Cheltenham Defeats Bensalem to Win SOL Tournament Title

Cheltenham captured the 2022 SOL Tournament title with its 50-37 win over Bensalem Tuesday. Photos provided courtesy of Richard Vernick. Check back for a gallery of photos.

 

 

By Todd Thorpe

 

WYNCOTE - When it was over, they were tired.

 

But … they’re still undefeated, now 25-0, and the Cheltenham Panthers have some more championship hardware to add to their collection.

“It means a lot,” said senior forward Brandon Bush. “It means a lot. It’s my first year playing here. It means a lot, winning at home, in front of our home crowd. I feel like this is great momentum going into districts.”

 

With its 50-37 win over visiting Bensalem in the championship game of the eight-team Suburban One League Tournament at home on Tuesday, Cheltenham proved, without a doubt, that it is the best team in the SOL for the 2021-22 season.

 

“We’re still humbled,” said senior leading scorer Rasheem Dearry, who had 17 points in the game, as well as 10 rebounds. “We’re not getting too cocky. We still have a job to do. We’ve still got districts and states.”

 

It didn’t come easy. Not the season and certainly not Tuesday night. The Panthers were concluding a brutal stretch that saw them play seven games in a nine-day period, including a quarterfinal win over Neshaminy on Saturday and a semifinal win over Central Bucks East on Monday.

Yes, they’re young players and, yes, coach Patrick Fleury has a deep bench, but that stretch was a brutal one for the team.

 

“I think seven games in nine days is a daunting task,” Fleury said. “It’s not excuses, it's just reality. Your legs get tired, but you have one more push. Tonight, Bensalem is a very, very good team. They’ve got great guard play, (Allen) Myers is a beast inside. I think our guys just had one push in the second half.”

 

Regardless of fatigue, the players knew they couldn’t use it as an excuse, either.

 

“It’s tiring, but, at the end of the day, we’ve still got to win,” Dearry said. “End of the day, we’ve still got to keep fighting.”

 

“I think it’s definitely exhausting,” added Bush. “I feel like we just have to push through it. We have to push through. We have guys from the starting five to all the way at the end of the bench that can contribute at any time. So, I don’t really worry about us being tired.”

 

Playing so many games also took the team out of its weekly routine, namely practice and preparation time.

 

“No sleep, that’s the difference,” Fleury said. “If you just play Tuesday, Wednesday you can go through your normal practices, the concepts that you want to do, Thursday, you prepare for the team that you have on Friday and Friday, you watch film in practice before you go to the game.

 

“Here, it’s game, after the game, clean all this up, then film, then work, then you try to sneak film in during your lunch period, right? And then there’s the game.

 

“For them, it’s a lot of texting, which probably shouldn’t happen in school, but there’s limited time. We send clips too. We send clips for those guys to watch. That’s the biggest thing. And another thing, you find out that you spend a lot more time together. Even though we practice late, we spend a lot more time with each other just because you have to. That was the one thing.

 

“It worked out well. Obviously, these guys, their bodies are tired, but their minds are not. They have a goal in mind, and they just want to try to reach that.”

 

Tuesday, both teams showed early signs of tired legs, as defense stole the show and shooting percentages were down. Cheltenham grabbed a lead as large as eight in the second quarter, only to see Bensalem rally to cut it to 24-21 at halftime.

 

Sophomore point guard Antonio Morris came off the bench and scored six points to give the Owls a lift in the quarter.

 

At halftime, however, Cheltenham knew it had a chance to deliver the knockout punch. If Bensalem started the third quarter quickly, it was going to be a dogfight to the end. But the Panthers never gave them a chance, dominating defensively and turning that into offense - including a pair of thunderous slam dunks by Bush.

 

Bush had three dunks on the night, and Justin Savage (11 points, six rebounds) had another in the second quarter.

 

“It felt great,” Bush said. “I felt like it helped us win the game. Not win the game, but bring the momentum, because we didn’t have it. Me, starting off slow the way I did, (the dunks) got my energy back up to help my team.”

 

A 13-0 run pushed the lead to 37-21 and from that point, the game was never in doubt.

 

“Defensively, they kind of locked in,” Fleury said. “I think it wasn’t until like the 3:40 mark of the third quarter that we gave up our first goal. So, if you’re playing like that as a unit, as a team, it’s going to be a lot of good results at the end of the game.

 

“Offensively, obviously, we’re going to sit back and just review a lot. Today, I think a lot of it was fatigue, but there were definitely some things that we missed that we’re going to talk about. That’s just something we’re going to focus on moving forward.”

 

Regardless of what happened Tuesday, both teams are in great position for the upcoming District One Class 6A playoffs and will receive first-round byes - Bensalem (19-6) as the No. 4 seed, and Cheltenham at No. 3.

 

Even still, even with the end of the season exhaustion apparent with both teams at times, this SOL prize meant something. And the last thing the Panthers wanted to see was the “0” in the loss column go away.

 

“It’s a good thing, but we’re not done yet,” Dearry said. “We’ve still got districts and state playoffs. It’s a big thing for us.”

 

Extra points:  Also for the Panthers, Elias Walker (7 points, 4 steals, 5 rebounds), Josiah Hutson (7 points, 2 steals) and Nasir Edens (4 rebounds, 3 assists) made important contributions. Bush finished with six points, six rebounds, five steals and five assists…This is the first SOL Tournament championship for Cheltenham. “This is a good one for the school, the community and further proof that it is good to stay home,” Fleury said. “All credit to the kids, the staff, and the administration who showed us a lot of love. It was definitely good. Hats off to (Bensalem coach) Ron Morris.” The Panthers’ coach acknowledged this SOL title had special significance. “I always think of an East Stroudsburg teammate of mine that we lost very early – Eric Bryan, who was telling me right before I was hired how he wanted to coach and he was going to be with us,” Fleury said. “For me and the staff just to be able to win this, it’s very humbling. Suburban One is a great league, a lot of great players and coaches, so for us, I’m just happy that I can finally sleep and send a prayer up to him. He was from Philly, an island kid like myself – he’s Jamaican and my parents are from Jamaica. It was special, and I just want to deliver a couple more to him.”

 

Bensalem (37)

Jeremy Rodriguez 3 4-4 13; Allen Myers 3 0-2 6; Eric Gonzalez 1 0-0 2; Aaron Sanders 1 2-3 4; Jake DeLange 0 2-2 2; Tra Edwards 1 0-0 2; Antonio Morris 3 0-0 6; Jalen Soberal 1 0-0 2. Totals 13 8-11 37.

Cheltenham (50)

Rasheem Dearry 7 0-0 17; Josiah Hutson 3 0-0 7; Elias Walker 2 3-4 7; Brandon Bush 3 0-0 6; Justin Savage 5 1-2 11; Johnathan Fevrier 1 0-0 2. Totals 21 4-6 50.

Bensalem 10 11 6 10 - 37

Cheltenham 12 12 17 9 - 50

3-point goals: B-Rodriguez 3; C-Dearry 3, Hutson 1

 

 

 

0