Sophomores help Fox Chapel beat Penn Hills, pass early season test

By: George Guido
Thursday, December 12, 2019 | 11:06 PM

It was a night for sophomores to shine as Fox Chapel won its fourth game of the season, leading Penn Hills the entire way to a 66-45 final.

Eli Yofan led the Foxes with 16 points, 11 rebounds and four steals while J.P. Dockey had 13 points – 11 in the first half for 4-0 Fox Chapel.

“We have a really good mix,” Foxes coach Zach Skrinjar said of his multi-class contribution. “Part of it was bringing those guys along late last year, integrating them into the program. I give our seniors a lot of credit. Last year as juniors, they accepted these guys and made them feel part of it because they saw they could play.”

The Foxes, rated seventh this week in the Trib HSSN power rankings, jumped out to a 14-2 advantage over No. 5 Penn Hills in a nonsection encounter.

“We’re still going one step at a time, trying to get better,” Skrinjar said. “This is great, but we have to get ready for a game (Friday) at Seneca Valley.”

The Indians (2-1), coming off a WPIAL semifinals appearance after winning the title in 2018, were shorthanded going into Thursday’s game.

“We just didn’t have a couple of good practices,” coach Dan DeRose said. “We had a couple of suspensions that kind of hurt. We put a new offense in around the kids who got suspended and we tried to scramble around and just destroyed the chemistry of everything going on and guys were out of position and things like that.”

A 3-pointer by Dockey with 47.8 seconds left in the first half put the Foxes in front, 39-18.

Said DeRose: “They played extremely hard and handled our pressure very well. I said before the season this is our worst defensive team. We were getting good traps. We just didn’t anticipate the pass. This team, for whatever reason, is a step slow anticipating and rotating and Fox Chapel passes the ball extremely well.”

Penn Hills made some headway in the third period, cutting the lead to 10 by contesting the Foxes’ shots and committing just one turnover. But Fox Chapel started the fourth period with an 8-0 run to take back control.

Senior Arnold Vento, the team’s leading scorer thus far, was blanked in the first half, but ended with six points and chipped in with six rebounds and five assists.

“He did a great job affecting the game in very different ways with his length and his defense,” Skrinjar said of Vento. “When we needed hoops, we were going to him. Playing with two (early) fouls isn’t easy, but he did a pretty good job.”

Junior Deondre Mitchell led Penn Hills with 16 points and Kyree Mitchell added 14. Eddie McKissick collected seven rebounds.

The Indians failed to convert any of their five foul shots while Fox Chapel was 13 of 14 from the line.

Lorenzo Jenkins , another Foxes sophomore, had eight points and six rebounds. Senior Wil Livingston had 10 points and five rebounds.

Penn Hills will play Highlands in the New Castle shootout at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

Tags: Fox Chapel, Penn Hills