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By Scott Huff
SOUDERTON - The basketball court at Souderton should have had ropes around it as the host Indians and the Bucks of Central Bucks West slugged it out for 32 punishing minutes.
“That trainer really earned her keep,” said CB West coach Adam Sherman after West (13-2, 8-1) topped the Big Red (10-6, 6-3), 51-36. “It was an extremely physical game, and I thought that they might run out of ice.”
Jess Cancel, the Souderton trainer, had to attend to a host of injuries in the second half. Included were ankle injuries to Souderton’s Jim Connolly and Nate Lewis, a head injury to the Big Red’s Moe Anthony, and a back injury to CB West point guard Chris Dilullo.
Connolly, Lewis, and Anthony were all headed to the hospital to get x-rays. Dilullo boarded the bus with an ice pack strapped to his back.
“It was a very physical game,” agreed Souderton coach Perry Engard. “I was a little frustrated with the inconsistencies of the whistles.
“But Central Bucks West deserved to win the game,” continued Engard. “They are a very well-coached team, and they outplayed in the first half.”
The Bucks came out firing the three-pointers in the first period as Shane Tyksinski, Ryan Dyer, and Rellis Reichwein all hit from beyond the arc.
Souderton could not recover. The Indians climbed to within five points – 22-17 – as Connolly and A.J. Picard drilled three-pointers. But West scored the last six points to close out the half with a 28-17 lead.
“I thought that we defended and executed well tonight,” said Sherman. “Our defense came up with some stops when we needed them, and then Connolly got hurt.”
The critical blow to any thoughts of a Souderton comeback came when Connolly was injured with 3:44 left in the third period.
“Connolly is about 40 percent of their offense,” said Sherman. “It was an important loss for them.”
Central Bucks West featured a balanced attack as it remained tied for first place in the conference with Central Bucks South (13-2, 8-1) – a 58-32 winner over Pennridge.
“We want to be able to control our own destiny,” said Sherman. “And beating Souderton was a huge win for us.”
Pat Furst led the Bucks with 13 points, while Joe Dilullo added 11 points, and Rellis Reichwein chipped in with 10 points.
“We did a good job of sharing the basketball,” said Sherman. “And Joe (Dilullo) played a good game handling the basketball.”
“This was an important game for us,” said Dilullo, who also collected eight rebounds. “Souderton is a great team, and we knew that we were going to have to play hard to beat them.
“This game should give us some momentum as we begin the stretch drive,” added Dilullo. “Every game is going to be important.”
The game was also very important for Souderton.
“I told the team that if we can win out we’ll get a high seed in the playoffs,” said Engard. “But right now, we have to concentrate on winning our next game against North Penn.
“We didn’t get to practice due to the weather, and I think we looked a little rusty tonight,” added Engard. “We fell behind early, and it caused us to play catch up.”
The Souderton scoring leader for the game was guard A.J. Picard who bombed home five three-pointers and had 15 points. In fact, the Indians had more three-point field goals (7) then two-point field goals (6).
There was also a huge disparity in the number of free throws taken. Souderton took its first free throw with just three minutes left in the final period and took just five for the game. West shot 25 free throws – making 16.
“A lot of the fouls called against us were reaction fouls – not action fouls,” said Engard. “But you can’t say that was the reason we didn’t win the game – West was the better team tonight.”
And the Bucks delivered the knockout punch.
Central Bucks West 16 12 14 9 - 51
Souderton 8 9 12 7 - 36
Central Bucks West: Rellis Reichwein 4 1-2 10; Pat Furst 5 2-2 13; Ryan Fiori 0 3-4 3; Joe Dilullo 4 2-6 11; Bill Carroll 0 3-4 3; Shane Tyksinski 1 2-3 5; Ryan Dyer 1 0-0 3; Chris Dilullo 0 3-4 3. Totals 15 16-25 51.
3-point field goals – Reichwein, Furst, J.Dilullo, Tyksinski, Dyer.
Souderton: Moe Anthony 2 0-0 4; A.J. Picard 5 0-0 15; J.Connolly 2 0-0 6; Nate Moyer 1 0-0 2; Chris Roger 1 0-0 2; K.Connolly 1 1-1 3; Nate Metz 0 0-2 0; Denis Passarella 0 2-2 2; Jeff Bishop 1 0-0 2. Totals 13 3-5 36.
3-point field goals – Picard (5), JConnolly 2.
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