Johnston City boys basketball hangs on for win over Galatia

JOHNSTON CITY - Galatia tried to deliver the final blow on Friday, but Johnston City took the hit and delivered a knockout punch of its own.

A basket by Will Pulliam of the Galatia Bearcats with 3:43 left in the third quarter tied the game at 34-34, but the Indians responded by going 16-5 the rest of the quarter in a 69-57 nonconference win.

"We executed very well tonight. We came back after their big run and took the hit, but bounced back," said Johnston City Coach Scott Burzynski.

Three players scored in double figures for the Tribe with Chase Selby tossing in a game high 27 points on six two-point field goals, four triples and three free throws.

Guard Matt Campbell added 17 and guard Houston Hall chipped in with 15.

Austin Stevens led Galatia with 22 points and with teammate Ben Mitchell brought Galatia back in the third quarter.

Stevens scored 14 of his 22 points in the second half and Mitchell scored all of his points in the final 16 minutes.

"Stevens and Mitchell played well for us," said Bearcats skipper Rod Wallace.

"Mitchell really played well on the glass, but overall as a team we didn't do a very good job," he added.

Johnston City never trailed in the contest, and at one point opened up a 16-point lead, only to watch the Cats claw their way back in the second half to make it a game.

"We dug ourselves a pretty good hole to get out of and missed some front ends of one-and-one free throws and couldn't get over the hump," Wallace said.

Galatia shot 65 percent from the charity stripe with 13-of-20, but missed four key one-and-ones down the stretch.

Both teams were scheduled to be in action Tuesday at the Sesser-Valier Holiday Tournament with Galatia (4-7) taking on top seed Woodlawn and Johnston City (3-7) facing Odin in the first game of the lower bracket session.

<h3 class="leadin">Junior varsity: Galatia won the junior varsity contest over the Indians, 44-22.</h3>