Saint Joseph’s loses a 54-53 heartbreaker in overtime.

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: January 11, 2020

The Wolfpack hosted District 6A rival Saltsburg Friday night. Saltsburg, who came in at 9-3 beat Saint Joseph’s 84-52 in December. In the early going it was all Wolfpack, as they jumped out to a 15-7 first quarter lead behind ten first quarter points from Brendan Scanlon. Scanlon added eleven more in the second period and the Wolfpack played a spirited defensive half, taking a 28-19 lead into the locker room.

Saltsburg used a 9-0 run to get back into the game in the third however, and took a 37-35 lead into the fourth period. With the game knotted at 48 with 3 seconds to play, the Wolfpack knocked the ball out of bounds off a Saltsburg player. Timothy Peters had a look at a jump shot to win the game, but the attempt fell just short.

The lead changed hands a few times in OT, but Scanlon earned a trip to the Free Throw line with less than 20 seconds on the clock, the junior who leads the team in scoring (23 points/game), cooly knocked down two shots to give the Wolfpack the lead. Saltsburg missed a shot with under 10 seconds to play but the loose ball found its way to junior forward Tristen Roessler, who laid the ball in for the game winner.

The Wolfpack were paced once again by Brendan Scanlon, who was hounded by the Trojans defense all night, had a game high 34 points on only 13 field goal attempts. Noah Straub added 9 for the Wolfpack. Roessler led Saltsburg with 22 points including the game’s final basket.

The Wolfpack fell to 0-13 on the season and next host Philipsburg on Monday 1/13.

“I feel for the boys because they really deserve a win to validate how much progress they’ve made. We are proud of these guys for continuing to come in and improve every day.”