POTTSVILLE — Blue Mountain made it count in the second half when they outscored Shikellamy by 16 points on the way to a 63-45 District 11 5A playoff opening win at Martz Hall on Friday.
Cohen Kirby and Cohen Werner stepped up late for the Eagles (17-8, 10-4) when they combined for 19 points in the second half and cleaned up around the basket for the 28-point blowout win.
“Late in the game when we needed points it was nice to be able to come up with that scoring and it helped us win the game at that point,” Kirby said after the second half eruption.
Blue Mountain advances to the District 11 5A semifinals to take on Selinsgrove Area on Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Martz Hall.
“We’re taking it one game at a time, we want to play the best we can every game and just get on a roll,” Kirby said. “We got it done and changed the momentum of the game.”
Tyeirre Meade led Blue Mountain with 20 points, Kirby scored 12 points, Beck Henninger added 11 points and Werner had 10 points. Kirby led the Eagles on the boards with 12 rebounds.
Meade stepped up early when he forced a turnover and went the length of the floor for the 5-0 lead a minute into the game. Shikellamy’s (11-12, 5-5) Justin Ziegler hit a three to bring it within 6-5.
The Eagles then went on a 9-2 scoring run led by Kirby and Werner layups for the 15-7 lead with three minutes left in the first.
“Rebounds are huge when it comes to a game like this and I knew I needed to do it for my team and the physicality helped turn the momentum of the game,” said Kirby.
Beck Henninger closed the first quarter with a pair of three-pointers for the 21-12 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“It’s clutch in a game like this and it helped turn the tide tonight,” Kirby said. “We needed it early in the game right there.”
Shikellamy surged to a 16-9 scoring run in the second quarter led by Aaron Bucher’s five points. Bucher hit a three to bring the Braves within a 21-19 deficit two minutes into the second quarter.
Bucher posted a layup to make it a 21-21 knotted score before Meade hit a three and went underneath for a layup to give Blue Mountain a 28-26 lead with a minute left in the first half.
Meade posted another layup and Blue Mountain led just 30-28 at halftime.
“He’s (Meade) awesome and he loves and plays for his team and we all play through that so it’s absolutely huge,” Kirby said.
Shikellamy took a 33-32 lead on a Justin Ziegler three before Blue Mountain’s Sean Gaddy hit a three for the 35-33 lead. Henninger and Meade hit three’s and Kirby added a layup to highlight an 11-0 scoring run for the 43-33 lead with three minutes left in the third quarter.
Meade posted a layup and Blue Mountain took a 47-35 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Meade opened the fourth quarter with a steal and passed it off to Werner for the 50-35 lead before Werner added a second straight layup for the 52-37 lead.
Alex Peifer hit a three to bring Shikellamy within a 57-45 difference and Kirby posted a layup for the 61-45 lead with three minutes left in the game.
Werner closed out the fourth quarter with seven of his 10 points for the 63-45 win.
Peifer led Shikellamy with 11 points while Ziegler had eight points and Bucher and Charlie Walter each had seven points.
SHI (11-12, 5-5);12;16;7;10;—45
BM (17-8, 10-4);21;9;17;16;—63
Shikellamy 45 — Bucher 3 0-0 7, Hewlett 0 0-0 0, Brosious 0 0-0 0, Stahl 1 4-6 6, Peifer 5 0-0 11, Hewlett 0 0-0 0, Walter 3 1-1 7, Zeigler 3 0-0 8, Hoover 0 2-2 2, Sykes 2 0-0 4, Reese 0 0-0 0, Johnson 0 0-0 0, Sprenkel 0 0-0 0, Hallman 0 0-0 0, Garcia 0 0-0 0. 17 7-9 45.
Blue Mountain 63 — Meade 8 1-4 20, Setlock 1 0-0 2, Kirby 4 4-4 12, Pritiskutch 1 0-0 2, Disante 0 0-0 0, Singh 0 0-0 0, Werner 4 2-4 10, Henninger 3 2-2 11, McDonough 0 0-0 0, Wargo 0 0-0 0, Schuster 0 0-0 0, Gaddy 2 0-0 6, Evans 0 0-0 0, Martin 0 0-0 0. 23 4-9 63.
3-FG: Meade 3, Henninger 3, Gaddy 2, Ziegler 2, Bucher, Peifer