Jarrad Saffren recaps Friday’s District One 6A games featuring SOL teams. CB West/HH photos provided courtesy of Lisa Henderson, CR South/CB East photos courtesy of John Gleeson, and Neshaminy/Penn Wood provided courtesy of Jesse Garber (http://jsgarber.zenfolio.com/p446183085). Check back for galleries of the CBW/HH and CR South/CB East games.
By Jarrad Saffren
Two double overtime games. Four teams. None of which scored 40 points.
Let me go into corny ESPN 30-for-30 mode for a second: What if I told you that that happened? What if I told you that four high school basketball teams played defense that well? Or offense that poorly?
You’d be like, ‘Wow, that’s crazy,’ or ‘Wow, high school basketball really needs a shot-clock.’
The latter is a conversation for another day. For now, it’s just crazy. 30-for-30 crazy.
Also, the two lower seeds won both of those District One Class 6A playoff games.
Both games featured two Suburban One League boys basketball teams. Three other SOL teams also played first round games Friday night.
All five results and recaps are below.
District One Class 6A
#18 Central Bucks East 39, #15 Council Rock South 36
Council Rock South hosted a playoff game for the first time in school history. Central Bucks East was not intimidated by the large, loud crowd.
“They had a great student section, great support,” CB East coach Erik Henrysen said. “Our program went through playing on the road last year in the playoffs. We are used to it, so we stayed composed.”
CR South led by five after three quarters. Then CB East won the fourth quarter 12-7, forcing overtime. Neither team scored in the first overtime. 
“Neither team was in a hurry,” Henrysen said. “Neither could convert.”
Early in the second overtime, Kyle Cassidy hit a three.
“That was big,” Henrysen said. “We were able to go from there.”
CB East won the second overtime 5-2. Cassidy led all scorers with 15 points, which included three 3-pointers. He scored all 15 in the fourth quarter and in the second overtime.
“Kyle Cassidy shot the ball with confidence. Of late he’s had a couple good games,” Henrysen said. “He’s started to play with a lot of confidence and a lot more assertiveness.”
Elijah Seger had six points and 10 rebounds for CB East. Ben Markowitz had six points on two threes. Ryan Plack also added six points.
Austin Thomas led CR South with 12 points on four 3-pointers Ryan McNamee added nine.
CB East (13-10) moved on to play #2 seed Plymouth Whitemarsh in the second round Tuesday night. The winner clinches a spot in the PIAA Class 6A Tournament.
CB East will go for its second straight state tournament berth.
“We are growing as a program, creating that expectation that we belong,” Henrysen said. “And guys are taking advantage of opportunities.”
CR South finished 2016-17 at 13-10. The Golden Hawks ended an eight-year playoff drought in coach Derek Wright’s first season.
Central Bucks East 11-9-2-12-0-5 39
Council Rock South 9-10-8-7-0-2 36
Central Bucks East (39) – Matt Pattyson 2, Elijah Seger 6, Ryan Plack 6, Collin Stein 2, Kyle Cassidy 15, Cooper Fink 2, Ben Markowitz 6.
Council Rock South (36) – Austin Thomas 12, Alex Nordenholt 3, Kevin Newbert 5, Ryan Boyd 2, Christian Jabbar 3, Ryan McNamee 9, Shaun Smith 3.
#21 Hatboro-Horsham 34, #12 Central Bucks West 32
Clifton Moore had his best game of the season.
The Hatboro-Horsham senior had 20 points, 13 rebounds and 10 blocks, a triple-double.
He patrolled the lane and prevented Central Bucks West from creating easy shots.
“Clifton stayed in the lane and played a one-man zone and did a good job with it,” Hatboro-Horsham coach Ed Enoch said. “He was very dominant. He was a force. As aggressive as I’ve seen him all year.”
“He was very effective,” CB West coach Adam Sherman said. “We had open shots to exploit him hanging in the lane. We just couldn’t hit them.”
The Hatters needed Moore to dominate. Their other leading scorer, Jay Davis, missed most of the game with an illness. He had been out for 10 days before Thursday.
“He’s been real sick,” Enoch said. “He came back yesterday but wasn’t ready to play tonight.”
With Davis out, Hatboro-Horsham needed to play a low-scoring game.
“We didn’t turn ball over a lot and played good defense,” Enoch said. “We’re a pretty good basketball team. We’ve been up and down this year but we played a good game tonight. We took our time on offense.”
Brandon Crews added nine points for Hatboro-Horsham. Jake Schalki added nine rebounds.
CB West jumped to a 12-2 lead. But Hatboro-Horsham adjusted.
“We hit a cold spell in the third,” Sherman said. “They made defensive adjustments. Played tight against our shooters.”
Sherman was still pleased with his team’s defensive performance.
“We were where we wanted to be on defense,” Sherman said.
Sherman was also pleased with West’s 2016-17 season. The Bucks finished 15-8.
“Considering we had one returning guy with varsity experience, I’m proud of the guys. To go 15-8 after graduating eight seniors, it’s an accomplishment,” Sherman said. “We knew if we were going to go down, it would be because we missed shots, not because we didn’t play the right way.”
Hatboro-Horsham (13-10) will play fifth seed North Penn Tuesday night in the second round. The winner clinches a spot in the state tournament. Hatboro-Horsham made states last year, too.
#11 Penn Wood 59, #22 Neshaminy 51
Neshaminy led by four with less than 3:30 to play.
But Penn Wood went on a 7-0 run and never trailed again.
“It’s a great feeling when you’re up late like that,” Neshaminy senior Anthony Verrecchio said.
“We felt like we were going to come away with it,” Neshaminy senior Zach Tredway said. 
“I was thinking if we held onto the ball and made some free throws…,” Neshaminy junior Chris Arcidiacono said. “But they put pressure on and scored. The press wore us down.”
With less than 1:00 left, Kairi Jones stole the ball and laid it in, putting Penn Wood up five. Neshaminy never got it back to one possession.
Arcidiacono nearly willed Neshaminy to an upset, scoring 26 points. He went on a 7-0 run to close the first quarter, making a half court, buzzer-beating three to put Neshaminy up one.
He also swished two free throws with 1.2 seconds left in the third, putting Neshaminy up two. Then, early in the fourth, he buried a three, regaining the lead again. Minutes later, he completed a three-point play, again giving Neshaminy the lead.
But it wasn’t quite enough.
Verrecchio added eight points for Neshaminy. Danny Bodine and Anthony Papeo both had six.
Despite the loss, 2016-17 was a successful season for Neshaminy. Neshaminy ended a six-year playoff drought under first-year coach Mark Tingle.
“You can’t really prepare end-of-season speeches. This being my first one, I was a little emotional,” Tingle said. “The kids fought hard for me all year. That’s all I ask. The focus all year was on Chris, which was great. But the guys started stepping up around him, too, which got us to the playoffs.”
“We fought all season,” Papeo said. “Making playoffs after six years is just amazing.”
“Making the playoffs was our goal,” senior Zach Tredway said. “But of course we wanted to go farther.”
Neshaminy might be able to go further in 2017-18. Arcidiacono will be back. And Tingle clearly has the program moving in the right direction.
“We made Neshaminy basketball something to not look over for the first time in six years,” Arcidiacono said. “We have to come back stronger, make the playoffs and go farther.”
Penn Wood 10-12-12-25 59
Neshaminy 11-11-12-17 51
#13 Downingtown West 69, #20 Pennridge 64
Pennridge almost pulled off an upset without its best player, Sean Yoder.
“It was a great ball game. It was exciting for the fans,” Pennridge coach Dean Behrens said. “There was a lot more scoring than I thought there would be. The officials let us play. Unfortunately, the rebounding got us at the end. They had a 6-5 guy, a 6-5 guy and a 6-7 guy on the front line at one point.”
Yoder missed the game with a broken clavicle.
Pennridge still built a 6-0 lead in the first quarter. Ryan Cuthbert made a free throw. Jon Post sank a layup. And AJ DeMarco, Yoder’s replacement, hit a three.
Pennridge maintained a six-point lead until late in the first half.
“Then they missed a foul shot, got the rebound and swung it around and hit a three. Then, the ball’s under their basket, with three seconds left, and they pass it out and hit a three,” Behrens said. “We should have been up six at the half, and it was tied.”
Downingtown West pulled away in the second half. It shot 16-of-21 from the foul line in the game.
DeMarco led Pennridge with 17 points. Three other Rams players—Kyle Yoder (15), Post (13) and Cuthbert (10)—also scored in double figures.
Pennridge ended the season at 11-12. It also made the playoffs for the fourth straight year. Behrens views the season as a success.
“It’s tough because you have five seniors that you really enjoy having around. They are the only class that’s been to the playoffs four years in a row. Plus Sean Yoder and Jon Post (both sophomores) got a ton of experience. Ryan Warner, a junior, got a bunch of minutes. Tyrese Lewis-Eutsey, also a junior, got major minutes,” Behrens said. “We look at it as a success because we made the playoffs. We had some tough losses but the team showed a lot of resiliency. We played two of our best basketball games the last two games, Neshaminy (regular season finale) and tonight.”
#10 Lower Merion 70, #23 Central Bucks South 57
Central Bucks South lost in the first round of the district playoffs for the second straight year.
Andrew Dietz did his best to prevent that, dropping 24 points. Nate Johnston and Alex Karras had nine and eight points, respectively.
CB South ended the season at 9-14.
Central Bucks South (57) – Alex Karras 8, Nate Robinson 4, Danny Tecce 4, Nate Johnston 9, Colin Sauers 2, Tommy Kuypers 6, Andrew Dietz 24.
Lower Merion (70) – Payne 9, Fennell 16, O'Connor 6, Davis 1, Henry 3, Bilal 4, Forrest 7, Taylor 8, Jones 16.
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