NAUGATUCK – The Tug Valley Panthers started off their season with a home win against the Belfry Pirates Dec. 15 in both teams’ season opener, winning 71-62. Senior guard Channing Preece was the center of the Panthers’ win as the team’s leading scorer and reaching the 1,000 point milestone in his high school career late in the game.

Preece scored 24 points with two field goals, three three-pointers, and a perfect eight for eight from the free throw line ending the game with a career total of 1,008 points.

Three of Preece’s three-pointers came at pivotal moments in the game, one ending the first half to give the Panthers the edge over the Pirates before the break. Two others came back-to-back in the third quarter to give the Panthers a six point lead.

“Preece is a clutch player and has ice water in his veins. I’m very happy with his offense. He’s a warrior,” Panthers Head Coach Garland Thompson said regarding Channing Preece and his scoring milestone.

Thompson also gave Belfry a lot of credit for their performance.

“Belfry really came to play tonight. They set the tempo, the pace, they were quicker and more physical than we were,” commented Thompson. “We were fortunate enough to get out of here with a win.”

Tug Valley scored 23 of their 44 shots from the floor for a 52 percent scoring percentage including six of 12 from the three point line. Tug Valley’s center Mason Pack led the Panthers in rebounds, grabbing 10 of Tug Valley’s 25 boards, and guard Austin Vance led the Panthers in assists with 9. Tug Valley turned the ball over 21 times throughout the game.

Besides Preece, forward Michael Evans scored 21 points, center Mason Pack scored 13, forward Nathan Brewer scored 8, guard Austin Vance scored 3, and Cody Varney scored 2.

Despite the loss, Belfry’s head coach, Randy Casey, was impressed with his team’s performance.

“We played extremely hard tonight. I thought our effort was tremendous and we showed a lot of toughness,” said Casey. “We missed a lot of easy shots, especially in the first half. We’ll get back to practice and when we start to make those, we’ll be very good.”

“Tug Valley did a nice job of attacking the basket while we didn’t attack as well as we wanted to” Casey continued. “But those are things we can fix and I’m happy with our team.”

Belfry shot 25 of 54 at-tempts from the floor, including three of seven three pointers for a field goal percentage of 46 percent. Fo-rward Jeremy Maynard brought down 10 of Belfry’s 25 rebounds and guard Jor-dan Hairston had 9 assists.

Leading the Pirates in points scored was forward Jeremy Maynard with 21, guard Gary Runyon with 14, and guard Jordan Hairston with 7. Other Pirates scorers were Thomas Varney with 6, Jordan Varney with 5, Chris Altizer with 4, Joey Pinson with 3, and Morgan Bentley with 2.

Thompson and his Panthers take their winning momentum to face South Point, Ohio, in the Hoops Classic at the Charleston Civic Center Dec.16. Belfry takes on Letcher County Central in their next game in Williamson Athletic Com-mittee Invitational at the Williamson Field House Fri-day, Dec. 18 at 6:30 p.m.