Christian O’Hara delivered in the clutch last night for the Shenango High boys basketball team.

O’Hara drained two foul shots with 20 seconds left to propel the Wildcats to a 50-48 WPIAL Section 1-AA road win over New Brighton.

O’Hara stole the ball and went the length of the floor and was fouled with 20 seconds to go. The Lions had a shot attempt in the paint area and then a putback try fail at the other end and Shenango survived.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Wildcats (1-3 section, 4-3 overall).

“There’s no doubt, we needed this one,” Shenango coach Bob McQuiston said. “We needed to get one and bounce back.

“This was definitely a key win; we had to have it. It’s a good way to go into the Christmas break.”

New Brighton (1-3, 3-4) led 38-34 after three quarters and pushed the buffer to eight in the final frame. But the Wildcats clawed back and took the lead with about three minutes to go.

“We battled back all game,” McQuiston said.

The Wildcats surrendered 20 points in the first quarter before putting the clamps down.

“Hunter Miller and Vinny Turco both stepped up defensively,” McQuiston said. “We really stepped it up on the defensive end in the second quarter.

“We did much better in the post and we pressured the guards a little more. We have to do a better job of starting off better, though.”

Ryan Smith netted 23 points for the Wildcats and Brenton Booher notched 16.