Bethel Park boys basketball tipped off section play Tuesday night as they traveled to Peters Township to take on the 2-2 Indians.

The Hawks were coming off a win last Tuesday night where they routed Carrick 80-50.

It was very important for the Hawks to get off to a fast start in section play.

It was a defensive first quarter where both teams were still trying to get adjusted. There were many missed shots and turnovers. It was a low scoring first quarter with Bethel only leading 10-6.

Bethel Park was only up 27-26 at half with a more offensive second quarter. Junior Jake Dixon was making his presence felt at the offensive end and defensive end. Senior’s Joey Mascaro and Anthony Bomar were also putting up points at the offensive end.

The second half was a complete different story than the first. The Hawks were playing shut down defense, and doing what they needed to do on the offensive end. Bethel Park outscored Peters 17-3 in the third quarter.

When asked after the game if their were any big adjustments made during half, Coach O’Connor said, “We just made little adjustments. We were over passing and over dribbling, and needed to play a little better defense. This is all stuff we work on in practice, and the guys did a good job of eliminating these mistakes in the second half.”

The Hawks cruised the rest of the way to a 59-41 victory.

O’Connor said, “It’s nice to win the first section game, but it doesn’t matter if it’s the first section game or the last section game, they’re all important.”

Dixon finished with 15 points along with Bomar who had 13 points and Mascaro who had 11.

The Peters Township defenders had a tough time guarding Mascaro, which made the Indians have to double giving Mascaro multiple assists.

Junior Brandon Thorsen hit some key shots off the bench finishing with 7 points.

Bethel Park now has their big rivalry game against neighbor Upper St. Clair. Upper St. Clair has posted a 7-1 record thus far, and they are coming off a 71-28 thrashing of Moon.

When asked how he thought Bethel would match up against them, O’Connor said, “I think we match up well against them, but they are a tough team. We are definetly bigger than them, but despite being smaller they always have 5 guys out there on the court that can score, dribble, and shoot the three.

Bethel Park would of course like to win the game, but they are not over-hyping it.

“Every game in this section is a rivalry game; they’re all important by the end of the season,” O’Connor said.

Tuesday night’s game was a big win for the Hawks, but they now look forward to facing rival Upper St. Clair Friday night at 7:30 p.m, which is also Hall of Fame Night.

The game has been selected as a Quad-A Game of the Week and will be broadcast live on www.quadasports.com and the MSA Sports Network.