East Juniata boys fend off UDA

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: January 19, 2022

East Juniata 57, Upper Dauphin 50

COCOLAMUS – It could only be best described as a heavyweight boxing slugfest as East Juniata gritted out a 57-50 victory over Upper Dauphin in Tri-Valley League boys basketball action Wednesday night.

It became very apparent right away that it was going to be a tough physical game from the opening tip-off as both East Juniata as well as Upper Dauphin were trading shot after shot with one another.

The Tigers then went to attack the rim behind the efforts of big Dylan Wagner who made his presence felt on both sides of the ball.

On the offensive side, Wagner controlled the paint and caught the Trojans off guard and forced them into committing fouls. Upper Dauphin committed six fouls in the period. With Upper Dauphin now focusing on stopping Wagner, it opened the floor up for others as Tanner Barth and Owen Dressler nailed a pair of big shots from beyond the arc.

Then in the second quarter, the Tigers continued to overpower Upper Dauphin on the inside as Wagner and Jake Brackbill refused to allow any Trojan player to get inside for a rebound.

Defensively, the Tigers forced Upper Dauphin into becoming one dimensional as the Trojans started to jack up threes and were unable to make their shots. Which in turn allowed East Juniata to continue to use a balanced attack to slowly pull ahead of Upper Dauphin behind the three point shooting of Barth and Dressler.

The Tigers outscored Upper Dauphin 13-5 for the second quarter and took a 25-16 lead into halftime.

Then in the fourth quarter was when things got pretty chippy between both teams as Upper Dauphin came out aggressive on defense and tried to apply pressure and get East Juniata out of its rhythm.

The Trojans had already had seven team fouls from the third quarter and was well over ten fouls for the fourth quarter.

The Tigers took advantage as in the fourth quarter, they compiled 26 shot attempts from the foul line and made 16 of those shot attempts.

Dressler led the charge at the line making seven of eight attempts for the period. And because of those free throws, the Tigers managed to keep the Trojans in check to secure the victory.

East Juniata had not one, not two, not three, but four different players who had scored in the double digits with Dressler being the high scorer for the Tigers with 18 points. Wagner had 13 points while Brackbill and Barth each added another 12 points for the evening.

The Tigers also won the JV game by the final of 37-30.

East Juniata is now (8-3) overall and (5-2) in the TVL and will look to keep the winning ways going on Friday as the Tigers will travel to Millersburg.

East Juniata 57, Upper Dauphin 50
EAST JUNIATA
Jake Brackbill 4 4-7 12, Tanner Barth 3 4-8 12, Owen Dressler 3 9-10 18, Rowan Smith 0 2-5 2, Dylan Wagner 6 1-8 13, Clark Ritzman 0 0-0 0, Donte Martin 0 0-0 0, Brady Poe 0 0-0 0. Totals: 16 20-38 57
3-point goals: Barth 2, Dressler 3
UPPER DAUPHIN
Landon Hobbs 0 0-0 0, Chris Barba 3 1-1 7, Brock Troutman 3 3-4 11, Wil Laskowski 5 3-5 16, Jeffrey Griffiths 0 0-0 0, Cody Crabill 0 0-0 0, Christian Snyder 3 1-2 8, Aiden Bingaman 0 0-0 0, Anthony Fernandez 0 0-0 0, Caleb Snyder 0 0-0 0, Max Nestor 3 2-6 8. Totals: 17 10-18 50
3-point goals: Troutman 2, Laskowski 3, C. Snyder
Score by quarters
UD 11-5-11-23 – 50
EJ 12-13-10-22 – 57