Outdoing last year’s team, the Saint Jo boy’s basketball team crushed their opponent in their bi-district playoff game on Tuesday.
Playing Newcastle in Henrietta, the Panthers defense gave the Bobcats fits with their press, which fed into their offense leading to an 85-24 win.
Saint Jo started the game off right as they got out to a double digit lead as they led 21-8. A 13-point lead was good, but it was not big enough and it was still too early for the Bearcats to lay over.
The second quarter came and things went up another notch for the Panthers. The offensive production was never better while the defense did the rare thing of shutting out Newcastle for the entirety of the quarter.
The Bobcats did not scored while Saint Jo put up 27 points to go up 48-8 at halftime and putting the game out of reach with a half still to play.
While Newcastle did score in both the third and fourth quarters, it was never more than 10 points. Even if they would have held the Panthers scoreless for the half, the Bobcats just did not have the offense to come back, even as Saint Jo dialed back some of its pressure.
The Panthers offense took a slight step back as their second half output of 37 was still more than Newcastle’s game total. Saint Jo won 85-24.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.