The Wildcats continued to show their ability to persevere by holding off the Rams despite playing their sixth game in eight days.

“I know our kids are getting tired, but they’re playing hard,” Wildcats’ coach Bob McQuiston said. “They’re sucking it up and doing what they have to do.”

Shenango (4-2 overall) was able to offset Rochester’s barrage of nine 3-pointers.

“It was a hard-fought game on both sides,” McQuiston said. “Rochester’s threes kept them in the game. They just shot the ball well tonight.

“We opened in a zone, and they burned us a little in the first half. In the third quarter, they didn’t hit any threes. So we stayed with the zone, but in the fourth quarter, we matched up. We were more worried about getting beat off penetration than anything.”

Rich Gaston totaled 25 points and 14 rebounds for the winners, while Mike Murcko chipped in with 18 and Bryan Chieze added 12 points and eight assists.

E.J. Blackwell had 19 points, including five 3-pointers for Rochester (0-2 overall).

The Wildcats will have to muster the energy to play one more game tonight when they host West Middlesex in nonleague action.

“We tried to get them in shape before the season started because we knew we were going to have a lot of endurance to get through this,” McQuiston said. “These kids are definitely stepping up to be able to pull this off.”