BOALSBURG — After losing Stephen Beattie, its first 1,000-point scorer in school history, St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy is looking to rebound from a slow start.
In addition to having to fill the shoes of Beattie, who graduated, head coach Richard Ciambotti must replace all five starters from last season’s team, which lost in the first round of the playoffs.
The team has one senior, Nick Shearer. He, alongside Jack Mangene and Rocky
Chirieleison, will look to add experience to the roster this season.
The Wolves are off to a 1-6 start, falling this past week to Trinity at home Dec. 23 and at Huntingdon on Dec. 26.
The Wolves had trouble defending a talented Trinity team in a 69-28 loss.
The 3-point shooting by Trinity proved to be too much for the Wolves.
‘We wanted to slow down and limit their possessions,’ Ciambotti said, after the game.
In the first quarter, the Shamrocks’ up-tempo offense was hot. The team nailed 3-pointers and created turnovers, which turned into transition layups.
The Shamrocks led the Wolves 41-22 at the end of the first half.
The Wolves’ offense was unable to put any points on the scoreboard in the third quarter, but did step it up defensively in the fourth quarter.
‘We improved on defense; that’s where I saw improvement over the course of the game,’ Ciambotti said.
The Wolves could not catch up, though, and the Shamrocks powered away.
‘We’re going to work hard and look ahead to our next game. (There are) a lot of things we can work on and we need to get right to work,” Ciambotti said.
But, the Wolves fell 75-55 at Huntingdon three days later.
The team looks to get back on the winning track against Philipsburg-Osceola on Tuesday, Jan. 3.
