Moon basketball sweeps in their holiday tournament

Preston Moore, Moon Sports Beat Writer

MOON TOWNSHIP — Moon hosted its annual basketball tournament and dominated in both of the games they played in. Moon defeated both Brashear and Vincentian Academy as recent transfer Donovan Johnson made his debut for Moon and lived up to all the hype surrounding his arrival.

The first game featured a match-up against Vincentian Academy. Vincentian came out of the gates hot and played near perfect defense for the first half of the first quarter. Moon began to hit its stride after Austin Ryan made three three-pointers in a row to take the lead. Johnson started slow, shooting 1-4 in the first quarter, but quickly adjusted to the new offense. Moon began to run away with the game during the middle of the second quarter as they began playing lockdown defense and shooting almost perfect to finish the quarter. Moon consistently put up points throughout the entire game and ended up easily winning, 78-44. Johnson ended up with 23 points as well as gathering eight rebounds.

The second game featured a match-up against Brashear. The first quarter was a defensively orientated period where both teams combined for a total of 14 points. During the second quarter, Moon’s offense and defense started firing on all cylinders. Moon scored a total of 24 points in the second quarter opposed to the three points Brashear tallied. Moon ran away with the game winning just as dominantly as they did in their first game. Johnson ended with 23 points, eight rebounds and two blocks while Jionni Smith had 11 points, four rebounds and six steals.

This Moon basketball team is deep and has reliable scorers at every position. The transfer of Johnson improves Moon’s already dominant team on offense and defense given his size and shooting ability. Moon has all the weapons and the coaching to make another run for a WPIAL title, which they claimed only two years prior to this season.