Peninsula Boys JV Tips Off Bay League Action with a Win!

The Bay League schedule opened up with the Peninsula Panthers hosting the Morningside Monarchs at 4:30 in the Peninsula Main gym. The Panthers who were 8-4 in the non-league schedule were facing a vastly improved Morningside team that was riding a 7 game winning streak. The Monarchs were physically bigger than the Panthers which seems to be a common theme during this season and the Panthers came lout firing on all cylinders to open the game. The Monarchs used their superior size and strength to man-handle the Panthers on the offensive glass and kept the game close until the Panthers ended the 1st quarter with a small run that put them up 18-11.

The 2nd quarter began and the Panthers began to come alive on the defensive end of the floor and they began to limit the larger Monarchs to one shot at the basket and the Panthers were able to move the ball around on the Monarchs and found themselves with a number of wide open shots. The Panthers outscored the Monarchs in the 2nd quarter 12-6 to take a 30-17 lead into the halftime break.

The Monarchs came out in the 3rd quarter and they appeared to be hungrier and far more aggressive than the Panthers and they quickly closed the gap and they actually came within 2 of the Panthers. That is when the Panthers gathered themselves, refocused on what had gotten them the lead in the first half and they methodically went about dissecting the Monarchs defense. The Panthers managed to get the lead back up to 6 as the 3rd quarter came to a close.

The Panthers struggled to find their consistency on the offensive end of the court and on defense they struggled with keeping the bigger and stronger Monarchs from crashing the offensive end of the floor. The game went back and forth throughout much of the beginning of the 4th quarter. Then with 4 minutes to go in the game the Panthers came out of timeout far more focused then they had been and they began pressuring the ball and forcing the Monarchs into numerous unforced errors. The Panthers took advantage of these miscues and they began a steady barrage of shots both inside and out to increase the lead to 20 points as time was running out on the Monarchs. As the quarter came to an end the Panthers had outscored the Monarchs 21-9 in the 4th and final frame to come away with a hard fought 63-45 victory.

The Panthers are now 9-4 on the season and they will travel to Mira Costa on Friday to take on the Mustangs at 4:30 PM. The Panthers were led today by freshman Won’ya Singleton with 27 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal. Joining Singleton in leading the Panthers were freshman Jack Engstrom with 11 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steal, and an assist, Junior Nick Frasso chipped in 7, freshman Dominic Blanco added 6 as did sophomore Aidan Kuykendall.