Log In


Reset Password

Inama powers Colts to win

Marian's Josh Inama played paint ball on Tuesday night, but not in traditional fashion.

Instead of camouflage, the sophomore was sporting the Colts' gold and white while dominating under each basket all evening.Inama soared around the rim early and often during a 67-63 Schuylkill League win against Nativity."We are bigger than everybody, so we try to work it inside," said the Marian forward, who tallied 23 points and 19 rebounds. "Now, we have three in a row after a rough start. We've been working hard at practice and getting as many reps as possible."With a one-point lead and just 11 seconds remaining, Marian's Matt Woitko earned a pair at the charity stripe. After making the first shot, Woitko's second effort came up short.As the ball trickled off the rim, it was Inama and another Colts' big man, Aaron DeAngelo, who corralled the ball and sealed the deal for Marian after a few foul shots."Our rebounding was pathetic, nobody boxed out," said Nativity head coach Kevin Kennedy. "We gave them three and sometimes four shots at a time. We did it all night long, from the first quarter, and we did it with 10 seconds left in the game."They got us in a little bit of a hole in the third quarter, but we were actually able to dig our way out and get back into the thick of things."The main reason Nativity clawed its way back from a 10-point deficit was the prolific scoring performance of shooting guard Derek James.James was relentless despite the loss, dropping a game-high 34 points that included an 8-0 spurt of his own within a two-minute sequence late in the final frame."We have shooters that can score," said Inama. "But our advantage is definitely inside. They (Nativity) really have some kids that can shoot and we just tried to hold them to one-shot possessions."While the Derek James show was airing in the second half, the Colts decided to read off their own script.Brandon Mohammed and Ethan Kuczynski were both held scoreless in the first half, but combined for 20 second half points that helped repel the late Nativity frenzy."They're banged up a little bit, and they came in off the bench," said Marian head coach John Patton. "They played hard, I can't say enough about the boost that these guys gave us when we were in foul trouble. We're getting a lot of key contributions from a lot of people right now and that's what we need."Marian improved to 2-2 in Schuylkill League play with the victory."We tried to get a couple of these back and get closer to .500," said Patton. "If you look at our schedule up front, we lost to some really good teams. But this was a good week for us."OWNING THE GLASS ... Marian out-rebounded Nativity by a 41-25 margin during the victory. DeAngelo and Mohammed combined for 17 boards.PUT ME IN COACH ... The Colts' bigs dominated in the paint early on with layups and baby hooks, but made just one of their first seven jump shots. DJ Mummey provided the shooting spark plug by coming off the bench and sinking a trio of triples for nine points.NATIVITYJames 13-2-2-34, Adams 2-0-0-4, Szeliga 4-1-2-11, Hunyara 3-4-6-10, Evans 0-0-0-0, Nelson 1-0-0-2, Shatalasky 1-0-0-2. TOTALS 24-7-10-63.MARIANCortes 0-0-0-0, Woitko 2-1-2-6, Puza 0-0-0-0, Karschner 0-0-0-0, Kuczynski 4-1-3-9, DeAngelo 3-0-0-6, Mohammed 5-1-3-11, Mummey 3-0-0-9, Myers 1-1-2-3, Inama 7-9-12-23. TOTALS: 25-13-22-67.Nativity 14 18 12 19 - 63Marian 13 15 20 19 - 67Three-pointers: Nativity - James 6, Szeliga 1; Marian - Woitko 1, Mummey 3.

Eric Nelson of Nativity pulls the ball from Marian's Josh Inama (sitting). Others in the picture are Marian's Brandon Mohammed (23) and Nativity's Price Szyeliga (2) and Travis Hunyara. RON GOWER/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS