About the only thing wrong that happened in Friday nights game for Pirate Mitchell Coleman was that he missed his first free throw but made almost every thing after that. The Continental/Miller City Putnam County League game started with the host Pirates honoring Senior Coleman for scoring his 1000th point last Saturday at Leipsic. Once the game started Coleman got the Pirates on the board by making the second of two free throws for an early 1-0 Pirate lead. The Wildcats put up the next 7 points to on a pair of baskets and a 3 to make it 7-1. A Coleman basket was followed up by a Wildcat basket to make it 9-3. The Pirates would finish up the quarter by scoring the last 8 points and take the lead for good. The Pirates points came from baskets by Coleman, Reed Warnement and a 3 point play by Andrew Hoeffel. Pirates 11-9 after 1.
The Pirates would open up the second quarter by going long distance for a pair of 3s, Coleman hitting for one and Rhenn Armey the other. Pirates 17-9. A 3 point play by the Wildcats would be followed up by a Bryce Recker basket and a Coleman 3 to make it 22-12 Pirates. The Wildcats would rally with a pair of basket baskets to cut the Pirates lead to 22-16 The Pirates would put in the 8 points to end their half with 3 from Hoeffel and Army and a pair of Coleman free throws for a 30-16 Pirates lead. The Wildcats would hit a 2 with 2 second left in the half to make it a 12 point game 30-18 at half. The Pirates outpointed the Wildcats 19-9 in the second quarter.
The Wildcats opened up the third with a basket and a pair of free throws to cut the Pirate lead to 8, 30-22. The Pirates put up the 10 of the next 11 points on a trio of Coleman baskets and baskets by Recker and Warnement. Pirates 40-23. The Wildcats would fight back by putting in 5 of the next 7 with a Coleman basket being the Pirates point. The Pirates would get a Wyatt Davis 3 as the buzzer sounded to have a 45-28 lead with 8 minutes left.
The fourth quarter had both teams putting in 17 points with the Pirates getting 15 from Coleman and a 2 from Warnement. Pirates 62-45 final
Mitchell Coleman had a career high 37 points with 23 points in the second half, after missing the first free throw Coleman finished 7-8 from the line. Rhenn Armey, Andrew Hoeffel, and Reed Warnement scored 6 each, Bryce Recker 4, and Wyatt Davis 3. Continental made eight 3 pointers with Coleman making 4, Aremy 2, Hoeffel and Davis 1 each. Miller City made one 3 point shot. Continental was 8-9 from the line.
Continental improves to 4-8 (1-1 PCL) and will travel to Fort Jennings on Friday for a PCL game. Miller City falls to 3-8 (1-2 PCL).
Mitchell Coleman now has 1058 points in his Pirate career that puts him 14th in the Pirate career scoring list. Coleman surpassed David Chivington’s 1031 points with the games points.
–Mike Jones, Sportswriter
