Catty takes charge early to beat Bombers

Catasauqua put together a nine-point run in the first quarter and another eight-point run before halftime to put host Palmerton behind the eight-ball early and then held on late for a 67-55 win in the Colonial League opener for both boys teams on Tuesday night.

The Roughies built up a 10-point lead in the first quarter and extended it to 20 points in the second quarter before the Bombers cut it to 14 at the break.

"We just came out of the gate relatively slow," said Palmerton head coach Mick Stefanek. "We didn't execute well. Our kids were just flat for whatever reason in the first half and we dug ourselves a heckuva hole going into halftime.

"We battled back, we played hard, we were able to create some things with our pressure full court. The kids kept playing and we're going to build on that, but our execution was flat out terrible and we need to address that and I'll take full responsibility for that cause it starts with me. Hopefully we can right the ship before Friday night's game (at Bangor)."

James Snyder got off to a quick start with six points in the first eight minutes for the Roughies and Jared Strong started to maintain a stronghold underneath scoring four of his game-high 21 points.

The Bombers had a hard time stopping the big guy in close as his nine fourth quarter points kept the Bombers from cutting the deficit to single digits.

Catasauqua actually built the lead up to 20 points again in the second half, but Palmerton stepped up its defensive pressure and was able to cut the final deficit down to 12.

Another Achilles Heel for the Bombers was a dismal 8-for-22 night from the free throw line, while the Roughies were converting on 13-of-18.

"Our team foul shooting really surprised me," said Stefanek. "I consider our foul shooting pretty decent and to go 8-for-22 is really out of character and that hurt us in some key spots there in the second half.

"We just have to stay focused, stay positive as best we can. This is a tough one to take just the way we played. Give Catty a lot of credit, but a lot of this fell on our own shoulders."

Losing Ben Andrews for a while after his injury in the opener at Lehighton was toughed and losing him alters a lot that the Bombers want to do both offensively and defensively.

Backing up Strong for the Roughies was Snyder with 11. The Bombers, on the other hand, had balanced scoring with Tyler Svetik (15 points), Brett Snyder (13), Cody Geist (12) and Matt Leaver (10) all hitting double figures.

Catasauqua made it a clean sweep with a 53-25 victory.

CATASAUQUA

Edwards 2-0-0-5, Bloszinsky 1-6-6-8, S. Burton 2-0-0-5, Snyder 5-1-3-11, Marshall 1-0-0-2, Burker 0-0-0-0, Nichols 0-2-2-2, Parker 3-1-2-8, Strong 9-3-5-21, Purrone 2-0-0-5, R. Burton 0-0-0-0, TOT6ALS: 25-13-18-67.

PALMERTON

Horvath 0-1-2-1, Svetik 7-0-5-15, B. Snyder 4-2-3-13, Leaver 4-2-2-10, Ruch 1-0-2-2, Leon 0-2-2-2, Geist 5-1-6-12, Quinn 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 21-8-22-55.

Catasauqua 16 17 19 15 - 67

Palmerton 6 13 13 23 - 55

Three-pointers: Catasauqua - Edwards 1, S. Burton 1, Parker 1, Purrone 1. Palmerton - B. Snyder 3, Svetik 1, Geist 1.