By Joe Sager
New Castle News

ROSS TOWNSHIP — New Castle presents a matchup nightmare for opponents.

Few teams have the quickness and athleticism to stay with the Red Hurricane players in a man-to-man defense.

Switch to a zone and New Castle’s shooters will bombard you with 3-pointers.

That’s what happened last night in the ’Canes’ 87-56 win at North Hills in a WPIAL Section 3-AAAA battle.

Sharpshooting guards Anthony Richards and Brandon Domenick exploited the Indians’ 2-3 zone by swishing four 3-pointers apiece to lead New Castle to the 31-point triumph.

“Anytime Anthony and Brandon are shooting like that, we’ll be in the 80s most of the time,” New Castle coach Ralph Blundo said. “We weren’t great, but we shot it well. It’s kind of the polar opposite of the Pine-Richland game, where I thought we did some things better and executed better defensively. Tonight, we didn’t do things quite as well, but shot it great.”

Domenick and Richards both made two of their treys in the first quarter as the ’Canes (3-0 section, 7-0 overall) posted a 23-14 edge at the buzzer.

“When you have guys like Malik (Hooker), Shawn (Anderson), Tone (Rudolph), Stew (Allen) and Drew (Allen) and everybody else, they open the zone so much for you,” said Richards, who finished with 13 points. “They penetrate, kick it out, get down low, get offensive rebounds and kick it out to us. We pretty much just sit there and shoot. They create it for us and we just have to shoot. Once you make one or two, you get in a rhythm. That’s pretty much what our team did. We got in a rhythm and shot well.”

New Castle’s defensive pressure was overwhelming, too. It forced North Hills (0-3, 2-5) to turn the ball over on its first five possessions.

The ’Canes really gained separation in the second quarter. Shawn Anderson’s putback ignited a 16-4 run to close the half. Also, it put him over the 1,000-point mark for his career. He finished with 14 points and now has 1,009 for his career.

“I am honored, but personal accolades really mean nothing because it’s all about the team,” he said. “This is a one night thing and we’ll do a ceremony and then it’s over with.”

New Castle carried a 48-25 lead into halftime and increased the advantage to 71-38 after three quarters. The ’Canes emptied their bench in the fourth quarter, but maintained good balance as 11 different players scored. Anderson and Malik Hooker both had a game-high 14 points, followed by Richards (13) and Domenick (12). Antonio Rudolph added nine.

New Castle returns to action at 8:30 p.m. Thursday against Aliquippa in the C. J. Betters RBA Holiday Classic at the Community College of Beaver County’s Golden Dome in Monaca.

(Email: ncsports@ncnewsonline.com)