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QUAKERTOWN – Mike McGarry must have felt as though he was on a vacation of sorts in Monday night’s non-league game against Quakertown.Actually, just about anything would feel like a vacation after Saturday night’s game against Plymouth Whitemarsh that saw the Neshaminy junior matched up against St. Joseph University- bound C.J. Aiken, PW’s 6-10 center who swatted 13 shots back at McGarry and his teammates.
With no one there to reject his shots on Monday, McGarry had a field day, scoring a game-high 25 points and leading the Redskins to a convincing 68-53 win over the Panthers.
“I could actually see myself shooting the ball tonight,” McGarry said. “Against them on Saturday, I would shoot the ball and then not see where it was. I wouldn’t know if went in until after it went in.
“They were so tall. I never played a kid that tall in my life. It was a whole new thing for me, but it will help me in the future – just the experience and the atmosphere.”
“Mike is not going to play a better player than C.J. Aiken and Jaylen Bond,” teammate Ryan Arcidiacono said. “Once you play them early in the season – that’s good experience for the team and a good experience for Mike because he’s not going to play a better player. We know that he can face-up with anybody.”
McGarry is off to quite a start this season. He’s been in double figures in each of his team’s first three games, and the 6-6 forward has established himself as a threat to score from just about anywhere as evidenced by his two second-quarter treys.“Mike doesn’t have a lot of varsity experience,” coach Jerry Devine said. “He played a lot in the summer, but he’s still up and down emotionally.
“We talked about him being consistent, and the challenge we talked about was him against C.J. Aiken – how was he going to react to it? He got dunked on real early in the game, he went back on offense and clapped and was ready to go. That meant a lot. He’s starting to develop that consistent mentality, and he’s starting to play with confidence.”
Speaking of confidence – no one wearing a Redskin uniform is playing with more confidence these days than Arcidiacono. The sophomore guard scored 15 points, and his value was underscored when he took a seat on the bench after picking up his second foul at the 5:33 mark of the second quarter.
The Redskins led by five at the time, but two minutes later, the Panthers had trimmed that lead to two. Arcidiacono returned to the lineup, and the Redskins outscored the Panthers 11-5 the rest of the way to go into halftime with an eight-point lead.
The sophomore guard only had two points in that run – a pair of foul shots, but his presence was invaluable.
“As sophomores and juniors, we have to be floor leaders,” Arcidiacono said. “Last year we had Justin (Deeter) and Paul (Carrezola) who were leaders.
“We have to keep everyone on the same (page) and keep the same mentality, and we have to play solid defense.”McGarry echoed that sentiment.
“We have be better leaders,” he said. “We cannot stay content. We have to keep going.
“We can’t say, ‘This is a good win.’ We have to keep going at it at practice.”
The Redskins - who had three players in double figures, including sophomore Tyler Katz with 14 points – were impossible to stop offensively.
“We’re a very unselfish team,” Arcidiacono said. “We like each other a lot, we know each other can score, and we have confidence in each other.
“We’re not going to take a one-on-two, one-on-three because we know Dwight (Williams), Mike, Ty and Steve (Warhola) can all hit the shot. We all have confidence in each other.”
The Redskins were equally impressive on defense where they limited the dangerous Dalton Nice to just three field goals and nine points.
Responsible for containing Nice the better part of the night was Williams.
“Dwight is our defensive stopper,” Devine said. “Tristan Emig was that for us last year.
“With Tristan, we were able to stay in our game plan and not worry about that (one) guy. That’s where we’re getting with Dwight right now. He’s starting to develop that defensive mentality, and I thought he did a great job against the kid from Conestoga. He did a really good job against (PW’s) Jaylen Bond, and he did the same thing here with Dalton, and that was our goal coming in.”
One player the Redskins could not stop was Kenny Gula, who led the Panthers with 23 points.“Gula played really well,” Devine said. “He surprised us. He got a lot better from last year. He shot the ball well, and he didn’t get rattled against pressure.”
Gula recognizes he has to pick up the slack when teams focus on Nice.
“Dalton has been the main guy since freshman year,” the Panthers’ senior guard said. “Every team on their scouting report is going to say, ‘Deny Dalton, stop Dalton’ in big letters on the screen.
“In the off-season, I really worked on my game. Last year against Neshaminy, I think I had four or five points. I do feel a responsibility.”
The Redskins gave an early glimpse of things to come when – on their first possession of the night – Warhola found McGarry cutting to the basket for an easy deuce. A Rick Kivela bucket midway through the quarter put the Panthers on top 4-2, and when Warhola found Katz for an easy bucket at the other end, it marked the beginning of a span that saw the teams exchange baskets on eight straight possessions.
A basket by Arcidiacono off the dribble gave the Redskins a 13-12 lead heading into the second quarter. Nice scored on a baseline drive to open the frame, but Katz answered with a trey. A bucket by Donnie Thomas knotted the score, but McGarry found Katz cutting to the hole with a bounce pass that resulted in an easy basket, and then McGarry buried a trey from the top of the circle to put the ‘Skins on top 21-16.
Gula answered with a trey for the Panthers, but McGarry scored on a putback. Kevila (15 points) scored on a baseline drive to make it a 23-21 game, prompting Devine to call a quick timeout.
“He said, ‘You guys better pick up the defense or you’re all coming out,’” said Arcidiacono, who returned to the lineup after the timeout. “At practice, that’s all we do – it’s just defense, defense, defense.
“He said if we keep pressuring their guards, we’ll get some easy buckets ourselves, and that’s what we did.”
McGarry buried another trey out of the timeout, and Williams scored on a baseline drive. Quakertown coach Kevin Keeler called a timeout, and a basket by Gula made it a five-point game. But not for long.
The Redskins closed out the half with a 6-3 run to go into halftime on top 34-26.
Kivela turned a steal into a basket to open the second half, but the Redskins answered with a 9-2 run that was capped with McGarry turning a steal into a dunk that put Neshaminy on top 45-30.
The Panthers never threatened the rest of the way.
“They’re a good team,” Gula said. “They might not be the biggest team – they’re not PW or Norristown, but they’re a very smart team.
“They spread the floor out, they’re quick, and they know when to pass and when to shoot at the right moments, so they’re a tough team. We needed a challenge like this because come league play on Friday – we need to be ready. Every league game is very important, so seeing an out-of-conference team as good as this, we know what to work on and what our weaknesses are, so it was a good challenge for us.”
Quakertown (2-1) will travel to Central Bucks South for its league opener on Friday while Neshaminy (2-1) will travel to Abington.
NESHAMINY 68, QUAKERTOWN 53
Neshaminy (68) – Steve Warhola 0 2-2 2; Ryan Arcidiacono 6 2-2 15; Dwight Williams 4 0-2 8; Tyler Katz 6 1-2 14; Mike McGarry 10 3-3 25; Charlie Marterella 0 0-0 0; Dave Baron 1 1-2 3; Richie Schafer 0 0-0 0; Dave Smith 0 1-2 1. TOTALS 27 10-15 68
Quakertown (53) – Rick Kivela 6 3-6 15; Dalton Nice 3 3-5 9; Kenny Gula 10 1-3 23; Austin Keeler 0 0-0 0; Donnie Thomas 1 0-0 2; Mike Ciccarone 1 0-0 2; Trevor Dietrich 0 0-0 0; Dylan Gossler 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 22 7-14 53.
Neshaminy 13 21 17 17-68
Quakertown 12 14 9 18-53
3-point goals: Neshaminy – Mike McGarry 2, Ryan Arcidiacono 1, Tyler Katz 1. Quakertown – Kenny Gula 2.
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