Check out the recaps for SOL boys/girls basketball teams in action Wednesday.
Boys
Non-league
Abington 66, Central Bucks East 63 (OT)
The Ghosts found themselves staring at a 16-point deficit late in the third quarter of Wednesday’s non-league game but closed out regulation with a 24-8 tear, setting the stage for the dramatic overtime win to give coach Charles Grasty the 200th win of a stellar career.
As wins go, this was a good one for an inexperienced Ghost squad.
“They just kept fighting – they didn’t give up at all,” Grasty said. “They could have put their heads down. A lot of them don’t have a lot of varsity experience, so we didn’t know how they were going to react.
“Practice is one thing, but in a game – you like to think that they’re going to give their all, but to actually see it – that was great. Our guys hear what’s going on about losing our 10 seniors last year, and they’re not going to compete and be that good.”
The Ghosts found themselves on the short end of a 51-37 score heading into the final quarter.
“At the end of the third quarter, we just looked at them and said, ‘Look, we have eight minutes left. It’s a lot of basketball. Let’s get some stops, let’s get out in transition, let’s try to speed them up a little bit,’” Grasty said. “They were going to hold the ball a little bit and only take layups. We trapped them full court.
“We were able to turn them over a little bit, get some easy ones. A couple of guys hit big threes. Caleb Baker hit two or three big threes and that got us going.”
With 15.1 seconds remaining in overtime, Rob Bell gave the Ghosts a three-point lead when he buried a pair at the foul line. The Patriots’ missed on their shot for the tie, giving the Ghosts the heart stopping win.
“It was really good to see those guys battle back, give their all in the locker room,” Grasty said. “The bottom line is – we know it’s only game four, but we’re going to grow.
“By later in the season, I think they’ll understand a little more of the varsity game and what to expect. It’s exciting.”
The loss overshadowed the brilliant 32-point effort of East’s Joe Jackman, who buried six shots from beyond the arc. Tyler Young added nine points while Anthony Giordano and Brendan Harte both had six points.
“CB East is a good team,” Grasty said. “They’re going to beat a lot of teams, especially if they shoot the ball the way they did tonight.”
The Ghosts connected on 26-of-50 shots from the field. For the second time in as many nights, they had single-digit turnovers with nine.
Manir Waller’s career-high 20-point effort led the Ghosts. He connected on 8-of-14 shots from the field. He also had five rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots and one steal.
“Manir was our lone starter from last year that’s back,” Grasty said. “He just kept fighting. I got on him a little bit – he missed some rotations and a couple of assignments.
“Our guys look for him, and now he’s taking a leadership role, which is new to him. We talk every day, and he’s coming along nicely as a leader. Some new guys might think, ‘You’re a leader now – you’ve got to take 20-25 shots,’ but he’s not. He’s passing the ball to his teammates. He’s playing the right way, and he’s getting them to work hard in practice.”
Bell added a career high 16 points – which included a 4-for-4 effort at the foul line – to go along with six rebounds and five assists. He had just one turnover on the heels of a no-turnover game one night earlier.
Caleb Baker buried 6-of-8 shots – 3-for-4 from beyond the arc – en route to a career high 15 points. He also had five rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot. Joey Brusha added a pair of three-pointers for six points.
“They’re playing hard,” Grasty said. “Once we understand totally that we have to play a full four quarters we will turn the corner.
“Right now I feel like some of our guys – and I told them this – are taking a couple plays off thinking they can turn it on whenever, but it’s different this year. It’s fun.”
The veteran coach – in just his 10th year at the helm – boasts a 200-57 record. Thirteen of the 57 losses came in his first season.
Abington (3-1, 2-0 SOL) will be on the road at Upper Dublin on Friday, and Central Bucks East (2-2, 1-1) will travel to North Penn on Friday.
Central Bucks East 15-16-20-8-4 63
Abington 18-7-12-22-7 66
Central Bucks East (63) – Jason Markowitz 1 0-0 3; Tyler Young 3 2-3 9; Christian Rivera 0 0-1 0; Brendan Harte 3 0-0 6; Anthony Giordano 3 0-0 6; Chris Charlton 1 0-0 2; Jack Hamilton 2 1-1 5; Joe Jackman 12 2-3 32; Totals 25 5-8 63.
Abington (66) – Robert Bell 6 4-4 16; Oreck Frazier 4 1-1 9; Manir Waller 8 4-8 20; Joey Brusha 2 0-0 6; Caleb Baker 6 0-0 15; Totals 26 9-13 66.
3-point goals: CB East – Joe Jackman 6, Jason Marowitz, Tyler Young, Abington – Caleb Baker 3, Joey Brusha 2.
Souderton 68, Academy Park 65
The Indians notched their sixth win without a loss in a close one, rallying from eight down in the fourth quarter to eke out a win over the visiting Knights.
“They pulled ahead to a nice little lead with about six minutes to go,” coach Tim Brown said. “We did a good job. We stayed with it, we kept playing our game.
“We continuously let them get lane touches, and when they were getting lane touches, we were helping the helper, but it wasn’t quick enough, and they were getting good looks. In that fourth quarter, our guys locked down and took their matchup personally and did a better job – got some key stops and got us back in the game.”
The Indians led by five late, but a basket with five seconds remaining allowed the Knights to pull to within three.
“We really got key contributions from a lot of guys,” Brown said. “Some guys didn’t appear in the box score – some younger guys came in and gave us good minutes, not a ton of minutes but really valuable minutes, giving other guys a blow.
“It was a fast-paced game. They do a great job of pressuring and playing to the speed they want to play at and controlling the tempo. I thought it was good from our perspective that we can play any tempo and adjust to different games. It was also good because we haven’t been unbelievable facing pressure, and we handled it really well today. It was actually a season low for turnovers. For a team that’s kind of turnover prone, they did a good job of embracing pressure, playing with pace and finding the open man.”
Six players scored eight points or more for the Indians. Dominic Natale led the Indians with 18 points and Andrew Vince had 15.
“Andrew Vince played great,” Brown said. “I didn’t think we played awesome in the first half – he played awesome in the first half. He completely carried us and led us through the first half.
“Dom picked up the slack and led us throughout the second half. He’s been really consistent. I always think from another team’s perspective – how do you play him? It’s tough. He just does so many things well and plays with such tenacity that it’s tough for any team to match. The guys just follow his lead when he does that, and it makes for a scrappy bunch.”
Jason Price, Sami Chouiraf and Ben Murawski each added nine points. Jack Towsen had eight.
Souderton’s win came 24 hours after its big win over Central Bucks West in a battle of the conference’s unbeaten squads.
“We came out a little flat – we had a one-point lead at halftime (29-28), but even against West last night, the first half I thought we were a little flat, but the second half we got going a little bit,” Brown said. “In the fourth quarter when they took the eight-point lead, it was kind of worrisome – do we have any legs left?
“I don’t really know if we did, but we have a lot of heart, a lot of will and we pulled it out.”
Souderton (6-0, 2-0 SOL) will travel to Central Bucks South on Friday.
Academy Park 13-15-22-15 65
Souderton 14-15-19-20 68
Academy Park (65) – Tahriq Marrero 26, Cassidy 11, Simmons 10, Johnson 9, Jabateh 6, Brown 3.
Souderton (68) – Dominic Natale 18, Andrew Vince 15, Jason Price 9, Sami Chouiraf 9, Ben Murawski 9, Jack towsen 8.
Girls
Non-league
Upper Dublin 44, Dillard 22
Dillard brought a 9-0 record and an impressive resume into Wednesday’s game at the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix, Ariz., but the Panthers had never seen anything quite like the defense the Flying Cardinals threw at them.
“You see the score and you would think – ‘Oh, this team just stunk,’ but we played great,” coach Morgan Funsten said. “This is a team – their coach has been there for 43 years. She has 10 state championships, and they’re a national power.
“They won the Florida 7A state championship last year, and they returned two starters. They were 9-0 going into today, and they were averaging 61.4 points per game in their nine games. They had a poor shooting day, but I think we had something to do with that.”
Dillard shot a paltry 18 percent from the field, connecting on 8-of-44 shots.
“We were able to get video on them, and we had a six-hour plane ride yesterday, so we watched plenty of video,” Funsten said. “We knew what to expect coming in. I don’t think they really thought much about us until they showed up today, so I thought we had an advantage in the preparation for the game.
“Our girls just really controlled the tempo. We thought if the game went the way we wanted it to we would have to handle their pressure early because their go-to is a three-quarter court zone pressure defense. We thought – ‘Hey, if we handle it early in the game, they’ll back off, and it will be a half court game, and we’ll have to handle it at the end of the game when they start panicking and trying to turn us over.’”
The Flying Cardinals handled the Panthers’ early pressure just fine and behind a pair of three-pointers from Jess Polin led 14-7 at the end of one quarter. The momentum swung firmly in Upper Dublin’s favor in a second quarter that saw the Cardinals – sparked by 10 points from Kara Grebe – outscore the Panthers 15-5 to go into halftime with a 29-12 lead.
“We were up 14-11 with five minutes to go in the second quarter, and we went on a 15-1 run to end the quarter,” Funsten said. “It was suffocating defense. Everybody was contributing, but Kara Grebe got hot. She made back-to-back baskets, and then she made back-to-back threes towards the end of the quarter.
“The last one – we held possession for the last 45 seconds of the half, and in the last five seconds of the half, four girls touched the ball, and it ended up with Jackie (Vargas) kicking it out to Kara Grebe in the corner for a three. It was the end to a perfect run. It was a lot of fun. The girls had a lot of fun, and they really came ready to play.”
Grebe and Vargas led the Cardinals with 12 points and six rebounds each. Grebe also had six two assists and one steal while Vargas added two assists and four blocked shots.
“Jackie Vargas sat a lot in the fourth quarter, which is rare for her ever to come out,” Funsten said. “We took her out for a minute or two rest, and the girls on the court were playing really well, so we said – we have four games in four days, so get some rest.
“She had a very efficient game. The thousand-point pressure is off, and she’s relaxed. Dayna Balasa hit a couple of big-time threes, and Sarah Eskew defended their best player (Chynna Mattair) and held her to two points.
“They had a good shooter, (Kintaeja Ling), and their point guard (Briah Christia) was back as well from last year, and we held those three returning players to a combined eight points. It was a great start.”
Balasa added 10 points and Polin had six. Both connected on two three-pointers.
“We knew it was going to be a major challenge this week, and we didn’t want to come out 0-4,” Funsten said. “We got one down. It’s one in the belt. We beat the Florida state champs, and tomorrow we play the Arizona state champs.”
Upper Dublin (3-1, 2-0 SOL) will take on Shadow Mountain at noon Thursday.
“They return their two best players from last year,” Funsten said. “They’re going to be a handful, but we’re excited for the challenge.”
Dillard (22) – Chynna Mattair 0 2-2 2; Kintaeja Ling 2 0-0 6; Monique Harris 1 0-0 2; Sequoia Emmanuel 1 1-2 3; Aryanna Boye 1 1-2 3; Khayala Ngodu 3 0-0 6; Totals 8 4-6 22.
Upper Dublin (44) – Bliss Brenner 1 0-0 2; Jess Polin 2 0-0 6; Kara Grebe 5 0-0 12; Sarah Eskew 1 0-0 2; Dayna Balasa 4 0-0 10; Jackie Vargas 4 4-6 12; Totals 17 4-6 44.
3-point goals: Dillard – Kintaeja Ling 2, Khayala Ngodu 2, UD – Jess Polin 2, Kara Grebe 2, Dayna Balasa 2.
New Hope-Solebury 47, Council Rock South 39
The visiting Golden Hawks found themselves on the short end of a 25-17 halftime score. They trimmed three points off that lead in the third quarter, but the Lions held on for the win.
“Overall I was pleased with how we took care of the ball,” coach Blair Klumpp said. “We didn’t turn it over a lot. We got a lot of good looks in this game either at the rim, off solid ball movement or within our design. They didn’t fall, that’s going to happen, but if the shots are quality shots within what we are running that is okay.
“We need to get back to good decision making in transition and shot selection, communicating on defense and winning 50/50s and having those things be a focus. We played well for spurts tonight, which was encouraging because the last three quarters versus Neshaminy were tough. The stretches where we did move the ball and got on the floor and dug in defensively, things worked in our favor, we just need to do it consistently. And we need to keep working with them as a staff on those areas that need improvement and help them understand some things.”
Hannah Binder had a big game for the Golden Hawks, finishing with 15 points and 13 rebounds for a double-double.
“Hannah has a bit of a breakout game for her this year and had a double-double,” Klumpp said. “I had a feeling pre-game she could have a big night because of certain matchups and play design. She was a factor on the glass especially in the second half.”
Nicole Blaustein added nine points, two assists and two steals, and Jenna Culp had eight points and three rebounds. Carley Irvin had five points, four rebounds and two steals. Karissa Smedley’s three assists led the Hawks. Montanna Chambers had two assists and two steals.
“Jenna’s leadership the last two games when things have not gone well has been rock steady and she deserves a lot of credit,” Klumpp said. “New Hope deserves a lot of credit – we made two pretty good runs at them and they withstood them both.
“Steve Polinsky is doing a good job in his first year there, and Reagan Chernick had a really strong game. She stepped out hit some threes, hit contested elbow jumpers and made a big shot when they needed one. I thought we did a great job, Carley Irvin especially, on Rachel Sexton, who is a really good player. Carley held her scoreless in the first half, and the majority of points came on free throws. And I thought our team defense was good, we just got hurt on the backboard in the first half and that is something we need to keep working on.”
Chernick led all scorers with 23 points.
Council Rock South (3-3, 1-1 SOL) will travel to Villa Joseph Marie on Monday for a non-league game at 11:30 a.m.
Council Rock South 10-7-15-7 39
New Hope-Solebury 13-12-12-10 47
Council Rock South (39) – Jenna Culp 8, Nicole Blaustein 9, Hannah Binder 15, Carley Irvin 5, Kim Speiser 2.
New Hope-Solebury (47) – Vlahouis 2, Dougherty 6, Chrenick 23, Covino 7, Sexton 9.
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