Check out all of the results for SOL boys’ basketball teams in action on Friday. To view photos of the Pennridge/CB East, CR North/Neshaminy and Pennsbury/Abington games, please visit the Photo Gallery.
National Conference
Abington 62, Pennsbury 61
Abington senior Khari Jefferson came off the bench for the Ghosts’ first 11 games this year. Friday night, he was in the starting lineup.
And he made Abington coach Charles Grasty look like he made the right decision, finishing with 10 points and eight rebounds while helping the Ghosts to a huge 62-61 win over host Pennsbury on Friday night.
“I thought that they all played well tonight, but Khari (Jefferson) really stepped up for us in his first game as a starter,” Grasty said. “He did a great job of guarding their kid, and he stepped up for the challenge with the rest of the guys when they relied on him and that was great to see.”
With both teams entering the night undefeated in National Conference play, it was the Ghosts (10-2, 6-0) who were able to remain atop the standings in first place.
“We hadn’t looked forward and we just wanted to play as hard as we could each game,” Grasty said. “We never looked down the line at being 6-0, but we knew that we had a good team and we knew that we were going to play well together and gel together.
“Even though our guys are young, they’re good and they’re confident.”
Abington led by three, at 15-12, after one quarter, and took a two-point lead into the half. Pennsbury remained down by one point with 34 seconds remaining and held for the final shot, but Abington’s Matt Penecale defended a Cameron Jones three-point shot nicely, and Abington got the rebound and won the game.
“It’s a big win,” Grasty said. “It’s good because it was fun for the kids and for how big it was. We’re still only at Game 12, and we have a lot of the basketball season to go, but it was fun to win at Pennsbury.
“They’re enjoying it, and they have to get back to work next week against Bensalem on Tuesday and we have to continue to play as hard as we can.”
Penecale finished with 12 points for Abington, while Anthony Lee and Laz Macrides each led with 13. Mark Bond added four.
Pennsbury was led by Mekhi Bryant’s 18 points while Jones added 17.
Abington 15 14 17 16—62
Pennsbury 12 15 18 16—61
Bensalem 49, Harry S. Truman 44 (OT)
On Tuesday, Bensalem won its first conference game of the year. On Friday, the Owls made it two in a row, defeating Harry S. Truman by five points in overtime at Bensalem High School.
The Owls, who are now 3-8 overall and 2-4 in conference play, saw AJ Brody hit a pair of free throws with two seconds remaining in regulation to force the extra period.
“It’s always good to teach after a win, and this should help to get their attention,” Bensalem coach John Mullin said. “Everyone is on board and the kids are working hard and it’s a big win. It’s a lot easier to get back in the gym after a win.”
Bensalem led early, but Truman (3-10, 1-5) came back and tied things up at 43-43 after three quarters. The Owls outscored the Tigers 6-1 in overtime to come out with the win.
Truman Tramere and Brian Kilcoyne led Bensalem with 12 points apiece, while Gene Clemens recorded a double-double, scoring 11 points and bringing down 11 rebounds. Brody hit 5-of-6 free throws and finished with five points, while Jeff News and Avery Nyekan added eight and seven points, respectively.
“The kids are responding to a little lineup change we had,” Mullin said. “We went with a bigger lineup and moved one kid out to face the basket and he’s doing well with that.
“We moved McCoy from the 4 to 3 and put Clemens in as a center. We made some other moves and we did some juggling and now we’re winning games. I think we’re playing better defense because of it, and the result is that we’re rebounding more because of the size.”
Harry S. Truman 5 14 10 14 1—44
Bensalem 13 10 10 10 6—49
William Tennent 45, Council Rock South 35
William Tennent shut out Council Rock South 4-0 in the second quarter and eventually came out with a 10-point win on Friday night at William Tennent High School.
The Panthers outscored CR South by two points in the first, third and fourth quarters. The held a 14-12 lead at the end of one quarter and took an 18-12 lead into halftime.
The Panthers were led by John Ryan’s 14 points. Matt Alden scored eight, while Cory Hamlet added nine.
The Golden Hawks were led by Matt Stewart’s 13 points and Tommy Townsend’s eight. Will Faccenda added six on a pair of three-pointers.
Tennent improved to 5-5 overall and 4-2 in conference play with the win, while South fell to 4-8 overall and 3-4 in conference play.
Council Rock South 12 0 8 15—35
William Tennent 14 4 10 17—45
Council Rock North 58, Neshaminy 42
Council Rock North improved to 5-6 overall and 3-3 in conference play with a 16-point win over Neshaminy on Friday night.
Neshaminy fell to 1-7 overall and 1-5 in conference play following the defeat.
American Conference
Plymouth Whitemarsh 64, Upper Dublin 52
Plymouth Whitemarsh’s quest at going undefeated in the first half of league play took another step forward on Friday night as the Colonials defeated Upper Dublin at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.
Junior forward Cameron Johnson led the Colonials, who improved to 10-2 overall and 6-0 in league play, by finishing with 20 points, nine rebounds (five offensive), two assists, three steals and one blocked shot.
The Colonials trailed 5-2 but went on a 13-0 run to end the first quarter, and never looked back. PW led by 18 at the half, and while the Cardinals inched their way back in the second half, they never got the game closer than to within nine points.
“It was a tale of two halves,” PW coach Jim Donofrio said. “It was one of our best halves of the season, without a doubt, but one of the things I’ve been trying to challenge the guys on is how to handle things when they’re going well, and how to keep the foot on the gas pedal.”
Jimmy Murray had a big night for PW, finishing with 17 points, two rebounds, four assists, four steals and two blocked shots. T.J. Minetola added nine points, 14 rebounds (six offensive) and four steals. Andre Mitchell recorded 16 points to go along with three assists, one steal and one blocked shot.
Still sitting undefeated in league play, Donofrio is very happy with his team’s start.
“For not knowing what we were going to be back on Nov. 18, we were just hoping,” he said. “These kids are great listeners and they are very hard-working. They have a great learning curve, and they learned a lot from last year and it has carried over. All the best has carried over so far.”
Upper Dublin was led by Kevin Woods and Simeon Fryer, who finished with 14 and 13 points, respectively. Marc Conran added eight.
Upper Dublin 5 11 16 20—52
Plymouth Whitemarsh 15 19 13 17—64
Norristown 51, Wissahickon 37
Norristown improved to 7-3 overall and 4-2 in conference play with a 14-point win over visiting Wissahickon on Friday night.
Curt Lever led the way for the Eagles, finishing with 25 points, five assists and one steal, while Chris Evans added nine points and eight rebounds. Ray Green had a solid night defensively, collecting five steals and eight rebounds.
For Wissahickon, which dropped to 6-5 overall and 3-2 in conference play, Chase Wilson led the way with 13. Jared Reed added seven.
“Norristown is a good team and we did not play very good basketball tonight,” Wissahickon coach Kyle Wilson said. “It was a tough night for Wissahickon.”
Wissahickon 9 10 7 11—37
Norristown 9 13 13 16—51
Cheltenham 59, Upper Merion 48
Cheltenham’s Aaron Burton led the way with 20 points as the Panthers got past Upper Merion on Friday night. Justin Sutton also added 10 for the Panthers, who improved to 4-8 overall and 4-1 in conference play with the win.
Despite being four games under .500, Cheltenham manages to remain all alone in second place in the American Conference, sitting 1 ½ games behind Plymouth Whitemarsh, which improved to 6-0 on Friday night.
Upper Merion fell to 4-6 overall and 1-5 in conference play with the loss.
Cheltenham led 16-9 after the first quarter and took a 13-point lead into the half. The third quarter featured a ton of scoring by both teams, but the Panthers remained up comfortably, leading 54-39, entering the fourth.
The Vikings were led by David Stecz and Samik Patel, who finished with 11 points apiece.
Cheltenham 16 14 24 5—59
Upper Merion 9 8 22 9—48
Upper Moreland 63, Springfield 36
James Martin and Kevin McFall each finished with 14 points while leading the Bears to a 27-point win over host Springfield on Friday night.
The Bears improved to 3-9 overall and 2-4 in conference play with the win, while the Spartans fell to 2-10 and 0-6, respectively.
Upper Moreland also received eight points from Pat Driscoll, while Chris Corr finished with six. Martin and Driscoll each sank a pair of three-pointers. The Spartans managed only 16 points in the opening three quarters before scoring 20 in the fourth.
Continental Conference
Quakertown 48, Hatboro-Horsham 42
Wins do not come easily for Quakertown. In fact, over the last four seasons, Quakertown has had a total of two wins in conference play.
That was, until Friday night, when the Panthers defeated Hatboro-Horsham at home by six points to win their first conference game of the season.
The win was Quakertown’s third win in four games overall, and the team is starting to gather momentum and play in a rhythm.
“North Penn took it to us on Tuesday, so we were lucky to have two really hard days of practice,” Quakertown coach Kevin Keeler said. “We played a very strong game defensively against their big man, Zach Quattro, and we hit 12-of-14 free throws in the fourth quarter to come out on top.”
Kevin Norvasis led Quakertown with 15 points, while Jake Perrine scored nine of his 11 points in the fourth quarter.
“We played a two-three zone most of the time and they were a one-shot-and-done team with seven threes, so we did a great job on their big guy,” Keeler said. “We moved around so we could follow him all over the place.”
Quattro, the Hatters’ ‘big guy,’ led his team with 13 points but was held in check for most of the game.
Walt Kimble added 10 points for the Hatters, while Jack Wingen and Chris Hobbs each finished with eight.
Hatboro-Horsham dropped to 5-7 overall and 2-4 in conference play while the Panthers are 1-4 in league play (4-7 overall)
“We are a young team and it’s just a matter of us getting confidence,” Keeler said. “This game was like a shot in the arm for us.”
Hatboro-Horsham 8 7 13 14—42
Quakertown 8 8 13 19—48
North Penn 62, Central Bucks West 59
It took half the season, but North Penn is finally above .500 for the first time all year.
The Knights pulled off a huge come-from-behind win over host Central Bucks West on Friday night.
CB West (6-6, 2-4) actually jumped out to a 14-0 lead, but the Knights came back and trimmed the deficit to eight before the half. In the third quarter, CB West went on an 8-0 run and again led by 14, but again, North Penn came storming back.
Cordell Lord hit a go-ahead three-pointer in the fourth to give North Penn (6-5, 4-2) a lead it would never relinquish.
“It’s huge,” North Penn coach John Conrad said. “That’s a good basketball team over there, and you have to give our kids a lot of credit.
“They are mentally tough and we talked about (overcoming) adversity and they did that today. Hopefully, it pays dividends moving forward.”
Lord hit all five of his three-pointers in the second half and finished with 15 points. Suleyman Hakim led the Knights with 16, while Brian Coleman recorded 14. Aaron Dean added eight.
CB West was led by Jared Kelly’s 14 points. Kyle Schecter added 12, while Evan Dunn finished with 10.
“Getting over .500 is a tremendous burden off our backs,” Conrad said. “We’re starting to play with a bit of confidence and we’re starting to play for each other. The biggest thing is that we lost a lot of close games early, but now we’re learning how to come back and win the close games. That’s big for us.”
North Penn 8 16 16 22—62
Central Bucks West 20 10 13 16—59
Souderton 49, Central Bucks South 47 (2 OT)
It took two overtimes, but Souderton was able to get past Central Bucks South on Friday night.
The Indians, who were led by Carter Knight’s 17 points, improved to 7-5 overall and 3-4 in conference play with the win.
“Carter was great tonight,” Souderton coach Pete Chimera said. “He put the team on his back in the fourth quarter and came through big-time. Sophomore Tracy Simsick had to play a lot of minutes because of foul trouble, and he stepped up in a big way with nine points.
“Jared Bernhardt dominated the boards for us all night, and the game was a hard-fought, defensive battle like it always seems to be with this team. Anything can happen in this league this year, and every night is an incredible challenge. To come away with a win tonight is very big for us, especially after losing two in a row. I am really proud of the effort of my team.”
CB South was led by Matt Scamuffo, who finished with 21 points.
Souderton 8 12 12 6 6 5—49
Central Bucks South 15 7 9 7 6 3—47
Pennridge 56, Central Bucks East 53
Pennridge remained atop the Continental Conference and is still undefeated in the conference following its three-point win at home on Friday night.
Zach Muredda and Dan Long led the Rams with 22 and 13 points, respectively. Joe Molettiere added nine.
Pennridge led by eight after one quarter and by nine at the half (31-22), but the Patriots slowly climbed back. The Rams held CB East off in the end.
Brendan McLaughlin led CB East with 19 points.
The Rams are 5-0 in league play (10-2 overall) while the Patriots fell to 2-3 in the league (4-6 overall).
Central Bucks East 5 17 14 17—53
Pennridge 13 18 12 13—56
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