Boys basketball continues into the new year, team plays in PeCo tournament
(Jan. 9) – To resume the season in December, Newport hosted the Millersburg Area Indians on Tuesday, Dec. 19. Again, senior Ruben Moreno put the most points on the stat sheet with eight; this time, however, senior Zachary Bellis trailed behind him with six points as compared to typical leader freshman Landon Zaring who only scored three. The team had several three-point shots but only made one out of fourteen. The loss of 31-38 was tough for the team. The Buffaloes were down only 21-22 at half, took the lead 28-27 at the end of the third quarter, then let the Indians slip by to their victory.
The next team to be welcomed to Newport was the Midd-West Mustangs on Friday, Dec. 22. Zaring led in scoring with eleven points. Behind him was Moreno with eight points and Gardner with six points. The team scored lower than they did at Midd-West last winter with only thirty-eight points on the scoreboard compared to last year’s forty-three. Nonetheless, the Buffaloes still proved their defensive prowess with twenty-three defensive rebounds and three blocks.
The Buffalo feature in the PeCo Tournament was not what the team was looking for. The team faced a harsh loss of 35-52 to the Greenwood Wildcats on Friday, Dec. 29. Newport still showed their defensive skill with two more blocks than the Wildcats, four total: one from senior Braden Barrick, one from Zaring, and the other two from senior Logan Burns. Newport also shot more two-point field goals than Greenwood did, and Newport hit 45.5% of those shots while the Blue and Gold made only 39.2% of their attempts.
On the second night of the tournament, Dec. 30, the Buffaloes came back to try to secure a win over the Susquenita Blackhawks. Even with less personal fouls than the Blackhawks, more blocks, and more overall rebounds, the Buffaloes still fell 31-63. Freshman Tai Caudle found this game to be his first shining moment in the season. Caudle had ten points, hitting both his foul shots and making four two-point field goals. “… I do think I am capable of having a performance like that in every game and my team should be able to beat a team like Susquenita,” Caudle commented after the game.
After the weekend tournament, Newport returned home on Tuesday, Jan. 2 for a game against the Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy Wolfpack. The Buffalos’ hottest moment in this game was scoring seventeen points in the third quarter while only allowing eight points to be scored on them. The fourth quarter began with a Wolfpack lead of 37-32. Newport came out strong with a lot of points in-the-paint, scoring twenty-four of their total forty-three there. The final score ended with a close 43-47 loss for the Buffaloes.
Relieving the stress of the previous losing streak, Newport brought the Juniata Christian School Lions to the gym on Thursday, Jan. 4 and scored sixty-one points against the Lions, who only scored fifteen on the Buffaloes. In this varsity-only game, the team features some of their non-starters. Freshman Mason Bitting also got his first varsity points. During the six minutes he played, he scored two two-point field goals. Senior Aerich Wetzler put up his first two points of the season after getting an offensive rebound. “I was feeling anxious when I got the ball…I grabbed it and threw it back up,” said Wetzler. By this final game against the Lions, the team is 3-8 overall and 0-4 in the Tri-Valley League.
