By Nick DeLorenzo
After Pennsbury lost the majority of last year’s Final Four squad to graduation, including West Virginia freshman Dalton Pepper, not many people expected the Falcons to be just one game away from the state playoffs.
“This is a group that people were dying to write off,” Falcons’ coach Frank Sciolla said. “There was not an iota of negativity because we lost 80 percent of our scoring and rebounding. I am beyond pleased with this group.”
This year’s Falcon squad, which has been carrying a chip on its shoulder all year, defeated North Penn in front of an eager home crowd and rowdy student section Friday night, 40-28.
The Falcons were led by sophomore guard Kieran Bolger with 13 points. Included in that number were three three-pointers - two in the first quarter that propelled the team to an early lead they would never lose.
The Falcons led 14-8 at the end of one quarter and by halftime had extended that lead to 25-14.
“Kieran just continues to be red hot shooting the basketball,” Sciolla said. “He’s really given us a huge lift.”
While Pennsbury didn’t exactly light it up from the field –shooting just 12 for 28, its suffocating defense did more than enough to keep the lead near double digits for the entire game, holding North Penn to eight points or less in every quarter.
“The boys did a tremendous job,” Sciolla said. “North Penn ran a lot of sets that we took them out of. We really made it difficult for them to get comfortable on offense.”
“We brought the intensity and that’s all we really need to do,” Bolger added. “We brought it on the defensive end.”
The win marks the fifth in a row for the Falcons after losing five in a row at the end of January. During that stretch, Pennsbury’s hopes of success in the district playoffs looked bleak.
“During [the] five-game (losing streak) we didn’t practice well at all.” Bolger said. “The intensity wasn’t there. We were down about the whole thing, but we came back.”
“We had a meeting three weeks ago,” Sciolla said. “We said we’re not going to watch tape of the last games, we’re not going to talk about what happened before.”
The strategy has clearly worked for the Falcons, as they have gotten hot at the perfect time and have become a team that nobody wants to play right now.
Dante Devine and Zachary Kumor added to Pennsbury’s balanced scoring attack with eight points each. Jesse Krasna chipped in with seven points and also helped out with a few great assists that led to easy, wide open layups.
Sciolla gave credit to the North Penn’s defensive attack for giving Pennsbury a tough battle all night.
“Tonight I thought [North Penn] played an interesting style.” Sciolla said. “Their matchup zone did a good job. They forced us to really adjust and go to the baseline for layups, which we were able to do.”
“All their games are in that (low) scoring range,” he added. “That’s the way they play.”
North Penn finishes the season with a 13-10 overall record. Matt Possanza led the way for the Knights with nine points.
The next task for Pennsbury comes on Tuesday night at #4 seed Coatesville. Sciolla knows they are in for a big challenge, but thinks his team is up for it.
“They’re bigger than us,” the Falcons’ coach said. “They’re enormous, they’re super-athletic, they’ve had a lot of success and score a lot of points – they’re scoring in the 70s, 80s every game.”
“They’re going to come out with size and athletes, and we’re going to try to combat that by executing,” he continued. “It’s a great challenge.”
Bolger knows that, even though the team may not know a lot about Coatesville just yet, they’re going to be well prepared come Tuesday.
“If we just keep playing the way we are, I think we can beat anybody in the state,” he said.
PENNSBURY 40, NORTH PENN 28
Pennsbury -- 14 11 8 7 40
North Penn -- 8 6 8 6 28
Pennsbury -- Jesse Krasna 1 5-6 7; Dante Devine 1 6-6 8; Kieran Bolger 5 0-0 13; Zachary Kumor 4 0-0 8; Kris Hassell 1 0-0 2; Jay Jabat 0 2-4 2. TOTALS 12 13-16 40
North Penn -- Wes Brooks 2 0-0 5; TJ Gill 1 0-1 2; Matt Possanza 3 3-5 9; Dexter Shy 1 2-3 4; Taylor Koffke 3 1-1 8. TOTALS 10 6-10 28.
Three-pointers -- Pennsbury: Bolger 3; North Penn: Brooks, Koffke
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