Threes lift Charleroi past Southmoreland

By JAMIE RANKIN

For the MV Independent

For Charleroi’s boys basketball team, it’s all about the 3-pointers.

“We don’t have much size inside. Our biggest kid is 6-1,” Charleroi coach Bill Wiltz said. “But, we do have a pretty significant outside game. We’ve got to live and die by those 3-pointers, and today, they were falling, so we were OK.”

The Cougars used eight 3-point shots and a 24-point effort from Will Wagner, who had four of those treys, to beat host Southmoreland, 65-51, in a Section 4-3A matchup Friday.

Joey Caruso scored 15 points for Charleroi, and Legend Davis had 10.

Riley Comforti netted 21 points for the Scotties (2-8, 1-1), and Brandon Peterson scored 13, but Southmoreland fell behind early, trailing 17-10 at the end of the first quarter after a pair of 3-point baskets from Caruso and Wagner closed out the frame.

Still, Scotties coach Frank Muccino said the loss was more about the way Southmoreland played and less about those 3-pointers.

“I really think it was more us on the offensive end, being sluggish and careless with the ball and creating odd-man breaks for them,” he said. “We’ve got to do a better job of staying in front of people off the dribble. We’ve got to take care of the ball much better.”

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