KARNS CITY — Attack.

That is the mantra of the Karns City boys basketball team.

The Gremlins attacked when they trailed early. They attacked to snatch the lead late in the first half. They attacked when leading by double digits after a frenetic third quarter.

All the attacking led to a 69-54 home win over Venango Catholic Monday night.

"We just want to go out and play hard, play good, solid man-to-man defense and push the ball up the floor," said Karns City coach Chris Bellis. "We want to be aggressive defensively and offensively."

So far, so good.

Karns City started off a bit sluggish against the Vikings, falling behind by four points in the first quarter before making a push in the second to take a 32-28 lead at the break.

Bellis said he was unhappy with his team's intensity in the first half.

There was nothing wrong with the intensity level after halftime.

Karns City (2-1) began the second half on a 15-4 run to take a 15-point lead. The Gremlins did it on the backs of Evan Olszak and Jake Henry.

Olszak scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half and Henry scored 13 of his team-leading 18 points in the final two quarters.

Henry was 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point range as Karns City hit 10 shots from behind the arc.

"(Jake) came off the bench and knocked down some big shots," Bellis said. "This is really his first varsity action. Jake shot the ball the way we know he can. It's just a matter of him getting into his rhythm and getting his confidence up."

The opportunities weren't there for Olszak in the first half, but he dominated inside and outside in the second half.

He ended up grabbing 10 rebounds to go with his 17 points.

Eight of the nine players who played for the Gremlins scored. In three games, Karns City has had three different leading scorers.

Eric McCue and Brad Fuhrer each had nine points and Brandon Collier added eight for Karns City.

There was no such balance for Venango Catholic.

Maxx Rynd attempted 35 of the Vikings' 47 shots, making 15 of them for a game-high 34 points.

Karns City led by as many as 19 with 5:30 remaining in the game.

Venango Catholic, though, found some success with a press.

The Gremlins turned the ball over at an uncomfortable rate for Bellis in the final five minutes of the game, but Venango Catholic couldn't take advantage of its opportunities, shooting poorly from the field and the foul line.

The Vikings were 6-of-13 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter and 11-of-26 in the game.

Still, Bellis plans to address the turnover issue.

"Good teams at the end of game can take care of the basketball, not turn it over and take good shots," Bellis said. "Unfortunately, we're not at the point where we can do that yet."

VENANGO CATHOLIC 54Alec Thurau 1-5 0-0 2, A.J. Toy 0-3 4-4 4, Matt Kuhn 0-4 1-2 1, Maxx Rynd 15-35 3-9 34, Ben Guth 4-10 3-11 11.

Totals: 20-47 11-26 54

KARNS CITY 69Brandon Collier 4-12 0-2 8, Jesse Garing 0-9 0-0 0, Cameron Harp 1-4 0-0 2, Aaron Markler 1-3 0-0 2, Eric McCue 3-5 1-1 9, Evan Olszak 7-8 1-2 17, Brad Fuhrer 2-8 3-4 9, Jake Henry 6-9 2-2 18, Brandyn Bowser 2-3 0-0 4.

Totals: 26-61 7-11 69.

Venango Catholic 9 19 7 19—54Karns City 11 21 20 17—693-point goals: Venango Catholic 1 (Rynd); Karns City 10 (McCue 2, Olszak 2, Fuhrer 2, Henry 4).

Dec. 30: Karns City at Keystone