Check out the results for SOL boys’ basketball teams in action Tuesday. To view photos of the CB West/CB South and Souderton/CB East games, please visit the Photo Gallery.
American Conference
Wissahickon 57, Cheltenham 47
Expect the unexpected in the American Conference.
On Friday, Cheltenham stunned previously undefeated Plymouth Whitemarsh. On Tuesday, Wissahickon went out and beat Cheltenham.
In a conference that seemed to be completely and utterly dominated by the powerhouse Colonials, Wissahickon gave further proof that anyone can win on any given night in the conference.
Playing without starting point guard Tre Holcomb for disciplinary reasons, Wissahickon coach Kyle Wilson had to juggle his lineup. In Holcomb’s absence, senior captain Stephen Driscoll was inserted into the starting lineup. He reponsded by scoring 22 points to lead the Trojans to the double-digit home victory.
“It was a nice confidence booster for our guys,” Wilson said. “We just lost a game to Upper Dublin where we didn’t shoot well.
“We saw Cheltenham over the holidays losing to some teams and then they beat PW, so they were a bit of an enigma. This was also a good win because we had some adversity.”
While Driscoll stepped up, so did a freshman, Zach Reiner.
Reiner scored nine of his 12 points in the fourth quarter while shooting 4-for-4 to help the Trojans to improve to 7-5 overall and 5-2 in conference play.
“It was huge to see other guys step up and make plays, and it was great to see a freshman step up and have an impact,” Wilson said. “We’re at that point where you have to get wins.
“You don’t want to sit around .500 and be on the bubble and not in the playoffs. Every game counts, and to beat a team that has some wins and a team that is playing their better basketball makes this a good win.”
Driscoll was the first Wissahickon player to break the 20-point barrier this season.
“It was the Steve we have always known but hadn’t seen yet this year,” Wilson said. “That was the Steve we expected this season and he came through at the right time for us.”
Driscoll knocked down four three-pointers.
Cheltenham (6-7, 4-3) was led by Justin Sutton’s 14 points and Khalil White’s 13. The Panthers, who trailed 25-22 at halftime, led by 40-38 after three quarters, but a huge fourth allowed the Trojans to pull away in the game’s final five minutes.
Cheltenham 14 8 18 7—47
Wissahickon 13 12 13 19—57
Cheltenham (47) – Khalil White 13, Fatir Al-Ahad 5, Anthony White 5, Maurice Valentine 2, Justin Sutton 14, Vaughn Jenkins 6, Aiden Carrigan 2.
Wissahickon (57) – Todd Bentley 6, Anthony Wright 6, Ron Brundage 6, Stephen Driscoll 22, Jake Segal 4, Brandon Pace 1, Zach Reiner 12.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 77, Norristown 47
The Colonials rebounded from their loss to Cheltenham with the no-doubt-about-it win over the Eagles.
Junior Xzavier Malone had a big game, finishing with 23 points, 10 rebounds, two blocked shots and one steal to lead the Colonials.
Jimmy Murray added 17 points, four rebounds and one steal, while Andre Mitchell tallied 13 points, four rebounds, four assists and one steal. Cameron Johnson also played well, scoring seven points while bringing down seven rebounds. Mike Lotito added six points, six rebounds and a pair of steals.
Darryl Carr led Norristown (5-6, 4-3) with 13 points, while Khalif Sinclair added 11.
PW (12-1, 6-1) won all four quarters, taking a 45-24 lead into the half and then outscoring the Eagles 32-23 in the second half.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 24 21 13 19—77
Norristown 14 10 11 12—47
Upper Dublin 58, Springfield 38
Upper Dublin’s big first half was more than enough to help the Cardinals cruise to an easy win over host Springfield. The Cardinals led 34-20 at the half and never looked back.
Simeon Fryer led the Cardinals with 11 points while John Barrett added 10.
Luke Teesdale scored 14 points to lead Springfield (2-11, 0-7).
Upper Dublin (9-3, 6-1) remains tied for first place in the conference standings with PW.
Upper Dublin 18 16 8 16—58
Springfield 10 10 11 7—38
Upper Moreland 40, Upper Merion 37
James Martin had a big night for Upper Moreland, as the senior led the Bears with 20 points while helping his team to its second conference win of the year following a close victory over visiting Upper Merion.
Brendan O’Donnell chipped in with 10 points for the Bears (6-8, 2-5), who trailed 14-8 after one quarter but trimmed that deficit to 24-21 at the intermission. A 14-4 third quarter tear put the Golden Bears on top 35-28 heading into the final quarter when they withstood a Viking comeback attempt.
The Vikings (2-11, 1-6) were led by Matt Faw’s 14 points, while Ethan Miller finished with 10.
Upper Merion 14 10 4 9—37
Upper Moreland 8 13 14 5—40
National Conference
Council Rock South 55, Neshaminy 48
It had been a tough month for Council Rock South, which was without a win since mid-December.
But thanks to a balanced effort offensively, the Hawks (4-9, 3-4) were able to get their first win since their Dec. 16 victory over Bensalem.
“It’s great,” CR South coach John Easterly said. “We’ve been really working hard in practice to improve, and tonight we started to see some of the results of our hard work.
“We have a very young team, and we did a real nice job of playing real team defense, and it’s something we’ve been working on year-round. The kids have really bought into it in the last couple days, and it shows with the way they played defensively tonight. It’s been taking us awhile to get our kids to learn the offensive philosophies and they’re really starting to do that and I’m really proud of them tonight.”
CR South trailed 27-23 at the half but came roaring back by doubling up Neshaminy in the third quarter (14-7) to go into the final frame with a 37-34 lead.
Austin Thomas led the way for the Hawks with 16 points. Kenny Lay and Dan Buchnik each finished with 13 point, while Alex Nordenholt and Mike Stock added 10 and nine, respectively.
Cole Housel’s 11-point effort led the Redskins, who are 1-6 in league play (3-7 overall), were led by the 13-point effort of Trevor Lay while Cole Housel added 11 points.
Neshaminy 13 14 7 14—48
Council Rock South 14 9 14 18—55
Neshaminy (48) – Cole Housel 11, Jenkins Kimber 7, Zach Tredway 5, Shammond Thomas 4, Jack Spingler 8, Trevor Lay 13.
Council Rock South (55) – Austin Thomas 15, Joe Rebholz 5, Mike Stock 9, Alex Nordenholt 10, Kevin Newbert 2, Dan Buchnik 13.
Bensalem 38, Council Rock North 37
Despite playing on the road and being a heavy underdog, Bensalem found a way to pull out a miracle.
After Council Rock North went on top with 4.5 seconds remaining thanks to a hook shot by Will Desautelle, Bensalem got the inbound to Keith Howard, who went nearly three-quarters of the court and drained a buzzer-beating trey from the right wing, lifting the Owls to the one-point victory.
Going up against second-place CR North in the Indians’ home gym and with only one conference win on the season, it didn’t seem like this would be the night for Bensalem (5-8, 2-5) to be celebrating a victory, but it managed to pull it out.
“We had a tough year and this was only our fifth win, but we’ve been in most games and just gave a couple away. We stole this one and that’s a good feeling,” Bensalem coach John Mullin said. “CR North plays a very sound game, and you have to be mentally disciplined. We played very good defense in the first half, but we just couldn’t score.”
Mullin was right about that one.
The Owls managed just seven points in the first half, but thanks to strong defense from Howard and his teammates all night long, they managed to stay within striking distance.
“When you score seven points in the first half, you’re usually not in the game,” Mullin said. “But I told the guys we were a glass half full and that they did a nice job defensively. They kept plugging away and figured it out in the second half. They gutted one out on the road, so it was a nice win.”
Bensalem scored just one point in the first quarter, but a strong defensive effort had the Owls down by just five and by only eight at the half (15-7). A strong third quarter brought Bensalem back to within five (23-18), but a huge fourth quarter – especially by Howard – helped Bensalem come out with the shocking win.
“Defensively, we were able to stay with them on the perimeter and get out on their shooters,” Mullin said. “Our guy (Howard) did a nice job with their big kid, but overall, it was a great team effort.”
Howard did everything on Tuesday night. He stepped up in a big way on defense, he hit the game-winner and he scored 12 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter to spark the remarkable comeback.
“We put in a play we practice a couple days a week, but we couldn’t get the ball to our first option,” Mullin said. “We then got the ball to Howard who went down, stepped into one and won the game. He dribbled the whole way down and hit it. It was bedlam.”
Howard’s 15 points led all scorers. Avery Nyekan and Nick Mulvey added six apiece for the Owls.
Riley Thompson (11) and Desautelle (10) led the Indians, who dropped to 8-5 overall and 4-3 in conference play.
Bensalem 1 6 11 20—38
Council Rock North 6 9 8 14—37
Bensalem (38) – Neel Patel 3, Nick Mulvey 6, Keith Howard 15, Vaughan 4, Dean 2, Avery Nyekan 6, Greene 2.
Council Rock North (37) – Riley Thompson 11, Drew Glenn 5, Matt Margolis 4, Steve Nowmos 7, Will Desautelle 10.
Abington 55, Harry S. Truman 30
In the second quarter, Abington senior captain Matt Penecale reached the 1,000-point milestone for his career with the Ghosts.
A layup by Penecale with 6:38 to play in the second gave him the milestone. The senior finished with nine points and now has 1,004 on his career.
Leading the way for the Ghosts was senior Amir Hinton, who scored 19. Robby Heath added 10. Abington put up a whopping 28 points in the second quarter to go into halftime with a 35-18 lead. The Ghosts played excellent defense all game, not allowing more than 10 points in any given quarter.
The Tigers were led by James Clowney’s eight points.
The win improved Abington’s record to 10-3 overall and a perfect 7-0 in conference play. Truman fell to 4-9 and 2-5, respectively.
Abington 7 28 14 6—55
Harry S. Truman 10 8 8 4—30
Pennsbury 64, William Tennent 32
Tennent led 9-8 after one quarter, but the Falcons responded with a 19-9 second quarter burst to go into halftime with a 27-18 lead. They continued to control play in the second half, outscoring the Panthers 15-6 in the third quarter and 37-14 in the half.
The Falcons, who improved to 11-3 overall (6-1 SOL), were led by the 17-point performance of Derrick Woods.
Tennent (4-9, 3-4) was led by Kyle Lewicki’s 11 points.
Pennsbury 8 19 15 22—64
William Tennent 9 9 6 8—32
Continental Conference
Souderton 68, Central Bucks East 62
Forget the fact that Central Bucks East had been winless in six conference games so far this season. It was a different Patriots squad that took the court at Souderton on Tuesday night.
The Indians, who found themselves staring at a seven-point halftime deficit, used a strong second half performance to earn the exciting win in front of the home crowd.
“I have to give CB East a lot of credit,” Souderton coach Pete Chimera said. “Their starting center (Blake Pattyson) went down after they got everybody back last Friday, and they just played so hard and aggressive and gave us one heck of a game.”
CB East (4-10, 0-7) led 32-25 at the half, but that lead diminished to only one after three quarters. Souderton put up 25 points in the fourth to come out on top.
Tracy Simsick and Evan Slone had big nights for Souderton (9-5, 5-2), finishing with 19 and 18 points, respectively, to lead the Indians.
Slone went 8-for-9 from the free throw line while Ty Salone hit 5 of 6 and finished with seven points. Tm Markow added 13.
“It really came down to Evan and Tracy,” Chimera said. “Evan had a great game and pulled down a ton of offensive rebounds, and Tracy finished well and had 15 of his points in the second half. We really made a concerted effort to get the ball down to those guys.
“Defensively we picked it up and Ben Wonderling did a real good job. We put him on Tommy Strasburger in the second half and he really played well.”
Strasburger, who came back from injury last week, hit six three-pointers in the first half and scored 18 in the opening two quarters, including 12 in the first quarter. He finished with 23 for the game. Pattyson had nine before going down, while Justin O’Neil finished with 11.
Souderton 16 9 18 25—68
Central Bucks East 18 14 12 18—62
Central Bucks East (62) – Matt Pattyson 9, Cooper Fink 4, Travis Ives 13, Justin O’Neil 11, Tommy Strasburger 23, Jeff Circuit 2
Souderton (68) – Evan Slone 18, Ty Salone 7, Ben Wonderling 5, Tracy Simsick 19, Tim Markow 13, Austin Eberhart 3, Steve Sosnowicz 3.
Central Bucks West 45, Central Bucks South 44
Playing in front of a full house in the second game of a boys/girls double header on Coaches vs. Cancer night, Central Bucks South missed a last-second shot and came out on the wrong side of the scoreboard against visiting Central Bucks West.
Earlier, the Bucks (11-3, 5-2) saw Nico Munari make a power move inside to get the ball to Cal Reichwein, who hit two free throws late in the game for the eventual game-winning points.
“They were fouling us and we got the ball to Cal after a nice play by Nico (Munari),” CB West coach Adam Sherman said. “We then missed the front end of a 1-and-1 on our next trip down, and they missed a shot at the buzzer. They were one game ahead of us and now we’re tied. It’s a nice win right now, but we just have to focus on the next game.”
CB South fell to 8-5 overall and 5-2 in conference play with the loss. CB South, CB West and Souderton are now are tied for second place behind undefeated Pennridge, which improved to 7-0 in conference play Tuesday night.
Reichwein led the Bucks with 14 points, while Tim Waddington led the Titans with 14 of his own.
CB West led by eight at the half (29-21) before the Titans made it a game and took it down to the wire.
Central Bucks West 16 13 10 6—45
Central Bucks South13 8 12 11—44
Pennridge 57, Quakertown 45
Pennridge’s Joe Molettiere scored 17 points in the Rams’ win over host Quakertown.
Zach Muredda added 15 and Dan Long finished with 10 for Pennridge (12-1, 7-0), which remains alone atop the conference standings. Stephen Lowry and Joe Unangst each scored seven.
Quakertown was led offensively by Griffin Schmidt (16 points) and Kevin Norvaisas (14 points). Brian Rejniak scored eight.
The Panthers (5-8, 1-6) trailed by only one at the half, 25-24, and kept the game close until the fourth quarter when the Rams closed it out with a 15-8 tear.
Pennridge 11 14 17 15—57
Quakertown 11 13 13 8—45
Pennridge (57) – Joe Molettiere 18, Dan Long 10, Zach Muredda 15, Stephen Lowry 7, Joe Unangst 7.
Quakertown (45) – Jake Perrine 5, Brian Rejniak 8, Kevin Norvaisas 14, Griffin Schmidt 16, Baskin 2.
North Penn 48, Hatboro-Horsham 41
North Penn received 13 points from Jared Melone, 12 from Kyle Hulmes and eight from Cordell Lord in a win over host Hatboro-Horsham.
Walter Kimble led the Hatters (5-7, 2-5) with 18 points, while Brian McEachern chipped in with seven.
The Knights used a 17-9 second quarter to go into halftime with a 28-20 lead. The Hatters played the Knights all but even in the second half but never could dig themselves out of the halftime hole.
North Penn evened its overall record on the year to 7-7 while improving its conference mark to 3-4.
North Penn 11 17 6 14—48
Hatboro-Horsham 11 9 8 13—41
North Penn (48) – Matt Pickford 5, Joey Richards 4, Ricky Johns 2, Kyle Hulmes 12, Cordell Lord 8, JJ Melchior 4, Jared Melone 13.
Hatboro-Horsham (41) – Zeke Sloan 4, Walter Kimble 18, Brian McEachern 7, Joe Russell 6, David Robinson 4, Clifton Moore 2.
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