~by Dustin Teays for The Scranton Journal
The Paton-Churdan Rockets boys basketball team closed their regular season slate of games against the Woodbine Tigers Feb. 17.
The Rockets traveled to Woodbine to face off with the Tigers in their last regular season game of the year and came away with a 98-47 loss to one of Class 1A’s Iowa High School Athletic Union-ranked teams.
For the first quarter of play the Rockets were able to keep close as they were down 19-13 at the end of the quarter, but a strong second quarter from the Tigers enabled them to pull away. The Rockets were outscored 29-10 in the second quarter and went into halftime down 48-23. In the second half of the game the Rockets had a strong third quarter with 18 points but were outscored overall 50-24 in the second half.
Trevon Keely added another solid game to his list this season with 20 points to lead the team. Phoenix Hartman was the second-leading scorer with 11, Kinnick Steimel had nine, Damen Rice had four and Patrik Wolterman had three. Hartman and Keely were tied for the team lead in rebounds with eight apiece and Bryce Stephenson was second with five. Rice led the team in assists with five and Keely and Hartman each had two.
With the conclusion of the regular season, the Rockets can look back and be extremely proud of what they accomplished during the regular season slate as their six regular season wins are the most in a season over the last six years and a young core of players have stepped up to the plate to help lead the team to victories every time they step on the court and they will serve as the building blocks for future teams. The Rockets were expected to open their first round of postseason play against Ar-We-Va on Monday, a team they have faced already this season which resulted in two losses for Paton-Churdan in the regular season.
