Southwestern's Matthew Pannes drives to the basket while being defended by Cardinal O'Hara's Jacob Kanowski during the United Way Tip-Off Tournament at McElrath Gymnasium on Saturday. P-J photo by Christian Storms

The Southwestern Trojans boys basketball faced another challenge against Cardinal O’Hara in the consolation game of the United Way Tip-Off Tournament on Saturday night. After an unsurprising loss to AA program Jamestown on Friday night 73-49, the Trojans were served a disappointing 68-49 loss by Cardinal O’Hara on Saturday night.

“I feel good about the tournament, we’re gonna learn a lot from it,” Southwestern head coach Aaron Emley said about the Trojans performance in the tournament. “Yesterday is one thing, you’re going against a good AA in Jamestown, but tonight there was no excuses for it. We need to get better.”

The Trojans (2-3) played a strong first half as they held a narrow 31-27 lead at halftime. It wasn’t long into the fourth quarter before the lead was gone and soon after that the game as Southwestern came out flat and Cardinal O’Hara’s shooting began to heat up. Cardinal O’Hara outscored Southwestern 22-8 in the third quarter, capitalizing on four shots from downtown.

Southwestern’s offense went through Aidan Kennedy and Matthew Pannes as the duo were the only Trojans to make multiple baskets. In the first half Kennedy and Pannes were involved with every scoring play. The first five points went through Kennedy as he first got an assist after faking a shot from the corner then dribbling down the baseline and dishing off a pass to Jason Ni for a corner three, then after that Kennedy stole the ball on the inbound and made a quick dish to Pannes who kissed it off the glass for two. Both Kennedy and Pannes drained a 3-pointer, then Kennedy cashed in on his own steal for a breakaway layup as the quarter ended tied at 13-13.

“I thought we got out better in the open court in the first half,” stated Emley. “Second half we just weren’t getting those looks. They picked up their intensity on defense so I’ll credit them for that, but we weren’t getting good ball movement and not a lot of scoring from outside Pannes and Kennedy.”

Southwestern's Aidan Kennedy is guarded by Cardinal O'Hara's Simmarion Threct during the consolation game of the United Way Tip-Off Tournament at McElrath Gymnasium on Saturday. P-J photo by Christian Storms

In both the second and third quarter all of the Trojans points were scored by Pannes and Kennedy, which was helpful in the second, but detrimental in the third quarter. Cardinal O’Hara made adjustments at halftime that slowed down the Southwestern offense and turned the game in Cardinal O’Hara’s favor. To start the third quarter Cardinal O’Hara began using a man-press defense that the Trojans struggled to adjust to.

“Third quarter we didn’t handle it well,” Emley said about Cardinal O’Hara’s press. “That was the big turnaround. I think we had six turnovers in the first half and six in the third quarter.”

While the Southwestern offense cooled off, the Cardinal O’Hara offense improved as the game went on with its shooters remaining consistent throughout the contest. Cardinal O’Hara was led by Jacob Kanowski who scored 19 points with two 3-pointers — enough to earn his place on the All-Tournament Team. Including Kanowski, four of Cardinal O’Hara’s players scored double-digits, Chris Wright with 13, Isaiah Serrano with 11, and Simmarion Threct with 10.

In the fourth quarter the game slipped further away from the Trojans as Kennedy finished with 25 points and Pannes finished with 18 and they fell to Cardinal O’Hara 68-49.

CARDINAL O’HARA (68)

Pictured is the United Way Tip-Off All Tournament team from left, Jamestown's Jaylen Butera, Jamestown's Jaral Farmer, Health Sciences' Michael Whitt, Jamestown's Trey Drake, Southwestern's Aidan Kennedy, Health Sciences' Jaylin Gadley, Tournament MVP Health Sciences' Xavier Benton. Not pictured is Cardinal O'Hara's Jacob Kanowski.

Wani 1 0 3, Ross 2 3 9, Serrano 4 2 11, Kanowski 8 1 19, Threct 4 1 10, Wright 6 1 13, Whiteman 1 0 3. Totals 26 8 68.

SOUTHWESTERN (49)

Burlingame 0 0 0, Kennedy 8 5 25, Marshall 0 0 0, Pierce 0 0 0, Bogdanowicz 1 0 3, Hayes 0 0 0, Pannes 7 3 18, Lemk 0 0 0, Ni 1 0 3, Miller 0 0 0, Davidson 0 0 0, Vanstrom 0 0 0, Pike 0 0 0. Totals 17 8 49.

3-point goals–Kennedy 4, Ross 2, Kanowski 2, Wani, Serrano, Threct, Whiteman, Pannes, Ni, Bogdanowicz.

Cardinal O’Hara 13 14 22 19 — 68

Southwestern 13 18 8 10 — 49