Brandon Marinelli claimed MVP honors at the Neshannock Early Bird Tournament as he tallied 27 points to lead the Lancers to the win.

Neshannock had a 16-10 buffer after the first and went up, 31-25, at halftime. The Lancers pulled away in the third to post a 51-34 lead.

John Sansone, who was named to the all-tournament team, added 20 points and five assists for Neshannock (2-0). Nick Graziani had eight points, while Anthony Van Eman tallied seven points and nine rebounds. Marinelli added eight rebounds.

“It’s a great start to the year. We had a successful season last year, but we didn’t win our tournament, so it was one of our first goals of the season,” Neshannock coach John Corey said. “We had to come out and play extremely hard. We watched Shenango play the night before against West Middlesex. We knew we had to come out and not only meet that effort, in terms of hustle and loose balls and things of that sort, but exceed it.

“We had a 17-point lead at the end of the third. Shenango battled back to cut it to nine at one point. Collectively, we made some key plays. We found a way to beat their traps in the fourth. We either got to the foul line or got a layup out of it.”

Brett Chieze led the Wildcats (1-1) with 22 points and was named to the all-tournament team. Jordan O’Hara had 14 points, while Brock Blakley and Mike Linz both had eight points.