PW, Abington & CR North were winners in Friday’s opening round of the District One 6A Tournament. Check out the recaps for all the SOL boys’ basketball teams in action. PW/CB South photos provided courtesy of Larry Small, and CR North/Neshaminy photos courtesy of John Gleeson. Check back for galleries of both games. All SOS photo galleries for BOYS’ BASKETBALL can be viewed by clicking HERE.
DISTRICT ONE 6A (Opening Round)
#22 Plymouth Whitemarsh 73, #11 Central Bucks South 66
Trailing most of the game and still down four points heading into the final quarter, Plymouth Whitemarsh exploded, scoring 27 points in the fourth quarter on their way to the road win over the Titans in a battle of SOL division winners.
“It was a classic high school basketball game,” said PW coach Jim Donofrio. “It was a tightly called game. We’re a little short in our rotation – Zende Hubbard is still out with an injury, so we were down to maybe a seven-man rotation. The fouls started to add up a little.
“I told the kids, as long as we’re within six – at one point we were down 10, 11 or 12, and we had to battle back – we’ll be OK.”
In the fourth quarter, Qudire Bennett had 15 of his game-high 24 points for the Colonials. He also went 9-for-9 from the free throw line.
“He’s only a junior,” Donofrio said. “He’s definitely making noise. He’s a four-year development guy, and he’s going to be more unique next year.
“The kid is growing into his body every year. He’s a good 6-3, 6-4 with good muscle mass. Colleges are going to see how good he is.”
Jaden Colzie added 18 points for PW – which included four 3- pointers – and Marshall Baker added 12. As a team, PW went 14-15 from the 
line in the fourth quarter.
“That’s been a big point of contention with us,” Donofrio said. “We’ve probably thrown two games away on the line. We’ve been blinking at the foul line when it mattered most. But there’s always a silver lining among the dark clouds. We’re still alive, despite a whole lot of heartache games.”
PW (16-7) advanced to Tuesday’s second round against #6 Downingtown West.
CB South (15-9, 11-5 SOL) connected on 10 3-pointers on the day, including four each for Joe Rooney (team-high 17 points) and Chris Granito. Michael Farley finished with 15.
The Titans played the fourth quarter without guard Jay Macalindong, who was sidelined with an injury.
Plymouth Whitemarsh (73)
Jaden Colzie 5 4-8 18; Marshall Baker 2 7-11 12; Trey Jones 0 2-2 2; Robbin Vinson 0 2-2 2; Taji Hubbard 5 0-0 10; Qudire Bennett 7 9-9 24; Pat Flynn 2 0-0 4. Totals 21 24-32 73.
Central Bucks South (66)
Jay Macalindong 3 2-4 9; Joe Rooney 6 1-1 17; Chris Granito 4 4-4 16; Bryan Delara 0 2-4 2; Tyler Meinel 3 0-0 6; Michael Farley 4 6-7 15. Totals 20 15-20 65
Plymouth Whitemarsh 12 14 20 27 – 73
CB South 15 17 18 16 – 66
3-point goals: PW-Colzie 4, Baker 1, Bennett 1; CBS-Rooney 4, Granito 4, Macalindong 1, Farley 1.
#23 Abington 36, #10 Conestoga 32 (2 OT)
After missing chances to win at the end of regulation and in the first overtime, Abington did what it took to win in the second overtime, clinching the huge first-round upset on the free throw line at Conestoga on Friday.
From the outset, the tempo was not to the Ghosts’ liking. Abington took a 14-7 lead into halftime.
“I don’t know how to describe it,” said Abington coach Charles Grasty. “We were feeling them out, they were feeling us out, and we couldn’t get going. We couldn’t get our transition going. They took their time against our zone. We wanted to collapse on their big kid (Michael Walz) and contest their shots from the outside. They struggled a bit from outside.
“We just weren’t able to rebound, get up the floor and get our transition going. We had to go to a different style. The good thing is we play so many different teams with different styles, and we’re able to see that kind of style, and that helped us out big time.”
After committing eight turnovers in the first half, Abington committed just two the rest of the game. In the second overtime, it came down to free throw shooting.
Fhenyx Scutt, who was fouled intentionally, made one of two with 2:56 to play, giving Abington a two-point lead. Connor Fields then made one of two with 28 seconds remaining to make it a three-point game. After Conestoga misfired on a three to knot the score, Fields, who pulled down the rebound and was fouled. He missed the first of two foul shots but made the second with seven seconds remaining to give his team its final margin of victory.
“Connor Fields didn’t score a lot of points, but he had 11 rebounds, he had three or four monster steals,” Grasty said. “He even had one at the end of the game. Out of our zone, he did a good job of anticipating, and he came up with some big steals.
“Jimmy Marino is our unsung hero. He runs the point for us, doesn’t score a lot of points. He’s running our offense like we want him to run it. Obviously, we wanted to score more points tonight, but he may have had one turnover, one or two, but he’s running our offense the way we want him to run it, just giving us a chance.”
It was a low-scoring game, but the Abington players stayed focused, and defensively, it was able to contain Conestoga center and University of Richmond commit Walz for most of the night.
“I looked up (and) it was like a football score,” Grasty said about his team’s 14-7 lead at halftime. “I did a double take. I told them at halftime, ‘I’ve been around a long time, and that’s probably the lowest scoring half that I’ve ever been a part of.’
“To be up is even better. I complimented our guys. We had a game plan, they bought into it. They pretty much ran it to a ’T’ in the first half. It was good to see that they followed the game plan.
“In the third quarter, they came out and made some shots like we knew they would. They really followed the game plan, buckled down, made it tough on (Walz) and got out and contested their shooters. We wanted to get out and run in transition because we felt like if we got a stop and got a rebound, we could get going, but it was one of those nights we just couldn’t get going.”
Walz ended up with just six points.
“He’s legit, he’s a legit 6-10,” Grasty said. “We didn’t want to put pressure on any one person to guard him, so we gave a lot of help. We had to help and recover like the old saying when you first learn how to play defense. They hit some big 3s late where we missed a couple of rotations. We really wanted to make it hard for him to get any good looks, and we wanted to close out on the shooters, and they did a good job.”
Derrius Lucas led Abington (15-8) in scoring with 20 points. The Ghosts play at #7 West Chester East on Tuesday.
Abington (36)
Connor Fields 0 2-5 2; Fhenyx Scutt 1 1-3 4; Jeremiah Lee 3 0-0 9; Jimmy Marino 0 1-2 1; Derrius Lucas 7 4-5 20. Totals 11 8-14 36.
Conestoga (32)
Ryan Mackey 3 0-0 7; Aidan Carew 2 1-2 6; Colin Todd 2 0-0 4; Matt Malarkey 2 0-2 4; Michael Walz 3 0-0 6; Brendan Styer 0 1-2 1; Chris Erickson 1 2-4 4. Totals 13 4-10 32.
Abington 9 5 5 8 4 5 – 36
Conestoga 5 2 12 8 4 1 – 32
3-point goals: A- Jeremiah Lee 3, Derrius Lucas 2, Fhenyx Scott. C – Ryan Mackey, Aidan Carew.
#15 Council Rock North 58, #18 Neshaminy 53
Not much separated these two SOL Patriot Division rivals, as they split in two regular season games, so this one was the grudge match.
Host CR North avoided the upset bug, outscoring Neshaminy 15-10 in the fourth quarter to pull out the five-point win.
“This was our first home playoff game since 2013, and it was great to have such a big crowd,” said Indians’ coach Jesse Krasna. “Our fans have been awesome all year, and the boys have created a lot of excitement about Council Rock North boys basketball in our community. I am really proud of our kids — they played with an intensity and we (is greater than) me mentality that great teams have.
“It was a really well played game with a lot of great performances on both sides. For Neshaminy, Nate Townsend gave us fits attacking the hole all night, Sean Curley hit tough shots off the dribble with defenders draped all over him and Evan Esposito scored from all over the court.
“We had trouble defending for chunks of the game. Neshaminy can score in bunches, and it seemed like anytime we gained some separation they would go on a run. We were able to come up with some key stops in the fourth quarter when we needed it most and everyone made winning plays throughout the game.”
Adam Mahtat had a career night for the Indians, finishing with 23 points.
“Adam Mahtat has had so many good games in his career, but this may have been his best yet,” Krasna said. “He tied his career high.
“One of the biggest plays of the game came after we missed two free throws late in the fourth quarter. Adam sprints back on defense and saves a layup by taking a charge. That could have been a four-point swing but instead it allowed us to forget about the missed free throws and gave us all the momentum.”
Bernie Parent added 14, but CR North got contributions from many different players.
“Shane Anhalt made a beautiful lob pass to Adam Mahtat for a layup late in the fourth quarter,” Krasna said. “Matt Henricksen came off the bench and blocked a shot and helped us get a big stop in the third quarter when we were battling some foul trouble.
“Jack Blum played his role exceptionally well. He defended, got after the glass and made open shots.
“Logan Saifer rebounded, defended and finished around the rim well.
“Having a healthy Ryan Burkett was huge for us. He kept Neshaminy’s guards out of the paint and had some nice drives himself.”
Neshaminy was led Friday by Nate Townsend, who scored 23 points, and Evan Esposito had 15. The Redskins finished their season with a 14-10 final record.
CR North (17-7) moves on to the second round and a matchup with #2 Lower Merion on Tuesday.
Neshaminy (53)
Joey Zack 0 2-2 2; Evan Esposito 6 0-0 15; Earl Coombs 1 0-0 2; Kade Benjamin 1 0-0 2; Sean Curley 4 0-0 9; Nate Townsend 10 3-3 23. Totals 22 5-5 53.
Council Rock North (58)
Shane Anhalt 1 0-3 2; Bernie Parent 6 1-3 14; Adam Mahtat 8 2-6 23; Jack Blum 2 2-3 7; Ryan Burkett 3 0-0 6; Logan Saifer 2 2-3 6. Totals 22 7-18 58.
Neshaminy 13 16 14 10 – 53
CR North 17 14 14 15 – 58
3-point goals: N-Esposito 3, Curley 1;CRN-Mahtat 5, Blum 1, Parent.
#24 Garnet Valley 48, #9 Upper Dublin 46
Things looked pretty good for a half, even into the third quarter, for the ninth-seeded Flying Cardinals. But the fourth quarter was a different story.
Visiting Garnet Valley outscored Upper Dublin 16-7 in the fourth quarter and won the game with a putback bucket by Logan McKee with less than a second on the clock.
“We’ve gone into overtime a couple of times this year, and we won multiple times,” said UD assistant coach Josh Daeche, who filled in for head coach Chris Monahan (illness). “I felt very confident if we got to overtime. Being the coach, maybe you call a timeout and set something up, but to be honest, I didn’t want them to set anything up. I wanted to play it out. I felt, ‘Now, we’re going to get a stop.’ They missed a shot, got a putback with .7 seconds left, and that wraps up our season, unfortunately.”
UD led this game 36-18 in the third quarter, but Garnet Valley never went away.
“The guys played hard all year,” Daeche said. “Tonight, we got off to a great start. We shot the ball better than we did in most games. We were up at the half and felt pretty confident. Give credit to Garnet Valley – they are a good shooting team, they’re well coached, they run a lot of great offensive sets, and they made shots in the second half.
“We couldn’t get stops when we needed, and they’re moving on for that reason.”
After giving up the lead, UD tied it up with nine seconds remaining on a DJ Cerisier 3-pointer.
Cerisier led the Cardinals with 14 points for the game, while Colin O’Sullivan scored 13.
“Colin O’Sullivan, DJ Cerisier played as hard as you could ever have,” Daeche said. “It was an honor to coach them tonight, in particular, being in Chris’ role. Griffin Pensabene, Ryan Mulroy, Seaton Kukla – they’re great guys. It’s been a lot of fun.
“It’s disappointing because we won part of a conference championship for the first time in 20 years. They go from hearing Chris’ voice all season to hearing mine, but that didn’t affect them. Those guys played loose, they played hard. I loved every minute of it tonight. I’m very disappointed that we ended that way, but credit to Garnet Valley on moving forward.”
UD finishes the season with a 17-8 record.
Garnet Valley will play #8 Spring-Ford on Tuesday.
Garnet Valley (48)
Jake Sniras 1 0-0 2; Ryan Facenda 1 2-2 4; Logan McKee 3 0-1 7; Max Koehler 7 0-0 15; Ryan Wotten 4 0-0 11; Jack Krautzel 3 1-1 9. Totals 19 3-4 48.
Upper Dublin (46)
DJ Cerisier 5 2-2 14; Chris Kohlbrenner 0 1-2 1; Colin O’Sullivan 5 0-0 13; Ryan Mulroy 1 0-0 3; Griffin Pensabene 2 0-0 5; Elliot Johnson 2 0-0 4; Seaton Kukla 2 1-2 6. Totals 17 4-6 46.
Garnet Valley 7 7 17 16 – 48
Upper Dublin 17 11 12 7 – 46
3-point goals: GV-Wotten 3, Krautzel 2, McKee 1, Koehler 1; UD-O’Sullivan 3, Cerisier 2, G. Pensabene 1, Mulroy 1, Kukla 1
#17 Penn Wood 52, #16 Pennsbury 43
Defensively, visiting Penn Wood gave the Falcons fits all night.
Pennsbury kept within striking distance most of the night but could never click it into gear offensively to have a chance to win it. As a result, Penn Wood pulled it out and advanced to Tuesday’s second round against No. 1 Methacton.
“We were just not able to get into a flow,” said Falcons coach Bill Coleman. “I believe it was 15-10 going into the second quarter and they were just making us uncomfortable. We were doing things we normally don’t do on the offensive side of the floor and that took its toll as the game went on.
It was 22-18 at halftime and 31-26 after three, and Penn Wood was able to finish it out in the fourth.
“The way Penn Wood plays, the way they defend, stuff is going to look open off the bounce,” Coleman said. “They’re so wide open, so spread out, it looks open, but it’s not really there. Our guys fell for it and kind of got caught up in some stuff. Our guys fought, but it was just one of those games.”
Evan McNeely led Pennsbury with 14 points, while Connor Taddei chipped in with 11. The Falcons shot 40 percent from the field but were 3-for-17 from 3-point range, 4-for-12 on the foul line. They committed 20 turnovers.
Pennsbury finished its season with a 13-8 final record.
“It was a long season, but I’m very proud of the guys,” Coleman said. “I said this from the jump, this is a good group of kids. I love them to death. They’ll be part of my family from here on out. We fought to the end.”
Penn Wood (52)
Murray 3 1-2 7; Boward 1 0-0 2; Shillingford 2 4-6 8; Purnell 4 5-5 16; Massenburg 4 4-6 13; Fountain 0 4-6 4; Crawford 1 0-0 2. Totals 15 18 25 52.
Pennsbury (43)
Justin Hedges 2 0-1 4; Aidan McCormack 3 0-2 6; Connor Taddei 4 1-1 11; Evan McNeely 6 1-4 14; Ty Kocaz 3 2-4 8. Totals 18 4-12 43.
Penn Wood 10 12 9 21 – 52
Pennsbury 12 6 8 17 – 43
3-point goals: PW-Purnell 3, Massenburg 1; P-Taddei 2, McNeely 1
#19 Perkiomen Valley 55, #13 Central Bucks East 53
The first quarter was CB East’s undoing Friday night, as the visiting Vikings outscored the Patriots 20-4 in the first eight minutes. The Patriots managed just one field goal in the quarter and were completely out of sync.
Thanks to the hot shooting of senior Tyriq Toney-Bailey, East made it a game in the second quarter, and in the second half, the team was right there in striking distance but couldn’t quite get over the hump.
“I think we really got off to a bad start,” said East coach Erik Henrysen. “I think it really lingered as the game went on. It took a ton to come back, and I just felt like we never were able to get clicking like we can.”
Toney-Bailey was the story for the Patriots, as he scored all 14 of their second-quarter points, including four 3-pointers, as they rallied to get it to a 24-18 game at halftime. Toney-Bailey finished with a game-high 21 points.
“He’s really a guy we have that can just score in chunks,” Henrysen said. “He did it all year, and he did it for us again in a huge moment to bring us back into the game and give us a shot.”
East pulled as close as 30-29 in the third quarter after a bucket by sophomore Jacob Cummiskey, and then after falling behind by eight early, had chances in the fourth.
A putback by Cummiskey with 1:36 remaining cut Perk Valley’s lead to 48-46, but down the stretch, East couldn’t get one to fall and the Vikings were able to put the game away on the foul line.
“They have strong guard play,” Henrysen said about Perk Valley. “The kid (Dawson) Debebe is a really tough player getting the ball to the basket. They’re a very good team. Trying to come back, sometimes you press a little bit. Maybe do some things that are just a little bit out of character. I thought we had some opportunities to get guys open ‘3s’ late in the game and we just weren’t able to get that going.
Cummiskey finished with 10 points for East, which finished its season with a 16-9 final record.
Perk Valley’s Dawson Debebe and Julian Sadler scored 19 and 16 points, respectively. The Vikings will play at #3 Cheltenham in the second round on Tuesday.
Perkiomen Valley (55)
Vance Sadler 2 0-0 5; Ethan Koehler 2 0-0 4; Dawson Debebe 7 5-7 19; Josh Pelzer 3 1-5 9; Julian Sadler 4 8-11 16. Totals 18 14-23 55.
CB East (53)
Jacob Cummiskey 4 2-2 10; Liam Cummiskey 3 0-1 7; Nick Rivera 2 0-0 4; Brett Young 1 0-0 2; Aidan Weaver 1 2-2 5; Tyriq Toney-Bailey 7 2-2 21, Ryan Lenahan 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 6-7 53.
Perkiomen Valley 20 4 17 14 – 55
CB East 4 14 17 18 – 53
3-point goals: PV-Pelzer 2, V. Sadler 1; CBE-Toney-Bailey 5, Weaver 1, L.Cummiskey 1
Thursday’s Game
#12 Norristown 49, #21 Wissahickon 34
Sparked by a 14-6 second quarter, the Trojans took a 26-20 lead into halftime, but then came a third quarter that saw the visitors score just two points while the Eagles scored 19, all but putting to rest any thoughts of a Trojan comeback.
“I always tell the kids – one game doesn’t define you,” Wissahickon coach Kyle Wilson said after his team’s season-ending loss Thursday. “Sort of a bugaboo we always had was we found stretches in games where we couldn’t put the ball in the basket.
“We execute, we ran, we got an open look but didn’t knock it down. Breakaway layup that was light contested but still should have made it – we had opportunities tonight to really make that a game, put pressure on them at home to win, and we just didn’t do those things. But that’s now in the past.”
The Trojans’ coach went on to pay a tribute to his three seniors – Phil Dias, Morgan Wilson and Josh Twersky.
“One of the things I’m really pleased with – I heard a term used by a leader of the Miami Heat organization on the NBA Channel, and he talked about one of their players, (Udonis) Haslem, an old sage on the team,” Wilson said. “He said (Haslem) was still on the roster, still on the team because he’s a ‘culture carrier,’ and those three guys – I couldn’t ask for better young kids from our community to wear that Trojan or Wissahickon across their chest because that’s what they are.
“They’re guys that let the guys that are juniors, sophomores and even some of the freshmen understand what it is to be a Wiss basketball player. They never took things for granted, they always worked hard, they were vocal at practice, they never put other guys down. They kicked guys in the butt when they needed to and lifted them up when they needed them to. They were early to practice, last to leave. You can’t ask for better kids than that. It’s just a shame that’s the way their season exited.
“I told them – after 23 years or whatever of coaching, people always ask, ‘You still enjoy it?’ I tell them, ‘It’s because of kids like that.’ We had a team full of them this year, and I couldn’t be happier to be called their coach. It was just unfortunate it was a tough exit.
Twerksy’s 11 points led the Trojans, who also received seven points each from Morgan Wilson and Jaylon Williams.
“Credit to Norristown,” Wilson said. “For half the game, it looked like it was ours, and they came out the second half, flipped a switch and put us in the same situation they were in. My hat’s off to them. I hope they have more success moving forward.”
Wissahickson closed out its season with a 14-9 record. The Trojans were 11-5 in SOL Liberty Division play, finishing one game out of first place.
Wissahickon 12-14-2-6 34
Norristown 14-6-19-10 49
Wissahickon (34) – Josh Twersky 4 3-3 11; Jaylon Williams 3 0-0 7; Morgan Wilson 3 1-1 7; Phil Dias 1 0-0 2; Dom Vacchiano 1 0-0 2; Earl Stout 2 1-3 5. Totals 14 5-7 34.
Norristown (49) – Zaki Gomez 2 3-4 8; DJ Johnson 4 8-9 16; Righteous Mitchell 1 1-3 3; Myon Kirlew 2 2-2 6; Rayshawn Stinson 0 1-2 1; John Dinolfi 6 2-2 15. Totals 15 17-22 49.
3-point goals: W – Jaylong Williams; N – Zaki Gomez, John Dinolfi.
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