PORT ALLEGANY — In their third North Tier League game of the season, Port Allegany was able to breeze past Coudersport 69-40 on the back of Drew Evens’ offensive showcase.

The Gators set the tone early by way of Evens. On their very first possession, Evens knocked down a 3-pointer before stealing the ball from the Falcons on their first three drives, resulting in a 9-0 run in the first minute and a half.

Coudy eventually snapped the run at the five-minute mark from a fast break layup from Mason Roessner, but failed to muster any momentum as Evens continued to drill shots from the outside. At the end of the opening eight minutes, Evens had 19 points off five 3-pointers and the Gators held a 29-13 lead.

“Drew Evens came out on fire. When that happens, we feed off it,” said Port Allegany head coach Kyle Babcock. “That’s how he is. When he gets on, he shoots the lights out. He’s smart and handles the ball well. He’s one of the bigger kids on our team so he can play inside and outside. He’s just an overall great player.”

Facing a large deficit already, the Falcons started the second quarter with strong defense, stripping three consecutive passes in the opening minutes. However, they were unable to convert any points off the steals, as the Gators 2-3 zone refused to allow access into the paint. Forced to the perimeter, the Falcons missed several shots from deep and struggled to grab rebounds.

“(Port) is big. Our problem is that we don’t have much size right now, so we’re typically one-shot-and done,” said Coudy head coach Scott Easton “If we miss a shot (Port) grabs the rebound and goes. Our transition defense is pretty good, we just one-shot-and-done because we don’t get a lot of offensive rebounds. (Port) controlled the boards. They’re big and strong.”

After an initial push from the Falcons, their careless passing returned and the Gators were able to push their lead further. A fast break layup from Braylon Button pushed the lead to 20 with 4:36 seconds remaining.

While Coudy’s Reilly Steich was able to knock down consecutive 3-pointers, the Falcons were unable to keep up with the Gators, who seemingly scored at will and entered the halftime break up 43-22.

In the third quarter, Coudy, still unable to enter the paint, tried to regather some momentum with shots from deep without much luck. On the other side of the court, the Gators used their size and physicallity to feed their bigs down low for shots close to the rim.

Blaine Moses and Button cleaned the glass for several second-chance opportunites as the Gators continued to score. At the end of the quarter, the Falcons had given up a 20-17 run, putting the game out of reach if it was not already.

With one quarter to go and up 65-29, the Gators let off the gas. Coudy eventually got some momentum and production from their shooters, with Andy Chen and Streich knocking down some shots from beyond the arc, but it proved to be too-little-too-late. At the final buzzer, the Gators had claimed victory, their second NTL win of the season.

Evens ended the game with a game-high 24 points alongside three steals. Button scored 11 points while Noah Archer led the Gators in assists with nine, also grabbing five rebounds. For the Falcons, Streich led in offensive production with 16 points.

“The best thing about tonight, even when we got down, we never gave up. We’re going to hustle, we’re always going to give the effort. One of the best things is that I don’t have to coach effort. We can coach the x’s and o’s but they’re always going to give the effort,” said Easton. “A lot of good things came out of tonight. We saw a lot of good things on defense. We got a lot of good transition opportunities, but we just never really recovered from the first half.”

Streich 5 3-4 16, Myers 5 0-0 14, Roessner 2 0-0 5, Chen 1 0-0 3, Skillman 1 0-0 2. Totals:

Port Allegany (69)Evens 10 0-0 24, Button 4 3-5 11, Ruding 3 3-4 9, Moses 2 2-2 6, Troupe 2 0-0 5, Wilfomg 2 0-0 4, Funk 1 0-0 2, Klawuhn 1 0-0 2, Archer 1 0-0 2, Causer 1 0-0 2. Totals:

Three-point goals: Coudy 9 (Myers 4, Streich 3, Roessner, Chen), Port 7 (Evens 6, Troupe 1); Total fouls: Coudy 11, Port 11; fouled out:

JV: Port won 52-20