Check out the recaps for SOL boys’ basketball teams in action Tuesday. CB South/CB West photos provided courtesy of Keith Clemens Photography. Check back for a gallery of photos.
SOL American Conference
Abington 67, Cheltenham 53
In addition to neighborhood bragging rights, Tuesday night’s meeting between visiting Cheltenham and Abington was for first place in the conference as both teams came in at 6-0 in conference play.
When it was over, after a thrilling first half, it was the Ghosts moving to 7-0 as they notched the victory.
“It was a typical Abington-Cheltenham rivalry game,” Abington coach Charles Grasty said. “Their community came out, our community came out, and they played well. They made some shots. They gave us a little bit of trouble with their one-three-one in the first half.
“I thought our guys settled for jump shots and just quick shots, not playing the way we wanted to play. In the third quarter, we came out and got some easy baskets closer to the basket. We were able to put our press on and got a few steals and a few easy baskets that way. We were able to play from ahead, and they had to chase, and we finished it out. It doesn’t get old – Abington/Cheltenham. It’s a lot of fun for the guys. You could see on their faces that they enjoy these games.”
The sides went to halftime tied at 33 before Abington started to pull away in the third quarter, going up 49-43, and then finishing things off with a solid final eight minutes.
Villanova University-commit Eric Dixon again did his thing as he netted a game-high 31 points, pushing his career total to 1,951. Dixon also collected 11 rebounds. Teammate, and University of Pennsylvania-commit Lucas Monroe added 15 points, eight rebounds and three steals. Maurice Henry (six assists) and Darius Brown (four assists) combined for 10 assists.
Junior Manir Waller contributed 11 points (eight in the second half) to go along with six rebounds, four assists and pair of steals.
“Manir Waller played extremely well,” Grasty said. “He was really aggressive going to the basket, and he made some really good decisions.
“He’s our only junior starter, and he’s coming along. This is his first year on varsity. I thought he was a little frustrated early in the year, trying to learn a new system, a whole new speed of the game and the physicality of the game. Right now we think he’s playing really well. He played really well in the third and fourth quarters."
Zahree Harrison led the Panthers with 19 points and Jaelen McGlonne had 16, 11 of which came in the opening quarter.
Cheltenham attempted just four free throws while the Ghosts had 21.
“Our kids fought hard, they played hard, but 21-4 as a free throw differential with referees making sarcastic comments before the game starts is problematic, so we want to explore that further,” Cheltenham coach Patrick Fleury said. "This crew we had tonight was very subjective, and that isn’t what refereeing is. It’s not in your hands. It doesn’t matter who you like. You’re supposed to ref the game. We have to explore that. It’s hard to win like that, but take nothing away from Abington. They are a very good team.
“I’m elated with the effort of my kids and what they’ve been able to accomplish thus far and look forward to continuing it. We will continue to fight, but it’s sad what our kids have to go through."
Abington (11-1, 7-0 SOL) will host Springfield Township on Thursday, and Cheltenham (9-5, 6-1) will host Upper Moreland on Friday.
Cheltenham 17-16-10-10 53
Abington 16-17-16-18 67
Cheltenham (53) – Zahree Harrison 19, Tim Myarick 3, Brandon Scott 2, Jaelen McGlonne 16, Kyin Healey 13.
Abington (67) – Darius Brown 5, Lucas Monroe 15, Eric Dixon 31, Manir Waller 11, Maurice Henry 2, Jack Moynihan 3.
Upper Dublin 43, Springfield Township 37
Upper Dublin built a big lead – the Cardinals took a 24-12 lead into halftime – only to see host Springfield Township rally late to make things quite interesting before the Cardinals were able to secure the win.
“The defense was good in the first half,” Upper Dublin coach Chris Monahan said. “Both teams played pretty good defense tonight. We didn’t guard the three-point line as well as we wanted in the fourth quarter and Springfield never stopped fighting the entire game. The scorebook doesn’t show it, but we were up 17 in the fourth quarter and Springfield came all the way back to cut the lead to two with under a minute to play. 
“Jason Williams made two clutch free throws to push the lead to four. We were able to get a stop on the next possession and Corby Watkins stepped up to make two more free throws. We definitely wanted to finish the game stronger than we did, but it’s a good conference win on the road.”
Upper Dublin’s Drew Stover, with 11 points, was the only player in double figures for either side. Micah Bootman was next for the Cardinal with eight points while Watkins and Bazel Brady had six points each.
Jordan Pauls and Ben Rittenhouse paced the Spartans with eight points each.
Upper Dublin (9-5, 3-4 SOL) will travel to Hatboro-Horsham on Friday, and Springfield Township (6-8, 1-6) will travel to Abington on Thursday.
Upper Dublin 11-13-7-12 43
Springfield Township 5-7-10-15 37
Upper Dublin (43) – Drew Stover 11, Corby Watkins 6, Bazel Brady 6, Jason Williams 5, Brian Klammer 2, Mike Silvia 5, Micah Bootman 8.
Springfield Township (37) – Jordan Pauls 8, Max Perry 3, Jay Joseph 7, Wilson Krewson 6, Ben Rittenhouse 8, Zach Edmonds 5.
Wissahickon 56, Upper Moreland 34
Wissahickon took control early and cruised to a win over Upper Moreland on Tuesday night.
The Trojans built a 17-2 lead after one quarter and led 31-16 by halftime on the way to the triumph.Nine players contributed scoring for the Trojans.
“The Trojans faced a tough Upper Moreland team that was without their best player (Christian O’Donnell),” Wissahickon coach Kyle Wilson said. “In a businesslike manner, the team went out and methodically did what they needed to do and earned a solid and convincing win.
Eddie Fortescue, with 14 points, was the only Trojan in double figures. Teammate Andrew Buck had eight points while Carmen Ostroski had seven.
Sophomore Jahire Johnson led the Golden Bears with a game-high 17 points and Beau Woolens added six.
Wissahickon (7-8, 3-4 SOL) will host Hatboro-Horsham next Tuesday, and Upper Moreland (8-5, 3-4) will travel to Cheltenham on Friday.
Upper Moreland 2-14-8-10 34
Wissahickon 17-14-8-10 56
Upper Moreland (34) – Byron Hopkins 4, Beau Woolens 6, Jahire Johnson 17, Matt Tiernan 2, Tyler Ibbitson 5.
Wissahickon (56) – Andrew Buck 8, Eddie Fortescue 14, Harrison Williams 6, Maurice Willis 6, Tyler Caso 2, Cole Hirsch 2, Alex Richman 5, Matt Compas 6, Carmen Ostroski 7.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 65, Hatboro-Horsham 35
SOLContinental Conference
Quakertown 63, Souderton 57 (OT)
Souderton battled back late to force overtime, but host Quakertown clamped down on defense in the extra session to pick up the victory Tuesday night.
“We hit a couple of shots to make it a nine-point lead, and I really thought we were ready to put the game away,” Quakertown coach Mike DeCarolis said. “But give Souderton a lot of credit – they had a tough loss last night versus the Hatters. They came back – it’s a rivalry game for both of us – to actually take the lead.
“We basically had to hold them off. They had a possession that was a minute long at the end of regulation that we had to stop them. Luckily, their shot goes out. Our defense really locked up, and we held them to zero points in the overtime. We made the foul shots when it really mattered and got a really, really big win for us.”
The Panthers scored all seven of their points in overtime at the foul line.
Senior captain Eli Ortiz powered the Panthers offense with a game-high 24 points.
“Our senior captain, Eli Ortiz, had 24 points, and he was awesome,” DeCarolis said. “Bobby Rosenberger is only a freshman, and he’s been our leading scorer for most of the season, he handles the ball a lot for us, scores points, covers the other team’s best player. I’m asking a lot from him as a freshman, but he’s really mentally tough. He’s going to be an amazing player.”
Rosenberger had 14 points in the win while Jimmy Casey and Matt Lucas had eight apiece.
DeCarolis hopes this win can propel the Panthers through the second half of the season.
“The goal the seniors kind of made was to try to make the playoffs,” DeCarolis said. “They’ve never been to the playoffs in the four years they’ve been at Quakertown. In our first 11 games, we kind of put our backs against the wall by only going 2-9, but we won the next two. With how tough the Suburban One Continental Conference is, every team is good, every game is going to be a tough game, so if we can string together a couple of big wins, we can get back in the mix for the playoffs."
Zach Thatcher had a dozen points for the Indians and Mekhi Williams netted 10. Andrew Vince, Sami Chouiraf and Dom Natale each added eight.
Quakertown (4-8, 2-5 SOL) will travel to Freedom for a non-league game Wednesday, and Souderton (4-11, 1-5) will host North Penn on Thursday at 8 p.m.
Souderton- 17-13-13-13-1 57
Quakertown- 19-10-20-7-7 63
Souderton (57) – Zach Thatcher 12, Mekhi Williams 10, Andrew Vince 8, Sami Chouiraf 8, Dom Natale 8, Jack Towsen 6, Brian Reiner 5.
Quakertown (63) – Eli Ortiz 24, Bobby Rosenberger 14, Matt Lucas 8, Jimmy Casey 8, Sean Harrison 4, Matt Catalano 3, Jake Hallowell 2.
Central Bucks South 58, Central Bucks West 55
All that stuff about throwing the records out the window when rivals meet?
Well, that was just the case on Tuesday night as Central Bucks South (which is tied for the conference lead with Pennridge) outlasted visiting Central Bucks West in a battle from start to finish.
“You always throw out the record in these games,” Central Bucks South coach Jason Campbell said. “It doesn’t matter what the makeup of the teams are. East-West, South-West and East-South – all these rivalry games, the kids play up. They know each other, they’ve played against each other for years. At the end of the day, it boils down the players and what plays they make on the court for you. (CB West coach) Adam Sherman and his staff do a fantastic job year in and year out. You just hope the players make the plays.”
The Titans took a 36-28 lead into halftime and still led 46-40 heading into the final quarter.
“We had a 10-point lead that just got squashed,” Campbell said. “West went on a 10-0 run. I burned a couple of timeouts. In the second one, I reminded the guys what I wrote up on the board about effort – 32 minutes of effort with loose balls, rebounding, defending and doing the right hedging.
“We did a better job of that in the last half of the quarter, and we had guys step up.”
Ian McCaw led the way for the Titans with a team-high 16 points while Tommy Kuypers had 14 and Brady Prezelski was next with 13.
“Ian McCaw was fantastic,” Campbell said. “The kid rebounded the ball, he had six assists, he was 8-for-8 from the foul line. Dietz is Dietz and Kuypers is Kuypers, but I think the storyline of the game is Brady Prezelski.
“Brady had his best game at both ends of the court. You’re consistent with him on defense, but offensively, he gave us exactly what we know Brady can give us. He shot the ball really well from outside, he attacked the rim. Just his mental toughness – he gets called for a foul on one play and the next play he gets a steal and goes down to the other end and scores."
Jack Mulhearn had a game-high 17 points for the Bucks and Jack Neri was next with 16. Mika Munari added 12 points.
Central Bucks South (11-3, 5-1 SOL) will travel to William Tennent on Saturday for a non-league game. Central Bucks West (6-8, 2-4) will host Central Bucks East on Friday at 6:30 p.m.
Central Bucks West 15-13-12-15 55
Central Bucks South 17-19-10-12 58
Central Bucks West (55) – Connor Briece 4, Jack Mulhearn 17, Mika Munari 12, Jack Neri 16, Reed Zerweck 6.
Central Bucks South (58) – Cole Prezelski 2, Brady Prezelski 13, Brock D’Aulerio 2, Alex Dietz 11, Tommy Kuypers 14, Ian McCaw 16.
Pennridge 77, North Penn 51
John Dominic turned in the performance of his young lifetime, erupting for 37 points in a dazzling performance that included eight three-pointers. It was a performance that put him in some lofty company. Tim Abruzzo has the single-game Pennridge record with 39 points in 2012 and Denny Robinson had 38 in 1960.
“We had one of the greatest performances in Pennridge history tonight,” coach Dean Behrens said. “Not only that – he covered (Tali) McIver who’s very athletic and very good, so John wasn’t just running around on defense doing nothing. He was guarding a very good basketball player.
“He had 18 against Souderton, which was an unbelievable outpouring. It was neat. The kids were excited about it. They wanted me to keep him in, but I had to pull him out with three minutes left in the game. It was neat and the kids were really into what he was doing."
In a preview of things to come, Dominic buried a pair of three-pointers and had 11 first-quarter points. By halftime, he had 17 points, which included four threes, and the Rams had a commanding 41-19 lead.
“We actually subbed John out at the end of the second quarter for a blow, and he probably didn’t play the last three minutes of the quarter,” Behrens said. “Then he starts going off again in the third quarter. The game was getting out of hand, and I started to make subs, thinking – you know what, maybe he’ll hit a couple of shots and break the record. He actually had a three that was in and out in the fourth quarter.
“This wasn’t one of those things where I would have said, ‘John Dominic is going to have 37.’ I would have said Sean Yoder could have had that or Jon Post. It’s an utterly amazing story. He’s a senior, played jayvee last year, had his ups and downs on jayvee. He worked pretty hard on his game. I think he took advantage of some opportunities. He wasn’t even starting for us at the beginning of the year. He is now, and it’s hard to get him off the floor because he plays so well defensively. He’d chip in seven or eight points, and we’d think it was pretty good. This was one of the greatest individual performances in Pennridge history. I can say that with pretty much clarity. I coached Tim Abruzzo and saw how amazing that was.”
Yoder, a United States Naval Academy commit who has had numerous 30-plus scoring games this season, was next for the Rams with 18 points.
The victory also kept Pennridge tied with Central Bucks South for first place in the conference with both teams at 5-1.
Mike Chaffee led the Knights with 14 points and Kolby Barron had 11.
North Penn 11-8-22-10 51
Pennridge 21-20-27-9 77
North Penn (51) – Tali McIver 3, AJ Mitchell 7, Kolby Barrow 11, Chris Caputo 9, Mike Chaffee 14, Rob Carangi 2, Matt Swanson 2, Milind Pulugura 3.
Pennridge (77) – John Dominic 37, Sean Yoder 18, Nick Dunn 7, Colin Post 2, Trent Fisher 3, Pat Gillespie 4, Jack Gillespie 2, Jon Post 4.
SOL National Conference
Pennsbury 62, Neshaminy 45
Pennsbury had one subpar quarter, but more than made up for it with three good ones to post a victory over Neshaminy on Tuesday.
The Falcons, who improved to 6-0 and remain in first place in the conference, saw themselves trailing 13-3 after one quarter before they turned things around in the second quarter.By outscoring the Redskins 17-6 in the second frame, they were able to take a 20-19 lead to halftime.
And, after intermission, Pennsbury pulled away by limiting Neshaminy to only five points in the third quarter en route to the win. They outscored the Redskins 42-16 in the second half.
Senior Gary Francis paved the way with a game-high 20 points to go along with three steals and three rebounds while junior teammates Collin Connor (15 points) and Kyrie Miller (13) provided plenty of offensive help. Connor led the Falcons with six rebounds and also had two steals.
Sophomores Matt Drapkin and Mike Murray each had 10 points for Neshaminy.
Pennsbury (7-6, 6-0 SOL) will travel to Council Rock North on Thursday, and Neshaminy (3-9, 1-5) will be on the road at Bensalem on Thursday.
Neshaminy 13-6-5-21 45
Pennsbury 3-17-22-20 62
Neshaminy (45) – Deduro 1, Saglimben 2, Belton 7, Drapkin 10, McGovern 7, Murray 10, Gyamfi 2, Brooks 6.
Pennsbury (62) – Miller 13, Francis 20, Connor 15, Barron 5, Della Grotte 2, Nushcke 4, Reichard 3.
Council Rock North 44, Council Rock South 40
Things were a little bumpy for Council Rock North in the first half, but the Indians got things going, especially after halftime, and were able to knock off rival Council Rock South on Tuesday.
“We started off fast,” Council Rock North coach Jesse Krasna said. “We built up a nice lead in the first quarter. I thought we played three good quarters offensively. The second quarter we missed some makeable shots, but we also got a little bit stagnant offensively, over-dribbling a little bit.
“I think that was partly – it was a big, big game for our kids, and South did a great job making it hard to reverse the ball, so we went one-on-one a little bit too much. At halftime, our kids knew that. We said, ‘We just have to settle down and move the ball a little more.’ I thought they did that for the entirety of the second half.”
The Indians, after a 14-point first quarter, managed just two points in the second quarter and trailed 21-16 at the half before putting up 28 after halftime en route to the victory.
Hunter Wan led the offense with 14 points and Josh Fisher netted 13.
“Hunter Wan has been a good scorer for us all year,” Krasna said. “He really stepped up in the third quarter and hit a big three. That gave us a sense of relief to start the third quarter because we had struggled to score the ball so much in the second. He made some tough, physical drives to the basket with guys hanging all over him.
“And Josh Fisher has had a lot of really good games this year, but this may have been his best game. I don’t think it’s a coincidence – yesterday was his best practice of the year offensively. He’s making shots for us, but he’s also doing a great job getting into the paint, and he’s been so under control, which is definitely something he’s been focused on. He’s such a coachable kid, and he’s just grown immensely from last season to this season and even throughout this season. He was a big reason why we won this game.”
Krasna also praised the play of reserve Parker Ehlin, who had five points.
“He was a factor on the offensive end but especially on the defensive end,” Krasna said. “He had a ton of deflections, a couple of big steals.
“As soon as he got in the game in the first quarter, he got a steal and went coast to coast for a layup. When we subbed him in the game, he really ratchets up our energy. He’s like our Manu Ginobili (San Antonio Spurs’ star sixth man). He comes off the bench, and a lot of times we get better because he just plays with a lot of energy. He gave us a nice spark. It was a good win for our kids.
"I think a big strength of ours – you wouldn’t look at us and think it’s a strength – is offensive rebounding. Our guards as well as our forwards have really been doing a great job hitting the offensive glass and giving us second-chance points. It was a good team win.”
Jack Rebholz and Brian Schwartz each had 13 points for the Golden Hawks.
Council Rock North (10-4, 4-2 SOL) will host Pennsbury on Thursday, and Council Rock South (4-9, 4-3) will host Harry S Truman on Thursday.
Council Rock South 11-10-5-14 40
Council Rock North 14-2-12-16 44
Council Rock South (40) – Jack Rebholz 13, Luke Meakim 7, Michael Stewart 5, Kevin McNamee 2, Brian Schwartz 13.
Council Rock North (44) – DJ Mishak 4, Luke Vliet 3, Hunter Wan 14, Parker Ehlin 5, James Duffy 5, Josh Fisher 13.
Harry S. Truman 66, William Tennent 61
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