Dec 16, 2016 3 min read

CANONSBURG – As Canon-McMillan High School boys’ basketball coach Rick Bell yelled, “Attack” from the opening tip, it seemed that his team was going to have a performance similar to the first three games when the offense couldn’t be stopped.

Senior R.J. Bell connected on two three-point shots and junior Kenyon Lewis joined the fun from behind the arc in the first three minutes as the Big Macs built an 11-0 lead.

That all changed after a Mt. Lebanon timeout with just over five minutes left in the first quarter. That’s when the starting five found seats next to head coach Joe David after a full-scale substitution.

The Blue Devils’ bench players clawed their way back into the game. Mt. Lebanon stayed close until a fourth quarter straightaway three-pointer by guard Antonio Garofoli with 6:58 remaining gave the Blue Devils their first lead. Garofoli didn’t stop there as he connected on four more three-pointers in the next three minutes to lead Mt. Lebanon to a 60-48 victory over C-M in a Class 6-A Section 2 opening game Friday night.

“The game got away from us when they whole-sale subbed,” Bell said. “We felt that lead should have been extended and it was not. We should have put the pedal to the metal. We didn’t do that.”

Instead, Mt. Lebanon (1-0, 3-1) answered with an eight-point run by using a matchup zone to slow the pace of the Big Macs feverish offense, led by Bell’s instruction on the sideline to attack.

“Early on in the game, they were playing at our pace,” Bell said of the first three minutes that led to the Mt. Lebanon timeout. “We’re an up-and-down team. We knew that they wanted the game to be in the 40s or 50s. They did a good job doing just that.”

The lead C-M (0-1, 2-2) built, which didn’t allow a member of the Mt. Lebanon starting five to score until 6:24 in the second quarter, was cut to only four points heading into halftime, 27-23, following a three-pointer by Mt. Lebanon sophomore guard Sean Loughran with 1:49 left.

After halftime, C-M senior guard Britton Beachy’s corner three extended the Big Macs lead back to seven. However, Mt. Lebanon answered with a three-pointer of its own as the teams exchanged baskets throughout the third quarter.

After trading baskets throughout most of the third quarter, C-M’s lead was narrowed to only two points, 34-32.

“I don’t know if we let down or what,” Bell said of the quickly evaporated lead. “What bringing those kids off the bench did was give (Mt. Lebanon) energy. It was a risky move. Those kids came in thinking they had nothing to lose and played really intense.”

Pacing Mt. Lebanon was Garofoli, who didn’t find the scorers sheet until the fourth quarter, when he went off for a game-high 20 points. Loughran also had 17 points and five rebounds for the Blue Devils.

Leading the Big Macs, who are now in familiar territory in playing section games prior to Dec. 25, were Beachy and Bell with 14 and 11 points, respectively.

“Last year, we played four conference games before Christmas and lost all four of them, two in double overtime and another in overtime,” Bell said. “I knew this was going to be a battle. It’s a process, especially when you are dealing with kids in the section we are in. There is not a night on the schedule where somebody can say, ‘That’s an easy game.'”