The Shenango Wildcats hung tough with the Lancers before Neshannock pulled away in the third quarter in a 71-39 Section 1-AA opening victory last night.

Shenango trailed just 23-21 at the break before it was outscored 30-8 in the third quarter.

The Lancers (1-0, 3-1) played without senior guard Ethan Moose, who is out with an injury. Moose leads the team with an average of 26 points per game.

Jake Rylott sparked Neshannock with 23 points, including four 3-pointers, in Moose’s absence. Brandon Scheidemantle, who started in place of Moose, added 12, Rich Serignese checked in with 10 and Chris Scott tacked on eight. Ean Oprean chipped in with eight rebounds and Rylott added six rebounds and three assists to the cause.

“Ethan was a game-time decision, he just wasn’t ready to go and we weren’t going to push it,” Lancers coach John Corey said. “We shot very poorly, but we had to get in a groove and we did, eventually.

“We have a lot of offensive weapons on the court whether Ethan is there or not,” he added. “It was just a matter of being patient. We were able to force some turnovers early in the third quarter and they resulted in easy bucks at the other end. In the second half, our guys did a much better job of attacking the rim. We made 12 of 13 free throws in the third quarter, so that shows that we were attacking. And defensively, I was pleased. Our goal was to hold them to less than 40 and we were able to do that.”

Vinny Turco led Shenango (0-1, 0-5) with 11 points.