Northern Tier Sports Report

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NTL BOYS' BASKETBALL: VETERAN CANTON LOOKS TO BE COMPETITIVE IN 2024-2025 (2024-12-02)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
Canton boys’ basketball will return two key players from last year’s squad, and will look to them to lead the team as they battle in a wide open NTL Division-II race.

“I tell everybody that last year was a year to kind of clean our house, and get our house in order,” said second year coach Jim Williams. “These boys, I’ve always been comfortable with, especially the senior group, I’ve worked with those guys since travel. We’ve gotten a year of summer league under us, and I think the team is starting to get more comfortable with me, and I’m getting comfortable with them.”

They return Ben Fitch and Tallin Williams, who combined for more than half their points and half their rebounds a season ago.

Fitch nearly averaged a double-double of 15 PPG and 9.6 RPG, while Williams had averages of 6.1 PPG, 6.4 RPG, and 2.0 BPG.

“I’m excited, especially since it’s my last chance to play basketball for Canton,” said Fitch. “We’ve got a good group of kids to do something here.”

Fitch had some big numbers last season, including 20-20 games.

“I feel content about last year, but I want to build on that,” he said. “I want to have better numbers this year.”

While Fitch is Canton’s do-it-all small forward, Williams mans the middle with his 6-foot, 5-inch frame.

“I feel that does give us an edge on the smaller schools,” said Tallin Williams. “We have multiple players that played together.”

They’re part of a big senior class for the Warriors.

“We’ve all been playing together since seventh, eighth grade,” said Talin Williams. “We’re all tight, we all know what each other’s going to do.”

Those two are expected to be the leaders on the team this season, especially since they’ve been varsity players since they were sophomores, and have been team leaders since last year.

“That was great experience,” Fitch said about last season. “It helps me for this year, doing the same thing.”

Coach Williams knows what he’s going to get with these two on the floor.

“It’s a good luxury to have,” he said. “Talin’s a big kid now, he’s 6-5, 6-6, and Ben plays like he’s 6-5, 6-6, so they will help out. But we’ve also got other seniors with some good experience, and I’ve got a good sophomore group coming up. They’ve had plenty of experience, as well. Those guys played as freshmen, so we do have some experience going into this year.”

Quincy Wesneski, Gunnar Resavage, Monte Whitehead, and Ryder Route are all returnees who saw plenty of varsity time a year ago.

The big hole to fill will be Lance Route at point guard.

“We do have some guards,” said coach Williams. “Ben does a good job for us, good enough that I’m not too concerned about him being a guard, but we do have a couple others we need to work on. We have Lance’s little brother, Ryder, I’m expecting big things from him. We have a senior that just came back out who hadn’t played in a while in Simon Wile, he’s a smart kid, he’s going to be able to help. We also have probably one of the most athletic kids in Rylan Wesneski, he’ll help us out. So we’ve got plenty of kids to step up.”

Tallin Williams and Fitch feel they should be in the running for the NTL Division-II title, along with Sayre, NP-Liberty, and defending champions, NEB.

Coach Williams, though, is taking it bit by bit.

“We’re going to take it game by game,” he said. “We’re going to do what we can do and adjust. We’re still working on our program and our identity, so we’ll see where it gets to.”

SCHEDULE

Dec. 6 at Galeton Tournament

Dec. 7 at Galeton Tournament

Dec. 10 vs Wyalusing, 7 p.m.

Dec. 12 at Troy, 7 p.m.

Dec. 17 vs NPM, 7 p.m.

Dec. 19 at CV, 7 p.m.

Dec. 30 at Sullivan County, 7 p.m.

Jan. 2 at Ragsdale, 7 p.m.

Jan. 7 vs NEB, 7 p.m.

Jan. 9 at NPL, 7 p.m.

Jan. 14 vs Williamson, 7 p.m.