The Wildcats put the clamps down on Laurel in the second and third quarters in a Section 2-AA home win.

Shenango (1-4, 3-7) outscored the Spartans (0-5, 3-9) 30-13 during the pivotal stretch to take command.

“One thing we’ve stressed is the first two minutes of each half are really important,” Wildcats coach Bob McQuiston said. “We wanted to come out of the second half and get a good start. That’s always key, you want to start the game off quick and the second half off quick.

“I thought the guys did a good job pushing the ball up the floor. They played smart basketball in the third quarter.”

Said first-year Laurel coach Ken Locke, “We just go through these spurts for two or three minutes where we don’t know what’s going on. We just have these letdowns. It’s really the difference in these games. They wanted it more than our guys wanted it.”

Ryley Ferrari paced Shenango with a game-high 16 points and Brenton Booher was next with 14. Greg DePorzio followed with 13.

Ferrari was 7 of 8 from the foul line in the fourth quarter to help the Wildcats seal the win.

“That’s one guy we want making the foul shots,” McQuiston said. “In a tight game like that, you have to make your foul shots.”

Josh Dando led all scorers with 23 points for the Spartans. He added 12 rebounds and four steals as well.