Palma, 3-point shooting lead C-M to win over Trinity
Canon-McMillan’s Elliot Waller looks for room to make a pass around Trinity’s Noah Johnson
Canon-Mac vs. Trinity
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Trinity’s Jake Hanchar looks for room around Canon-McMillan’s Tom Samosky (30) and Elliot Waller (33).
Canon-Mac vs. Trinity
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Canon-McMIllan’s Luke Palma scores two against Trinity’s Michael Koroly (4) and Dylan King Friday.
CANONSBURG – Before the season, Canon-McMillan High School boys basketball coach Rick Bell compared his group to the Pitt football team.
“No superstars, just dudes,” Bell said. “That’s how these guys are. Nobody cares who scores. It’s what we need to do to be successful. That’s pretty cool in this day and age.”
With a drive-and-kick offense, the Big Macs were successful on the opening night at what they do best – getting everybody involved.
Making eight three-pointers and senior guard Luke Palma pouring in a game-high 21 points in his first career start, Canon-McMillan used a big third quarter to down Trinity, 62-48, in the season opener Friday night.
All five starters for Canon-McMillan, which advances to play Latrobe tonight in the championship, scored at least eight points. Tommy Samosky, Elliot Waller and Palma each were in double figures.
“That’s what we think our strength is,” Bell said moving the ball and spreading the wealth on offense. “That’s one of the reasons we felt we could be better offensively.”
Palma helped the Big Macs pull away in the third quarter, scoring 11 of his 21 points. He finished a three-point play after he was fouled on a layup to give C-M a 43-30 lead at the end of three.
“It feels good. A lot of hard work went into that,” Palma said of finally cracking the starting lineup. “Obviously, last year I didn’t really play. It was a confidence issue. But I put in a lot of work with our amazing coaching staff. In that third quarter, I just found openings along the baseline and my teammates helped me get open looks at the basket.”
Palma also ignited a 10-point run to pull Canon-McMillan out of a rut near the end of the first quarter. Drew Engel and Tommy Samosky made back-to-back threes to continue the streak.
“It was basically what we feared would happen. Our youth showed up at the wrong times,” said Trinity coach Tim Tessmer. “You have to get guys their first varsity experiences, but it takes time to get used to it. I thought we handled it well to start but when (the game) got tighter, especially in the third quarter, it showed.”
Palma and Samosky, who were replacing Jason Fowlkes and Kenyon Lewis from the Big Macs’ starting lineup last season, combined for 35 points. Samosky had 14, including four three-pointers.
“We gave them a lot of open ones,” Tessmer said. “I expect them to make a lot. You have to guard a lot better than we did. When you over help against that team, they are going to knock them down.”
Ethan Beachy and Drew Engel also made a pair of three-pointers for the Big Macs.
“One of the things we always say is that we aren’t a three-point shooting team,” Bell said. “We are a drive and penetration team. We are a layup team. Because we are good at it, we make opponents collapse. It’s the type of threes we make. All of our guys can shoot them, it’s another thing to make them.”
Dylan King scored a team-high 13 points for Trinity, while Jake Hancher finished with 11. The Hillers play Altoona in the consolation game.