Jarrad Saffren recaps all of Saturday’s SOL boys basketball action.
By Jarrad Saffren
Nine Suburban One League boys basketball teams played non-league games Saturday night.
Two—Council Rock South and Central Bucks South—played each other. The rest played non-SOL teams.
All eight results and recaps are below.
Non-League
Harry S. Truman 70, Pottstown 67
Harry S. Truman lost to CR South by 26 Friday night. The Tigers scored just 30 points, three in the middle quarters, and shot just 4-of-24 from three-point range.
“The guys last night were the saddest I’ve seen them. They were embarrassed for the program,” Truman coach Byron Conover said. “I can’t remember any team scoring three points in two quarters, especially not a Truman team. And I’ve been here for 12 years.”
Naturally, Pottstown played the same defense against Truman that South did: a packed-in zone.
So, naturally, Truman lit up the scoreboard.
“I’m still scratching my head at how we score 30 in a whole game, three points in two quarters, go back to Truman, have a full practice today, take a hour-long bus ride and go score 70,” Conover said. “My team is a strange bunch of guys.”
Truman trailed by six with 4:30 to go but ended the game on a 12-3 run. Tymir Underwood dunked twice during the run. The senior scored a career-high 10 points.
“Underwood off the bench was a spark. In the third, he was blocking shots, grabbing rebounds,” Conover said. “His monster two-handed dunk had the whole bench going, ‘Wow!’”
Underwood’s three at the halftime buzzer gave Truman momentum. The Tigers started the third with an 8-0 run.
“That got it going,” Conover said. “We had momentum for a while after that.”
Senior ZJ Jackson scored a career-high 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Jackson shot 8-of-8 from the field.
“ZJ couldn’t throw the ball in the Delaware River last night,” Conover said. “But he goes 8-of-8 from the field today.”
Another senior, Kelechi Ogbonna, added 20 points.
“My seniors really took the lead tonight,” Conover said.
Truman did not do anything different Saturday, other than make shots.
“They packed it in on us. We threw the ball around and were patient,” Conover said. “We hit threes from the corner, from the top, from the wing. We were a jump shooting team tonight. Tonight was the opposite of last night.”
Truman (8-7, 2-4 SOL) plays three games in five days this week, starting with Pennsbury on Monday night at home.
“We get a hot Pennsbury team, an angry Bensalem team and a hot Abington team,” Conover said.
Pennsbury 73, Spring-Ford 58
Pennsbury, No. 4 in the District One Class 6A Power Rankings, beat Spring-Ford, No. 8.
“Spring-Ford came into the game 12-4. Our guys knew what was going on with them,” Pennsbury coach Bill Coleman said. “We played well, responded and beat a pretty good team today.”
Pennsbury played great defensively.
“We defended for 32 minutes, which was key,” Coleman said. “It’s a long season and these are high school guys. Today we focused and put it all together.”
Pennsbury also made 10 threes. Addison Howard made five threes and scored 25 points. Mark Flagg hit two and dropped 17. Tyler Sessa-Reeves sank two and scored 15.
“We played inside-out today. We were outside-in the last few games,” Coleman said. “Today we were able to get the ball into the paint and kick it out for threes.”
Coleman was especially pleased with Sessa-Reeves’ performance.
“Tyler came in and played very well. What we are trying to emphasize is you just have to play as hard as you can for as many minutes as we give you,” Coleman said. “Tyler was the example of that today.”
Pennsbury pulled away by winning the third quarter 22-10. Howard had three threes for nine points in the quarter, and Sessa-Reeves also had nine points, including one three. The game was tied at halftime (32-32).
Pennsbury (10-5, 4-2 SOL) plays Truman Monday night at six.
Spring-Ford 11-21-10-16 58
Pennsbury 14-18-22-19 73
Spring-Ford (58) – Chucky Drummond 21, Eric Page 3, Ryan Fitzpatrick 7, Nestor Diaz 4, Noah Baer 5, Adam Geremski 1, Nick Heller 3, Robert Bobeck 4, Austin Hokanson 10.
Pennsbury (73) –Raylil Winton Law 3, Addison Howard 25, Vaughn Ward 3, Billy Warren 4, Tyler Sessa-Reeves 15, Joey Monaghan 6, Mark Flagg 17.
Central Bucks East 52, New Foundations Charter 46
Central Bucks East led throughout and closed the game in the fourth quarter.
The Patriots made 10-of-12 free throws in the fourth. Collin Stein made 6-of-6. He scored 10 points overall.
Matt Pattyson had 16 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
“Pattyson did his usual,” CB East coach Erik Henrysen said. “We’ve come to expect all-around games from him.”
Elijah Seger had nine points and seven boards.
“Seger did his thing scoring and rebounding,” Henrysen said.
New Foundations Charter entered the game with a 16-3 record.
“It was a tough team. It was good to go down there and get a win,” Henrysen said. “We defended well and as the game went on we closed it out.”
CB East has been a good fourth quarter team all season and outscored New Foundations 18-12 in the final quarter.
“It’s about doing the little things at the end to win,” Henrysen said. “We shot fouls at a high clip.”
CB East (11-7, 5-3 SOL) plays Central Bucks West Tuesday night at seven.
Central Bucks East 9-13-12-18 52
New Foundations Charter 7-5-12-22 46
Central Bucks East (52) – Mike Pattyson 16, Kyle Cassidy 5, Collin Stein 10, Ben Markowitz 6, Elijah Seger 9, Nick Roggio 6.
New Foundations Charter (46) – Lindsey 10, Ovack 6, Kennedy 16, Odumosu 2, DeAngeo 1, Chambers 4, Gomes 7.
North Penn 67, Boyertown 47
North Penn led 43-35 going into the fourth quarter. Then the Knights won the fourth 24-12.
“We really pulled away,” North Penn coach John Conrad said. “We just wore them down a bit. We got stops defensively, which led to transition points. Twenty-four points in the fourth is a really good number for us.”
David Guiliani led North Penn with 20 points. Chris Coleman added 15.
“Guiliani and Chris played really well,” Conrad said. “Coleman rebounded well, too.”
AJ Mitchell scored seven points. Derek Heiserman and Noah Kwortnik both scored six. Ten Knights players scored.
North Penn (13-4, 7-1 SOL) battles Upper Merion Wednesday night at 6:45.
Boyertown 15-11-9-12 47
North Penn 17-15-11-24 67
Boyertown (47) – Zach Benning 2, Sam Longacre 2, Jack McCloskey 3, Sean Tamasitis 4, Jerry Kapp 23, Marcus Thomas 13.
North Penn (67) – Lance Ford 2, Jason Prince 2, Nate O’Donnell 2, AJ Mitchell 7, Chris Coleman 15, Reece Udinski 5, Mike Ward 2, David Giuliani 20, Derek Heiserman 6, Noah Kwortnik 6.
Central Bucks South 52, Council Rock South 47
Central Bucks South won its fourth straight game. The Titans were 29th in the 6A power rankings. Twenty-four teams make the 6A playoffs.
The Titans could be the highest riser in the new rankings Monday.
On Saturday, four CB South players—Alex Karras (16), Andrew Dietz (12), Nate Johnston (8) and Nate Robinson (7)—scored between seven and 16 points. Seven Titans players scored.
CB South trailed by eight after one. But it won the second quarter by nine to go into halftime with a 25-24 lead. They outscored the Golden Hawks 27-23 in the second half.
Three CR South players—Austin Thomas (18), Alex Nordenholt (12) and Ryan McNamee (10)—scored in double figures.
But the Golden Hawks still lost for the fourth time in five games.
CB South (7-9, 4-4 SOL) plays William Tennent Tuesday night at seven. CR South (10-6, 5-3 SOL) takes on Cristo Rey Monday night at 5:30.
Central Bucks South 9-16-16-11 52
Council Rock South 17-7-14-9 47
Central Bucks South (52) – Alex Karras 16, Nate Robinson 7, Nate Johnston 8, Tommy Kuypers 5, Andrew Dietz 12, Colin Kenney 2, Danny Tecce 2.
Council Rock South (47) – Austin Thomas 18, Shaun Smith 1, Christian Jabbar 2, Michael Krepich 2, Alex Nordenholt 12, Ryan McNamee 10, Ryan Boyd 2.
Holy Ghost Prep 61, Bensalem 53
Bensalem went on a 12-0 run at the end of the third quarter to tie the game at 39.
But Holy Ghost Prep opened the fourth with two three-point plays, starting an 11-0 run that put Bensalem away for good.
The Owls struggled to penetrate Ghost’s compact 2-3 zone. They settled for threes and made nine. But that wasn’t enough.
Three Bensalem players—Richard Dean (14), Ward Roberts (14) and Brian Quarterman (11)—scored in double figures. Roberts buried four threes. Quarterman sank three. Dean made two.
Bensalem lost for the sixth time in seven games, dropping to 7-9.
Bensalem (7-9, 2-6 SOL) plays Truman Tuesday night at five.
Holy Ghost Prep 14-16-9-22 61
Bensalem 12-9-18-14 53
Phoenixville 57, Souderton 43
Souderton lost its second straight game. The Indians won four straight before this stretch.
The Indians, who led 15-13 after one quarter, took a 33-32 lead into halftime but scored just 10 points in the second half.
Mike Bealer and Noah Horas both scored 13 points for Souderton.
Souderton entered the week 24th in the 6A power rankings, the last playoff spot. But the Indians went 0-2 after the rankings came out on Monday.
Souderton (7-9, 3-4 SOL) plays Pennridge Tuesday night at seven.
Souderton 15-18-7-3 43
Phoenixville 13-19-13-12 57
Souderton (43) – Mike Bealer 13, Noah Horas 13, Trevor Watts 7, Anthony Rodriguez 5, Matt Cartwright 3, Hanrahan 2.
Phoenixville (57) – Avery Close 24, Shyheim 12, Hunter Herschell 8, Phil Meszaros 4, Jader 4, Zion Small 3, Nasir Green 2.
HATBORO-HORSHAM 55, SANFORD (DE) 48
The Hatters received huge performances from Clifton Moore (26 points, 11 rebounds) and Jay Davis (24 points) in Saturday's non-league win. Chris Edwards recorded 12 rebounds for the Hatters.
Hatboro-Horsham (9-7, 6-4 SOL) will host Wissahickon on Tuesday night.
Pope John Paul II 43, Upper Dublin 33
Upper Dublin’s growing pains continue as the Cards lost for the seventh straight game.
The Flying Cardinals (1-14, 1-7 SOL) take on Plymouth Whitemarsh Tuesday night at seven.
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