The Corry Boys Basketball Team traveled to Cochranton to face off against the cardinals for the first game of the 2023 - 2024 season.

First game jitters were in effect during the first quarter. Then we started to get a little more comfortable offensively and were able to take the lid off of the basket. While we were struggling offensively, our pressure really helped us out and kept Cochranton on their heals.

In the first half we had 9 TOs, and we were able to get better in that area in the second half.

Our pressure created several turnovers, but we also got 2+ 5 second counts. This is something we strive to work hard on and defending through that 5 seconds is really difficult. Karson Chamberlin really sparks us in this area and works hard.

After our Mercyhurst Prep scrimmage we thought we had a couple opportunities to take charges and we didn’t get the job done. On Thursday, Coach Kellogg came in with a drill that we worked on, and evidently it helped. We took 5 charges and Ricketts should have had another, but was called for a block. These types of things make a huge difference, and I hope we can continue to find ourselves in the right spots defensively.

A couple areas we need to get better defensively would be guarding the long ball on our full court pressure and allowing too many looks close to the basket.

Offensively we were led by Markus and Rylan who both had 20 points, Kamdyn Moon with 14, and Karson Chamberlin with 9.

Rylan did most of his damage in the first half with 17 of his 20, and Markus did most of his damage in the second half scoring 14 of his 20. Lambert had two fouls early and had to sit most of the 1st half.  

We scored 72 points, but we still struggled shooting the ball. We put up 70 shots, but shot 38 percent from the floor. We missed a lot of shots close to the hoop. We did shoot 86% from the free throw line going 6 for 7.

We did have 14 three point shots made tonight, which is a lot. I do think our offensive firepower will be better than last year’s group, but we are not sure about the defensive side. We continue to work in that department everyday. Leading the 3 point department tonight was Lambert and moon, who both had 4.

Our intensity was great tonight, and we are fun to watch when we are playing at the kind of level. We have kids that want to work hard and win, we just have to be consistent in all areas in order to do that.

Leading rebounders: Markus Lambert 7, Rylan Smith and Karson Chamberlin with 5

Other notable players who came in and did a good job are: Jack Albers, Cameron Ricketts, Tavon Kornikoski, and Landon Deane.

Deane is coming off an injury and we are trying to get him comfortable and get him back in gradually.