By Nate Oxman
With three minutes, 49 seconds to play in the second quarter Central Bucks East junior big man Skylar Scrivano sprinted ahead after a William Tennent turnover, took a long pass from teammate Brandon Boekel, and swooped in all alone for a thunderous two-handed dunk.
The bucket gave C.B. East a 24-21 lead and could very well have been the type of momentum-shifting play the team needed to begin to pull away from the pesky Panthers.
But the Patriots’ big run would have to wait.
It wasn’t until a 15-0 stretch in the final 2:55 of the third quarter provided a comfortable 13-point cushion in an eventual 62-47 win on Saturday at Council Rock North in the inaugural Suburban One League Shootout to benefit Coaches vs. Cancer.
It was the third straight win for the Patriots after persevering through a difficult six-game, three-week long losing streak.
“It’s been tough,” said Boekel. “We were 7-0 at the beginning of the season and then we went 0-6. We’re just trying to get back to our game now. We just wanted to play hard today and to continue to work things out and I think we did that.”
The skid began with back-to-back overtime losses, to Coatesville and C.B. West, included losses to Suburban One League powers Pennsbury (13-2), C.B. South (14-2) and Souderton (11-6), and peaked with a gut-wrenching double-overtime loss to North Penn.
“They were all good teams, so it was tough,” said Boekel. “But they were all close too at the same time - three of them were in overtime. So I think we’ve learned from our mistakes. We know what we have to do now to win.”
The Patriots pulled out to an early five-point lead Saturday as a textbook motion offense provided ample opportunities for backdoor layups, and an eagerness to attack the offensive glass led to easy putbacks.
“They set really good screens on us and cut really hard,” said Tennent guard Eugene Bell. “I lost my man a couple of times. He was doing a good job of cutting and I think that’s what messed all of us up.”
The early beneficiary was the 6-foot-8 Scrivano, who scored five of the Patriots first nine points, four via offensive rebounds and putbacks.
But Bell buried a difficult step-back three-pointer to put the Panthers up 12-11 with 2:10 to play in the first, and that began an intense back-and-forth battle that saw 10 lead changes in the next five minutes as neither team was able to string together consecutive scores.
It remained a one-point game until Scrivano’s fastbreak dunk, which was appropriately answered at the other end with another high-arching trey by Bell.
“I thought we played hard,” said Bell. “We came out and gave it our all, but we just slipped once again like we did against Council Rock North [a 53-43 loss Friday night]. The same thing happened, and the game didn’t turn out the way we wanted.”
The Patriots took a 27-24 lead into the break and - after a nice knifing-drive into the lane by Dave Kiersnowski - matched their largest lead of the afternoon at five before the Panthers responded with a quick 7-0 spurt.
It was kick-started by two free-throws from Bell following a technical foul on Patriots coach Chris Huber and also included a great drive-and-kick by Sawyer Waugh to Billy Smith for a baseline trey. A Waugh layup on the next possession gave the Panthers a 31-29 advantage with 5:27 left in the third quarter.
Five consecutive lead changes followed as Panthers center Matt Hartman worked hard down low to keep Scrivano from setting up deep in the post where he could catch and turn for easy looks.
Rather than force the issue, the Patriots were content to set plenty of screens and use dribble penetration to provide easy paths to the basket for guards Tom McLaughlin, Chris Harmon and Boekel.
After another drive-and-kick by Waugh led to a three-pointer from Hartman and put the Panthers in front by 36-34, Boekel answered with a beautiful backdoor cut for a layup and the foul. He converted the three-point play to ignite the 15-0 blitz that buried the Panthers.
“We just started playing our game more,” said Boekel on what triggered the tear. “We missed a lot of easy shots in the first half. In the second half, we were able to finish a lot of those.”
Boekel scored seven points during the stretch and capped it off with a driving layup just before the buzzer to give the Patriots a 49-36 lead entering the final frame.
The Panthers did muster another 7-0 run to trim the deficit to 51-45 with 4:17 to go, but their inability to prevent the Patriots from penetrating into the lane or from pulling down offensive rebounds put any hopes of a comeback to rest.
Boekel paced the balanced Patriots (10-6) attack with a game-high 18 points. Harmon contributed 11 points and eight rebounds, and Scrivano, McLaughlin and Craiger Eshleman added nine points apiece.
“That’s one of our positives, that each one of us is a scoring threat,” said Boekel. “I think that’s probably going to help us out later on in the season.”
Bell led the Panthers (1-15) with 12 points, while Hartman (11 points) and Waugh (10) also scored in double figures.
Central Bucks East (62)—Kiersnowski 1 2-2 4; McLaughlin 4 1-3 9; Boekel 6 6-8 18; Harmon 3 4-4 11; Scrivano 4 1-2 9; Eshleman 3 3-4 9; Schneider 1 0-2 2; Barone 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 17-25 62.
William Tennent (47)—Pio 1 1-2 3; Smith 2 2-2 7; Bell 3 4-4 12; Waugh 4 2-2 10; Hartman 4 0-0 11; Vargas 0 0-0 0; Weinkiereich 0 2-2 2; Eckhardt 0 0-0 0; Kofa 1 0-0 2; Rauchut 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 11-12 62.
3-point goals: Hartman 3, Bell 2, Smith; Harmon
Central Bucks East 14 13 22 13—62
William Tennent 15 9 12 11—47
- Log in to post comments
0
