The Purchase Line Red Dragons pushed their score all the way to 62 on Wednesday, but even that wasn't enough to win. Their tough 85-62 defeat to Conemaugh Valley might stick with them for a while. While losing is never fun, Purchase Line can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Pennsylvania basketball rankings (they are ranked 146th, while Conemaugh Valley is ranked 22nd).
When it comes to explaining why Purchase Line lost, one person who can't be blamed is Jakob Mountain. Despite the final result, he scored 23 points along with 5 rebounds and 3 steals. Mountain is absolutely dominating the steal category: he's posted at least two every time he's taken the court this season. Stephen Perruso was another key contributor, scoring 7 points along with 4 steals.
Even though they lost, Purchase Line were smashing the offensive glass and finished the game with ten offensive rebounds. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Conemaugh Valley only pulled down 23.
Leading Conemaugh Valley to victory were Landon Percinsky and Jeremy Dietz. Percinsky dropped a double-double on 16 points and 11 rebounds, while Dietz dropped a double-double on 23 points and 10 rebounds. That makes it three consecutive games in which Dietz has scored at least 25% of Conemaugh Valley's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Bryton Yackulich, who scored 12 points along with 3 steals.
Purchase Line still hasn't won a game yet this season and fell to 0-3. As for Conemaugh Valley, the win (which was their third in a row) raised their record to 3-0.
Purchase Line will be playing in front of their home fans against Portage at 7:15 p.m. on Friday. As for Conemaugh Valley, they will head out on the road to face off against Penns Manor at 7:15 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully Penns Manor focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 11 on Wednesday.
