Four games into the season and there are a few things evident about this year's West Mifflin Area boys' basketball team.

The Titans can handle late game pressure and C.J. Hester can flat out score.

At the Steel Valley Tip-off Tournament last weekend, West Mifflin survived two overtime games, a 52-50 win over Woodland Hills and a 53-50 win over Thomas Jefferson in the championship game.

"If you are at it long enough, and I have been at it for a while, there is not a whole lot you see that is new," said West Mifflin coach Lance Maha now in his 14th season as a head coach. "But I haven't seen two games like that."

Hester led his team in both games, first with 20 points in the win over Woodland Hills and then with a 33-point performance against Thomas Jefferson, including 10 3-pointers.

"In the long run these games may be a good thing for us," Maha said.

"You have to learn to play in foul trouble. That is a good thing about tournaments, you go into two overtimes in two days and they have to learn how to win games, they found a way to scrap and win games."

Back-to-back overtime games to start a season, after only playing two overtime games all of last season, may have been unexpected but the production of Hester was not exactly a surprise.

A 6-foot-4 junior guard, he was an all-section player last season while averaging 20.5 points and 11 rebounds per game. He is quickly approaching a scoring milestone, after entering the season with 723 career points he was already at 821 after four games. At the Steel Valley tournament he also hauled in 26 rebounds in two games.

Hester plays small forward but as evident by his performance against Thomas Jefferson, he can play inside or out.

"He is as important to us as any player in the WPIAL is to his team," Maha said.

"He can do a little bit of everything. He is a tough matchup for other teams. He can shoot the ball and he can guard some different positions."

Hester will get his points but if West Mifflin wants to improve on its 6-6 section record from last year, his supporting cast will have to step up.

"For us to be the team we need to be, we can't rely on him as much as we do," Maha said. "With experience we will start to fall into our individual roles and not rely on him quite as much."

The Titans (3-1) continued their early-season success with a 75-54 decision against Highlands on Monday, but suffered their first defeat Tuesday, 45-44, at Elizabeth Forward.

Where Maha wants to see improvement is in ball handling. Turnovers in the first two games of the year allowed opponents to keep games close and force overtime. Charles Lawson and Amir Sanders played as guards on the junior varsity team last year. It was Sanders' steal and layup with seven seconds to play that gave West Mifflin its first win of the year.

"They didn't play much varsity last year and they are in a position where they have to learn on the run," Maha said.

"Their effort has been good. But our lack of taking care of the ball put us in the position that we were in at the very end of those games. We have to handle the ball better. This is their first experience running the one and two, I would suspect as we move forward the kids will get better at those positions."

The defense and rebounding has made up for the lack of experience in the backcourt. Along with Hester, Leeondre Cobbs is the other returning starter for the Titans. A 6-foot-5 junior center, he averaged six points and six rebounds per game last season. Another junior, Lonzell Coles, a 6-3 forward, has also been a steady presence inside for West Mifflin.

"Our strength is going to be pulling the ball off the board," Maha said.

"That is going to be our bread and butter. If you defend and play hard and rebound the ball, you don't have to always play pretty to win."

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