Peninsula Boys JV Takes On Torrance in Non-League Tilt

On Thursday night at 6:00 Pm the Peninsula Panther JV Boys Basketball team took on the Torrance Tartars in a non-league match-up. The game began and it appeared that both teams were struggling to find their groove and each side began by missing open shots, throwing the ball away unnecessarily and committing silly fouls. The two teams began trading baskets as the quarter wore on and Peninsula was finally able to put a run together that resulted in the Panthers jumping out to a 15-7 lead at the end of the 1st quarter.

The 2nd quarter began with the sloppy play that plagued the 1st quarter and within minutes the two teams were both shooting double bonus on every foul that was being called. This slowed the pace of the game down dramatically and the Panthers made 7-14 foul shots in the quarter and managed to take the lead at halftime by a score of 34-17. Torrance struggled to establish any kind of consistency in the first half and their offensive struggles from the field and shooting 2-10 in the quarter did not help them.

The 3rd quarter began and the Panthers suddenly were being called for fouls left and right. With 4:14 left to go in the 3rd quarter the Panthers had put the Tartars in the double bonus, and the 3 of the 5 Panther starters were saddled with 4 personal fouls. The bench for Peninsula did an admirable job filling in for their foul plagued teammates and managed to only surrender 5 points of the Panther 17 point lead to end the 3rd quarter leading the Tartars by a score of 48-37. The foul problems still continued to plague the Panthers and now the Tartars started to have foul problems of their own.

The 4th quarter began with the Panther reserves matching the Torrance starters point for point and playing some really inspired basketball. The Panthers still struggled with foul problems and the Tartars were now beginning to covert on their free efforts. The Panthers went with a risky move of putting the 4 starters back into the game all with 4 personal fouls in the hopes of staving off the Torrance rally that was getting closer and closer to the Panthers. The Panthers held steady and continued to match Torrance basket for basket and maintained a lead of 12 points. With slightly more than 3 minutes left to go in the game the Panthers center, Dominic Blanco, was whistled for his 5th and final foul and was lost to the Panthers for the rest of the contest. This put the Panthers in a very unfamiliar position due to the Panthers already having lost their other big man, Jack Engstrom, who came out with a leg injury from which Engstrom did not return. The Panthers were much smaller and now had to work even harder on boxing out and rebounding the ball. The last 3 minutes felt as if it took an hour to play and the fouls called were non-stop. The Panthers were able to hold off a very spirited rally by the Tartars to escape with the win by a final score of 65-59.

The Panthers were led by freshman Won’ya Singleton who scored 19 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, Junior Nick Frasso scored 9 points, 4 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 assist, and 1 block, sophomore Brayden Evans chipped in 8 points, 5 rebounds, and provided a big boost off of the bench. The Panthers are now 4-3 on this very young season and will not play until after Christmas.