By Kyle Howard, Photos by Kurt Howard

The Shorecrest Scots visited the Kennedy Catholic Lancers for a matchup in the Les Schwab Christmas Classic Tournament, Wednesday night at Kennedy High School.

Shorecrest came out strong in the first quarter taking the lead and maintaining it through the first five minutes. Kennedy Catholic chipped away at the lead and got within three with a layup at the buzzer from Lancer senior Mitch Penner making it 18-15.

The Lancers took over from then on when Sam Braxton knocked down a three pointer to tie the game at 18, and with a layup from Cole Madison on the next play Kennedy Catholic took the lead and never looked back. The Lancers did a great job controlling the ball and the tempo of the game, playing some great defense and scoring on good high percentage shots. Shorecrest hung in the game but were unable to gain much ground after Kennedy Catholic opened up a 10 point lead in the third quarter; every basket scored by Shorecrest was matched by Kennedy Catholic. The Lancers went on to win 67-55.

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Mitch Penner once again had an outstanding game for Kennedy Catholic playing the point guard position, earning himself a triple double scoring 30 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. On Shorecrest’s side Emmanuel Chibuogwu Jr. and Joe Ghebrehiwot both scored 19.

Lancers Head Coach Don Hoffman was pleased with his team’s effort saying defense was the major key factor in the win “We gave up 18 in the first quarter then 37 the rest of the game, we made good stops on defense, our guys played hard and rebounded pretty well.” Good ball control and clock management also had a big impact on the game as well “When we got offensive rebounds we kicked the ball back out and used the shot clock to help shorten the game a little bit and that worked out pretty well for us.”

The Les Schwab Christmas Classic Tournament finishes on Friday.