Latrobe uses team effort to defeat Fox Chapel
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Tuesday, January 22, 2019 | 10:12 PM
To win big games on the road in a hostile environment, you need more than your stars to play well.
Latrobe, the No. 1 ranked team in Class 6A by Trib HSSN, got that Tuesday at Fox Chapel.
The Wildcats got 29 points from senior forward Bryce Butler and 23 from senior guard Reed Fenton to past Fox Chapel, 79-63, in a first-place showdown in Section 3-6A.
Composure, tough defense, rebounding and solid play helped Latrobe (13-2, 6-0) open a two-game lead on Fox Chapel (9-6, 4-2) and Penn-Trafford (9-6, 4-2).
The Wildcats never trailed after Fenton hit his first two shots in the first minute. They forced the Foxes to play catch up all night and never flinched when things, or calls, didn’t go their way.
“I thought our resiliency was big,” Latrobe coach Brad Wetzel said. “Fox Chapel never went away. It was 10, and it was 6. But we told them to keep on the gas. We got big defensive stops, big rebounds and timely shooting.
“It was a team effort. The guys who came off the bench gave us big minutes.”
Behind Fenton, the Wildcats jumped out to a quick 15-6 lead, but Sam Brown kept the Foxes close and closed the gap to 19-18 after a quarter.
Latrobe scored the first nine points of the second quarter to push the lead to 28-18 before Fenton got into foul trouble for the second time this season against Fox Chapel. Still, Latrobe extended its lead to 36-30 at halftime thanks to five points each from Butler and Ryan Sickenberger, who scored 15 points.
Latrobe won the first meeting, 66-62. One difference in the second meeting was Fox Chapel’s Ryan Kerr, who scored 25 the first time, was held to eight.
It was the second consecutive game against Fox Chapel that Sickenberger stepped up.
“We just played as hard as we could, and we trusted each other,” Fenton said. “I started off hot, and the same thing happened at our place when I got into foul trouble. But my teammates picked me up. Everyone played as hard as we could.”
Fenton (11 points) and Butler (10) took over in the third period as Latrobe outscored Fox Chapel, 28-23, to push the lead to 64-53. The Wildcats maintained around a double-digit lead the entire third quarter.
But it was the start of the fourth quarter when the Wildcats took command. After Arnold Vento scored to cut the lead to 66-55, Sickenberger hit a clutch basket and Butler converted two more to stretch the lead to 71-55.
“Every time we made a little push, we couldn’t get stops,” Fox Chapel coach Zach Skrinjar said. “When you don’t string stops together against them, it makes your life very difficult. We did a very poor job rebounding and we gave them too many second chances.”
Fox Chapel pulled to within 71-59, but buckets by Drew Clair and Seth Holler pushed it back to 75-59.
Consecutive buckets by Butler made it 79-59 and sent the Fox Chapel fans to the exits.
“We have a bunch of guys around us that can shoot,” Butler said. “When people try to take us away, our young guys stepped up. Ryan hit a few shots that freed me and Reed up.”
Brown finished with 26 points and Vento added 17 for the Foxes.
Paul Schofield is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Paul at pschofield@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Schofield_Trib.
Tags: Fox Chapel, Latrobe
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