Three SOL teams advanced out of the opening round to Tuesday’s second round of the District One 6A Tournament.
#14 ABINGTON 39, #19 KENNETT 36
It wasn’t easy, but the Ghosts – plagued with foul woes – gutted out an opening round win, thanks in no small part to the standout performance of Derrius Lucas off the bench. The 6-5 junior reserve scored a team high 12 points, which included a pair of 3-pointers.
Lucas, who played in 13 of 14 games for the Ghosts, had just seven points this entire season but nearly doubled that in Saturday’s win. He also had six rebounds, including a rebound of a Kennett miss for the tie with time about to expire.
“He played extremely well for us today,” Abington coach Charles Grasty said. “Derrius has been coming along. He comes to practice every day, works his tail off. Obviously, he wanted to have a more successful year personally and thought he could be playing a little more, but he never really complained. He just kept coming to practice, getting better.
“The last couple of weeks he started to get more confident, he started speaking up and being a good teammate. It was good his hard work was able to pay off today.”
The Ghosts needed every one of his 12 points in a game that saw the team’s top scorer, Rob Bell, saddled with foul woes. Bell was whistled for three fouls in the first half and picked up his fourth just over a minute into the second half.
The Ghosts, who led 27-18 at halftime, scored only four points in the third quarter and led by just one heading into the final quarter, 31-30. With 12.5 seconds remaining and the Ghosts leading by one, Kennett committed its 10th team foul, and Bell stepped to the line and connected on both free throws to give the Ghosts a 39-36 lead. Kennett had a shot for the tie, it fell short, and Lucas grabbed the rebound.
“I was proud of them – the fight they gave,” Grasty said. “In that type of game, they could have packed it in and just chucked shots up.
“Kennett did a good job of being patient running their offense. On defense, they sat back in a zone. That was their style, that was their game plan. It obviously was effective. I thought instead of just coming down and throwing up shots, worrying about scoring points in front of friends and family, we played the way we had to play to get a win. It’s not like we lit the gym on fire, but I don’t think we took many rushed, bad or selfish shots. I was proud of the guys for just keeping on going. We weren’t satisfied with just getting in (the tournament).”
Oreck Frazier had a strong outing for the Ghosts, finishing with 10 points and five rebounds. He also drew a pair of offensive charges. Caleb Baker added seven points and 10 rebounds, three offensive.
Also making important contributions were a pair of players whose names don’t show up in the box score but contributed important minutes with Bell and Antoine Ellis on the bench with foul trouble.
“Fhenyx Scutt and Jimmy Marino came in and gave us good minutes,” Grasty said. “We were struggling early, we got in foul trouble, and they came in and actually we went up a little bit when they came in. They gave us a nice boost.”
Credit also goes to Abington’s defense, which allowed Kennett to connect on just 1-of-15 from beyond the arc.
“We wanted to make them take tough, contested 3s,” Grasty said. “We saw them on film, and they had a couple of really good shooters that we wanted to close out on.”
Abington connected on just 13-of-40 shots from the field (32.5 percent). The Ghosts were 3-of-13 from beyond the arc (23 percent).
Abington (10-5, 6-4 SOL) will travel to Plymouth Whitemarsh for a third meeting with the third-seeded Colonials in Tuesday’s second round. The Colonials won the first two.
“Our guys are up for the challenge,” Grasty said. “It’s the playoffs, and no matter who we drew in the second round, we knew it was going to be hard, we knew it was going to be a big challenge. They’re up for the challenge.”
Kennett 9-9-12-6 36
Abington 9-18-4-8 39
Kennett (36) – Kalen Frazier 2 0-0 4; Ethan Schmidt 1 0-0 2; Sam Forte 2 1-2 5; Charles Ebaugh 4 0-0 8; Andrew Hertz 3 6-6 12; Zach Lower 2 0-0 5; TOTALS 14 7-8 36.
Abington (39) – Rob Bell 1 2-2 5; Oreck Frazier 4 2-2 10; Connor Fields 2 1-2 5; Caleb Baker 1 5-6 7; Karim Boyd 0 0-1 0; Derrius Lucas 5 0-0 12; TOTALS 13 10-13 39.
3-point goals: Kennett – Zach Lower, Abington – Derrius Lucas 2, Rob Bell.
#20 UPPER DUBLIN 48, #13 HAVERFORD 46
Colin O’Sullivan couldn’t have picked a better time to have a breakout performance. The Cardinals’ sophomore guard torched the Fords for 24 points, including five 3-pointers, to lead UD to the upset road win.
“He was huge,” UD coach Chris Monahan said of O’Sullivan. “All year teams have sent two, three guys against Drew (Stover). I coached in the Central League for five years (at Radnor), and I’ve coached against Keith (Heinerichs) a lot, and they are tough to play against defensively.
“They loaded up on Drew, and Colin stepped up in the first half, and he was just gigantic in the fourth quarter – three 3s in the fourth when the game was very much in doubt. To get us the lead and get us back in the game, he was huge. They were pressuring all our guards – Colin, DJ (Cerisier) and Griffin (Pensabene) – he did a great job handling pressure, and when they had three guys on Drew, he stepped up and made shots. It was a gigantic game by him.”
Behind 15 points from O’Sullivan – 13 in a 19-point second quarter, the Flying Cardinals took a 25-17 lead into halftime.
“We were very good in the first half,” Monahan said. “We executed defensively very well, exactly what we wanted to do. We were doing well offensively, and we were up eight at halftime and in a good spot.
“We tend not to make things easy on ourselves. We started the second half with our ball coming out of bounds, and we turn it over. In the first couple of minutes, we had a couple of turnovers, missed shots. They got a couple of fast breaks, and before you could even blink, an eight-point lead was a one-point lead, and then it was just back and forth pretty much for the rest of the game.”
The Flying Cardinals trailed by as many as four in the third quarter and still trailed by one heading into the final frame, 31-30.
“With 38 seconds left in the game, we’re up one, and they fouled D.J. Cerisier, who misses the front end of a one-and-one,” Monahan said. “They get the ball to their best guy, (John) Seidman, who DJ was on all game. Seidman did finish with 22, but DJ did do a good job. Seidman got the ball at the top, DJ was with him, made him take a tough shot, Drew came over the block it, and Seidman ended up knocking it out of bounds
“Now there’s 18 seconds left, we have the ball, they’re pressuring, pressuring, and they foul DJ again. This time, one-and-one situation, he steps up and made both, we’re up three. Seidman’s younger brother, Googie, is an outstanding 3-point shooter. We miscommunicate on a screen, and he’s wide open. He misses the three luckily. Drew rebounded, they fouled him with 6.8 seconds left. He made both so we go up five, and essentially that’s the game, but John Seidman gets the ball, and he hits a 40-footer with 1.2 seconds left, so we’re up two 94 feet away. We just threw it long, the clock expired.”
Stover finished with 16 points, including an 8-for-10 effort at the foul line. Cerisier added six.
“Colin was huge, Drew was huge, and DJ was phenomenal,” Monahan said of Cerisier. “He has to guard the other team’s best player. Game in and game out he’s done it, so he expends a ton of energy on the defensive end, and then he has to bring the ball up against pressure.
“Haverford is hard to play against, they pressure the ball, they’re aggressive. Thirty-eight seconds left, you go to the line, you’re up one, and you miss the front end. Then 20 seconds later, you have to come back and do it again. Making those two – that says a ton about who he is as a player. Without him, we’re not where we are this year, and we’re certainly not winning today.”
Upper Dublin (12-9, 5-5 SOL) will travel to Garnet Valley for a second round game Tuesday against the fourth-seeded Jaguars.
“Another Central League team that we know a little bit about,” Monahan said. “We have nothing to lose. We’re going to do our stuff, play our game, keep going as long as we can. We’re still playing basketball in March.”
Upper Dublin 6-19-5-18 48
Haverford 7-10-14-15 46
Upper Dublin (48) – Drew Stover 4 8-10 16; Seaton Kukla 1 0-0 2; Colin O’Sullivan 9 1-2 24; DJ Cerisier 2 2-3 6; TOTALS 16 11-15 48.
Haverford (46) – Googie Siedman 2 0-0 5; JR Newman 3 1-2 7; Nick Colucci 2 0-0 4; Hunter Kraiza 1 0-0 2; John Seidman 8 2-6 21; Will Higson 3 0-0 6; TOTALS 19 3-8 46.
3-point goals: UD – Colin O’Sullivan 5, Haverford – John Seidman 4, Googie Siedman.
#18 NORTH PENN 68, #15 STRATH HAVEN 62
Josh Jones had another huge game for the Knights, scoring 24 points, and Billy Coley added 16 to lead the Knights to the opening round win in a classic battle.
“Obviously, we came out on the right end, but it was a really good high school basketball game,” North Penn coach John Conrad said. “I don’t think there was ever more than a four- or five-point spread through most of the game. Every time we made a run they answered, and every time they made a run our kids were resilient and we answered. It was just back and forth the whole way through.
“Honestly, I think we just made the last run, and we were able to go up four or five, we got a good stop late. With 1:10 to go, we were up four and they had to come out and foul us. Down the stretch, we had consecutive stops which were huge for us defensively.”
The Knights, who led by one after one quarter, trailed 30-28 at halftime. A 21-point third quarter put the Knights on top 49-45 heading into the final quarter. Jones had six points in the quarter while Mario Sgro, Coley and Milind Pulugura each added five.
Jones had nine points in the pivotal fourth quarter as the Knights held on for the win.
“Obviously, our horse is Josh and we rode him pretty hard today,” Conrad said. “I thought Joey Larkins did a great job on their kid number 3, (Matt) Shuler. He only ended up with three points.
“We had Billy Coley faceguard (Luke) Edwards late, and I thought he did a really nice job with that. Edwards ended up with 30, but late in the game, Billy faceguarded him and made him work, and that was the difference.”
In addition to Jones and Coley, Ryan Zeltt added nine points, including a pair of 3s, and Sgro contributed seven.
North Penn (11-6, 6-4 SOL) will travel to second-seeded Conestoga for a second round game on Tuesday.
“I was talking before the game – who would have thought we’d be here playing district playoffs,” Conrad said. “A couple months ago, you never thought it would happen. It’s great.”
North Penn 15-13-21-19 68
Strath Haven 14-16-15-17 62
North Penn (68) – Mario Sgro 3 0-0 9; Joe Larkins 1 3-6 5; Billy Coley 6 2-2 16; Milind Pulugura 2 0-0 5; Josh Jones 9 5-7 24; Ryan Zeltt 2 3-4 9; Terhan Wright 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 24 13-19 68.
Strath Haven (62) – Will George 5 2-2 13; Matt Shuler 1 0-0 3; Jaden Jauregui 3 0-0 7; Christopher Golay 1 0-1 2; Carl Borgstrom 1 1-2 3; Robert Guilday 2 0-1 4; Luke Edwards 10 4-5 30; TOTALS 23 7-11 62.
3-point goals: NP – Billy Coley 2, Ryan Zeltt 2, Mario Sgro, Milind Pulugura, Josh Jones, SH – Luke Edwards 6, Jaden Jauregui, Will Goerge, Matt Shuler.
#16 METHACTON 46, #17 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 38
The Titans appeared to be in good stead when whey opened up an early 13-point lead, but they managed just 12 points in the middle two quarters and – despite getting the shots they were looking for – struggled to score.
“We were down 5-1 early, and we went on a huge run,” South coach Jason Campbell said. “We were up 22-9, and in that time span, we had three dunks. Owen Petrich had his first career dunk, and Michael Farley had two.
“We had the same energy, and we were making shots and plays similar to what we did when we played CB East a week ago (in a 59-43 South win). Methacton did a nice job, chipped away at it and cut it to four at halftime. We still felt good about everything.”
Momentum swung firmly in Methacton’s favor in a third quarter that saw the Titans manage just four points as the Warriors opened up a 30-26 lead.
“In the third quarter, we went 2-for-17 from the floor and 0-for-3 from 3-point range, but we had so many shot attempts in and around the lane area that just didn’t go in,” Campbell said. “We had offensive rebounds and putbacks that weren’t going in. We were satisfied with the good shots, and Methacton was chipping away, chipping away, staying in the game and taking the lead. At the end of the game, it’s a score you don’t want to see. We had it 40-38 with probably a minute left. We were never able to put more points on the board.”
Sophomore Tyler Meinel’s 14 points led the Titans. He also had four rebounds and a steal. Junior Michael Farley added 11 points, four rebounds, one assist and one steal. Jay Macalindong had seven points, including a pair of 3s, to go along with five rebounds and two assists. Senior point guard Evan D’Orazio had four assists, two steals and two rebounds.
“I told the guys – you never want to lose the game, but if you’re going to get knocked out of the playoffs, we went down playing based on our game plan, getting what we wanted, and it just didn’t go in for us,” Campbell said. “It doesn’t happen often where you have that situation, but if you lose a game, you’re losing by putting everything out there that you had to do. You did it, it just didn’t go in.
“I have a peace of mind. I hate losing, but if I’m going to lose, it’s going to be a close game, and it’s going to be that I know my players did everything possible to help themselves win the game, and there’s no regrets.”
In a remarkably clean outing, the Titans had just four turnovers in 32 minutes.
“It was the least amount of turnovers we had all season long in a game,” Campbell said. “We did everything we could possibly do. We held them to 46 points, so our defense was good enough, but we didn’t put it in.
“We lost Owen Petrich for a little bit – he turned his ankle in the third quarter, and he came back and toughed it out. We just fell on the short end of the stick, but give Methacton credit. Those kids chipped away, they came back when the momentum was in our favor in the first quarter and a half.
“It was a good year. We got knocked out in the first round, but there were a lot of wins for us.”
Campbell credited his players for the way they handled a difficult situation.
“Dealing with COVID, what they were asked to do wearing masks,” Campbell said. “I have to say – I feel we did the best job of anyone I’ve come across in wearing masks and following the safety and health plans. I can’t say that for everyone. There are teams that are better than others.
“The guys were frustrated with teams that had their masks down, but at the end of the day, you win the game based on playing it the right way and doing what you’re asked to do. I thanked the guys for the respect they showed for what I was asking them to do. That’s the kind of group of kids that I had. They could have easily just kept their masks down and followed along with what other teams were doing to get more air and to try and get an advantage, but they did it the right way, and there’s more wins in that than the win and loss record for the season. Unfortunately, not everyone follows through on what’s asked of them. I wish there would be more accountability for the mask rule, and there’s not.”
Central Bucks South closed out its season with a 9-7 record overall (6-4 SOL).
Central Bucks South 14-8-4-12 38
Methacton 5-13-12-16 46
Central Bucks South (38) – Jay Macalindong 2 1-2 7; Joe Rooney 1 0-0 2; Owen Petrich 2 0-0 4; Tyler Meinel 5 4-6 14; Michael Farley 5 0-0 11; TOTALS 15 5-8 38.
Methacton (46) – Mike Merola 0 2-2 2; Brett Byrne 6 0-0 13; Cole Hargrove 8 5-6 21; Steven Penjuke 1 0-0 2; Ryan Baldwin 3 2-3 8; TOTALS 18 9-11 46.
3-Point goals: CBS – Jay Macalindong 2, Michael Farley, Methacton – Brett Byrne.
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