By Scott Huff
WEST NORRITON – The venue is the same.
The gleaming shine of the hardwood - under the bright lights - and the banners on the wall that show the storied history of Norristown basketball.
The head coach is the same.
Michael Evans – who led the Eagles to a 2008-09 District One title a year ago and also coached Norristown to a PIAA state championship game in 2007-2008 – still coaches his Eagles in his calm - but stern - manner.
Norristown senior Sheldon Mayer is still on the roster.
The diminutive point guard – who started as a freshman - has led the Eagles to a 5-0 record to begin this season. But Mayer did not play on Tuesday night due to an ankle injury.
But don’t kid yourself – these are not your Daddy’s Norristown Eagles. In fact, these are not your Khalif Wyatt Norristown Eagles of the past two seasons. The talent pool is very shallow on this 2009-2010 team.
“There is no question that we didn’t take care of business tonight,” said Evans after Norristown (5-1) lost to La Salle, 45-35, in an opening round game of the Triangle Club Holiday Basketball Tournament. “Missing Sheldon didn’t help, but we had to do a much better job of attacking their zone.”
The term ‘attack’ was the key word to describe the difference in the game. And without General Mayer to lead them, the Eagles struggled throughout the course of the game.
“We didn’t attack the zone the way that we should have,” said Norristown junior guard Aaron Webb who led the Eagles with 13 points. “We got off to a slow start, and we never really got it going until the very end of the game.”
“We just didn’t show up tonight,” said junior forward Rasheed McCray who added seven points. “We settled for too many jumpers, and we played too soft on both offense and defense.”
The first quarter saw Norristown take its only lead of the night (4-2) on a runner by Jacquil Hargrove. Hargrove – who has led the Eagles in scoring all season – was limited in his touches and scored just four points.
La Salle took advantage of its size advantage in the first period as 6-foot, 5-inch Brennan Woods scored six points in the paint to help the Explorers to a 12-10 first quarter lead.
“They took advantage of their ‘bigs’,” said Evans in reference to Woods and 6-9 junior Steve Collins. “They also had us play at their tempo, and we never could speed the game up to our tempo.
“They were able to stay in that zone, and we were limited to just one shot,” added Evans. “We are going to have to work on that – every game is a learning experience for this team.”
The second quarter was – at times – painful to watch as La Salle outscored the Eagles 7-4 to take a 19-14 halftime lead. McCray scored a field goal with 5:37 left in the period – and the Eagles would not score a point the remainder of the period.
“It’s pretty obvious that we didn’t shoot the ball well,” said Evans. “Sometimes you have nights like that.”
Norristown closed to within a basket – 21-19 – with 5:47 left in the third period. The Eagles went – ugh – seven minutes and thirty-seven seconds before scoring again to trail 30-21.
The teams traded points in the final period, and Norristown actually made three successive 3-point field goals – by Webb, Tyreese White, and Chris Davis – to close within 41-33 with 1:00 left in the game.
“The good thing about high school basketball is you get to play another game another night,” said Evans. “We will watch some film on Conestoga, shoot around, and get ready to play. This game is over.”
Triangle Club Tournament Notebook: Norristown has won 14 of the last 17 championships – including the last five…Khalif Wyatt was the MVP in the last two tourneys with Damar Coleman, Mike Buckley, and Ken Witter also winning MVP trophies for the Eagles in the last five seasons…Norristown will face Conestoga in the Consolation game tomorrow (6:30 pm), while La Salle will meet Germantown Academy (8:15 p.m.) in the title game ----- GA blasted Conestoga 72-55 in last night’s opener.
La Salle 12 7 11 15 - 45
Norristown 10 4 5 16 - 35
La Salle: Eddie Mitchell 5 1-3 12; Brennan Woods 5 0-0 10; Troy Hockaday 0 6-6 6; Joe Brown 2 0-0 4; Steve Collins 3 0-0 6; Michael Poncia 2 2-2 7. Totals 17 9-11 45.
3-point field goals: Mitchell; Poncia
Norristown: Aaron Webb 6 0-0 13; Jacquil Hargrove 2 0-0 4; Rasheed McCray 3 1-2 7; Chris Davis 2 0-0 5; Bryant Baylis 1 0-0 2; Tevin Bush 0 1-2 1; Tyreese White 1 0-0 3. Totals 15 2-4 35.
3-point field goals: Webb; Davis; White.
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