State College boys basketball defeats Altoona for District 6 title; Lady Little Lions fall
Senior guard Jaden Mitchell and State College head coach Brian Scholly entered the Little Lions program together in the 2018-2019 season.
Fast forward to Feb. 28, 2022, the duo defeated Altoona 63-42. Mitchell was the second-leading scorer with 20 points and his sophomore teammate Issac Dye scored a team-high 21 points.
“I’m really happy for Coach Scholly because when I was a freshman and right when I got to high school was when he came here (State College),” Mitchell said. “I was coached up by him and I have a good relationship with him. He’s been coaching me my whole high school career, so I’m very happy for him.”
Scholly has seen Mitchell grow from a freshman into a big senior guard that can punish forwards at the rack, offensively and defensively. He’s seen the growth of Dye throughout the season and a player who can pick them up with his ability to score at all three levels.
“They took what was there,” Scholly said. “We knew there were going to have to be other guys who made plays because of the focus that Braeden (Shrewsberry) draws and they both made plays that were there for them.”
Dye and Mitchell found open shots for the majority of the night with the defenders focusing on junior guard Braeden Shrewsberry. Shrewsberry drove into the lane, finding Dye and Mitchell at the arc for 3-point shots and dished to them while they made layups. Dye believes that the cohesion that the team has to get other players involved will allow them to be a threat going forward in the state playoffs.
“Everybody’s for each other,” Dye said. “It doesn’t matter who’s on, you’re just excited because you’re winning and it shows that we’re a true team and we’re working together. We don’t care who scores, as long as we win.”
State College controlled the lead during the entire game, beginning with a 15-5 lead in the first quarter. Dye had six points, Mitchell had five points and Ryan Perks had four points. The Little Lions jumped out to a 29-18 lead in the first half with five different scorers netting shots for them in the second quarter.
Dye and Mitchell took over in the second half, scoring a combined 26 in third and fourth quarters.
State College 63, Altoona 42
SC (9-13): Dye 21, Mitchell 20, Perks 8, Furmanek 6, Shrewsberry 5
A (4-19): Bardell 13, Alwine 11, Neely 9, Muffie 6, Lestochi 3
First Half: 29-18
The Lady Little Lions end their season with tough 49-39 loss to Mifflin County
State College had an opportunity to punch their ticket to the PIAA 6A subregionals with a win over Mifflin County on Monday.
They were stymied by Mifflin County’s Marrisa Gringrich and Bri Bodtorf’s combined 46 points in a 49-39 loss. The young Lady Little Lions have never had the chance to play in big moments as a group together, as there was just two seniors on the entire team. Head coach Alli Mock expects her team to be more prepared going forward.
“I think for us it’s just that we talked about losing the nerves and when I thought we got rid of the nerves in the second quarter and we weren’t really over them,” Mock said. “We have a really young group and they’ve never, ever been in this situation. I think that we just couldn’t get through those nerves and they’ve (Mifflin County) have been here before in this situation, they’ve had this experience. We were kind of expecting this. We worked them through practice this week, but it is what it is. A lot of it came down to we were nervous and we couldn’t get into our groove.”
MC (14-5): Gingrich 26, Bodtorf 20, Knable 3, Aumiller 2
SC (10-14): Steindl 10, Tsarnakova 10, Hawbaker 8, Risha 5, Fry 2, Coudriet 2, Donnell 2
This story was originally published February 28, 2022 at 11:41 PM.
