuay is the key to their team,” said Bell. “That’s nothing disrespectful to anyone else on their team. Everything he gets is in the paint and by crashing the glass, so we made a concerted effort to crash the glass and not let him beat us inside.”

Canon-McMillan led at halftime, 25-22, but the Big Macs started quickly in the third quarter.

Beachy knocked down a jumper and after five consecutive points from Carson Miller and a transition jumper from Sam Bohn, the C-M lead was back to seven at 34-27. Bohn tipped in a missed shot as the third quarter was winding down to give C-M their largest lead of the night at nine points. Canon-McMillan’s defense was able to limit Wash High to only seven third-quarter points.

A pair of Nate Swart free-throws and a jumper from Markel Pulliam pulled the Prexies within five in the fourth quarter, but Beachy provided the dagger with a corner three to put C-M up 43-35 with just over three minutes remaining.

Isbell knocked down a pair of free-throws to cut the C-M lead to just four with 2:24 remaining, but Canon-McMillan senior Alex Hammers, who didn’t knock down a shot previously, nailed a corner three-pointer to put the game out of reach.

Wash High never got closer as they were doomed by turnovers and low-percentage shot attempts down the stretch.

Swart led the Prexies with 15 points.

The Big Macs will look for a 3-0 start to the season when they travel to Chartiers Valley on Wednesday.

The Prexies are off until Friday when they will open up conference play at Seton-La Salle.