Wagner, Caruso lead Cougars over Bulldogs

By JOSE NEGRON
jnegron@yourmvi.com

Charleroi closed out its regular season schedule by featuring four players in double figures in an 82-64 Section 4-3A win over visiting Beth-Center Wednesday.

Will Wagner scored a game-high 27 points, while Jake Caruso hit five 3-pointers and finished with 20. Zach Usher scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half and Ben Shields added a 10-point effort for the Cougars (11-5, 8-3), who extended their winning streak to four games with the victory.

“In order to be successful, that’s what we need to do,” said Charleroi head coach Bill Wiltz, who anticipated seeing a triangle and two defense from the Bulldogs. “If we have four guys scoring like that, though, teams won’t be able to do that to us. They’ll have to play us straight up.”

Playing without the services of senior standout Easton McDaniel, who has been out for close to a month with a hamstring injury, Beth-Center (5-9, 2-8) received significant offensive contributions from the trio of Rueben Miller, Colby Kuhns and Cam Palmer.

Miller drained four 3-pointers and scored a team-high 20 points, while Kuhns and Palmer each added 16 apiece.

While the Bulldogs were able to find some success on the offensive end of the floor, mistakes ended up serving as the leading force in their downfall.

Beth-Center committed 24 turnovers in the loss, including 15 in the first half.

“I thought there were times tonight where we played as well as we’ve played all year,” Beth-Center head coach Bill Greco said. “We just don’t have the horses to sustain that and I realize that. I try to shorten the game and do what I can, but it gets to the point where when we’re turning the ball over one out of three possessions and we’re behind, there is no way you can catch up.”

Charleroi used a 27-point first quarter to march out to a commanding lead as Wagner and Usher each scored 11 points during that span.

Beth-Center’s offense began to get going in the second quarter, while the Cougars were plagued by six of their 13 turnovers.

Charleroi held a 32-15 lead within the first minute of the frame before an 11-0 run by Beth-Center made it 32-26 with 4:07 to go.

Kuhns scored six of his points during the spurt, while Palmer hit a pair of foul shots and Ryan Ross drained a trey to pull the Bulldogs to within six.

Charleroi went scoreless for more than three minutes before Shields hit a pair of free throws to help reignite the offense. The Cougars went on to outscore the Bulldogs by a 12-8 margin in the final four minutes to take a 44-34 lead into halftime.

“We got careless offensively in that second quarter,” Wiltz said. “We made some stupid mistakes and we have to get those corrected.”

Charleroi gained additional separation in the third quarter behind the play of Wagner, who scored 12 of the Cougars’ 17 points in the frame.

Palmer had eight of Beth-Center’s 10 points in the third, but it wasn’t nearly enough to keep the Bulldogs from going down 61-44 heading into the fourth.

“Will is obviously our man. When we start to struggle, we want the ball in his hands because he can just do so much with it,” Wiltz said.

Caruso was Charleroi’s leading producer in the final eight minutes as he hit three 3-pointers. The Cougars narrowly outscored the Bulldogs by a 21-20 margin in the fourth to seal the win.

“We did a better job on them in the second half because we started to take away space,” Wiltz said. “They had to shoot their threes over a hand instead of sitting there and posing. I think that was a big difference in that second half.”

Both teams will return to Charleroi Monday for the start of the WPIAL’s open playoff tournament.

Seeded No. 19 in Class 3A, Beth-Center will face No. 14 Apollo-Ridge in a preliminary round matchup 6 p.m. Monday.

A contest between the No. 10 Cougars and No. 23 Steel Valley will follow at 8 p.m.

“We’ve proven we can play with almost everybody,” said Wiltz, whose team has defeated the likes of Brentwood, Southmoreland and Brownsville during its current winning streak. “I loved that Brentwood win because we dominated that game in every way and I’m trying to pattern our future play off of that. If we can play that way throughout the playoffs, we could be a tough out.”