Written by Cody Rose

The Union City Bears Boys Basketball team were back in the Bears Den on Friday night taking on the defending region champions the Saegertown Panthers in their first region game of the season.

The Panthers (7-3, 1-0) would strike first in the game going up 3-0 with 6:03 to play in the first quarter after nailing a three pointer, Mason Haskell would get the Bears (3-5, 0-0) on the scoreboard after hitting a free throw with 5:38 left in the quarter making the score 3-1, at the end of the first quarter the Bears trailed 6-5. Saegertown would go on a 6-0 run to begin the second quarter pulling out to a 7-point lead, but the Bears would follow up with two threes by Connor Wingard and Josh James respectively pulling the Bears within one. Later in the quarter as the Bears were down four with the clocking winding down, Brady Blakeslee threw up a shot at the buzzer that went in as the Bears pulled within two trailing 17-15 at the half. Bryce Drayer would score the first points for the Bears in the second half, but the Panthers would begin inching further and further away from the Bears outscoring the Bears in the quarter 22-16 and the Panthers would lead at the end of three quarters 39-31. The Panthers would begin to show their dominance in the fourth quarter going on a 7-0 run before Bryce Drayer would finally get the Bears on the board. The Panthers began forcing turnovers and wearing out the Bears, outscoring them 19-12 in the quarter as the Bears would put up a great fight but would ultimately fall to a very good Saegertown team 58-43 falling to 3-6 (0-1) on the season while the region leading Panthers improve to 8-3 (2-0). Bryce Drayer led the Bears in scoring with 14 points. The Bears ended up defeating the Panthers in the JV game 48-36. The Bears will be back in action on Tuesday January 10, as they will be back home in the Bears Den against the Youngsville Eagles (2-6, 0-1) in another region game.