Tigers use patience, deliberate pace to upend Planets
MOON TWP. — Facing a team ranked among the best in the WPIAL and with a player considered to be among the best in the state, the Moon boys basketball team used a football strategy on Super Bowl weekend.
“I told the guys we needed to control the clock, we had to be patient,” Moon coach Adam Kaufman said after the Tigers' 58-43 win over highly regarded Mars. “We did a good job of that.
“I told the guys we couldn’t allow a guy like Robbie (Carmody) 40 touches in a game and win. He may be the best player in the state.”
Carmody, a 6-foot-4 senior averaging 33 points a game and committed to Notre Dame, did score 27, but only three came in the fourth quarter, when Moon’s deliberate approach showed a cumulative effect. Mars, in fact, scored just one point in the game’s final 6:34.
In that stretch, Moon scored 17, with senior Nathan D’Amico scoring five straight to extend the lead from a precarious 43-42 to a comfortable 48-42. After that, sophomore Connor Ryan iced the game by hitting all 10 of his free throws.
“We did all the little things right,” said D’Amico. “We boxed out, we moved the ball around. We all passed well and made our free throws. We knew our game plan before we went out there and it worked well.
“It was a great atmosphere and it was a really good time out there, we’re all like brothers. It was good to finish a game against a good team like that.”
The crowd was indeed a factor, with a boisterous student section under one basket but also a full crowd in the main bleachers as well. Before the game, the crowd recognized Moon grad Keith Tower, who played at Notre Dame and in the NBA after graduating from Moon.
The crowd made its presence known from the outset, too, as Moon scored the first six points of the game and built a lead of 10 in the first quarter. Mars came back in the second quarter and led 27-26 at halftime.
“This was the best crowd we’ve had in the gym since I’ve been here,” said Kaufman, last year’s Times Coach of the Year for leading the Tigers to a WPIAL title. “These guys believe in what we do.
“Mars may be the best team, but we were the better team on the floor this time.”
Moon, now 16-4 and 8-2 in Section 2-5A, was led in scoring by Connor Ryan with 16, Austin Ryan with 13 and D’Amico with 10. Mars, now 15-4 and 9-1, got 27 from Carmody, but no other player had more than six.
“The last time we played them, they got secondary scoring,” Kaufman said. “It was a conscious effort that didn’t happen again. We were a little emotional that time, and this time, we just executed better.
“We want to be playing our best ball at this time of the year.”