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Mifflinburg’s offense too tough for young EJ team

By Kenny Varner
COCOLAMUS – After opening their season just one day before, the East Juniata boys basketball team welcomed in the deep and high scoring team from Mifflinburg to the East Juniata gym Wednesday night.
With a line up full of scorers, the Wildcats were scoring from all over the court as they played the unfriendly guest role posting a 87-42 victory over the young and improving Tigers.
Leading the way for the visitors were Levi Yoder and Jordan Tyson who led all scorers with a game-high 19-point and a 16-point effort, respectively.
Rounding out the double-digit scorers was Tanner Stoltzfus, who finished with 11.
East Juniata’s John Nace battled his way for an 11-point effort to pace the Tigers.
“We knew they were going to be very athletic. We knew they were going to be quick. They are a very well coached team. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get back in our defensive transition. We need to work on that,” East Juniata coach Steve Smith said. “We are young and we are up and coming and hopefully we will take this and learn from it.”
In the first quarter, the Wildcats wasted no time at all as they opened the game with a triple from Dante Colon.
East Juniata battled back as Jake Kinzer worked his way inside making a tough shot in the paint, cutting it to 3-2.
The Wildcats went on it’s first run after that, outscoring East Juniata 6-0 with 5:46 left in the quarter.
Trailing 9-2, the Tigers bit back scoring the next three points, all from Zack Fogel, cutting it down to 9-5.
Mifflinburg was just heating up as it clamped down defensively on the Tigers and fed it to its potent offense.
The result was a 12-0 run to up the lead to a comfortable 21-5.
Things continued to roll for Mifflinburg as it rounded out the scoring going on a 6-4 mark to take a 26-9 lead into the second.
East Juniata was able to cut the Wildcats scoring to only 19 in the second.
However, the Mifflinburg defense still limited East Juniata to only a 9-point showing and a 43-17 lead going into the intermission.
The pace of the game increased in the second but the game still belonged to the Wildcats, outscoring the Tigers in the third quarter as well by a 27-11 margin, putting the game into a mercy rule situation.
However, despite trailing East Juniata refused to go away without a fight and battled hard in the last two quarters.
But in the final stanza, Mifflinburg continued to feed its shooters and clamp harder on defense, forcing a 15-10 scoring effort en rout to the 87-42 victory.
East Juniata is back in action today as it hosts Newport.

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