Balanced Cougars ready for Carlynton
By JEREMY SELLEW
jsellew@yourmvi.com
A battle between Cougars looms tonight as the Charleroi boys basketball team opens the WPIAL playoffs against Carlynton at 8 p.m. at Peters Township High School.
Charleroi’s red-and-black clad squad enters the game as the No. 7 seed after sharing the Section 3 title with Washington.
Carlynton (14-8) is in the midst of a turn-around season, finishing third in Section 2 behind North Catholic and Seton LaSalle.
The green and gold Cougars finished 6-16 last season.
“They’re senior dominated,” Charleroi head coach Bill Wiltz said. “They’re a pretty good team. We’re going to have to play well to beat them. But I can say the same for them.”
Carlynton is led by 6-foot guard Chauncie Mickens, a 1,000-point scorer who specializes at getting to the rim.
“He’s a slasher. We definitely want to keep him on the perimeter,” Wiltz said of Mickens. “But they have a good outside shooter in (Dequay) Canton and the big kid isn’t bad.”
The big kid is 6-4 senior Morgan Ault, who specializes in cleaning up the boards and getting some put-back baskets.
“His size can create some problems for us,” Wiltz said. “Rebounding is going to be one of the keys for us. He really cleans up a lot down low.”
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