Check out all of the results for SOL boys’ basketball teams in action on Tuesday. To view photos of the Cheltenham/Norristown game, please visit the Photo Gallery.
American Conference
Cheltenham 58, Norristown 42
An 0-7 record in out-of-conference play was obviously not a good thing for Cheltenham, but at this point, it certainly doesn’t appear to be the worst thing.
It gave the Panthers a learning experience – a much-needed one that appears to be paying off extremely well.
Cheltenham improved to 6-1 in American Conference play with a convincing 58-42 win over host Norristown on Tuesday night, keeping the Panthers all alone in second place behind Plymouth Whitemarsh.
“I talked to the guys and I remember we were playing a game against Central and they had 6-foot-7 and 6-foot-8 guys, and I said we were going to have more teams like that this year than we’ve had in the last 2-3 years,” 
Cheltenham coach John Timms said. “Our out-of-conference schedule has really gotten us ready for the league games. You never see those kinds of big kids in our league and I think it helped us a lot.
“It’s something that we needed as a young team. I was afraid of them getting discouraged and maybe losing the kids, but we were able to see that we were getting progressively better, even in the losses.”
On Tuesday night, it was a win against a solid Norristown team (7-5, 4-3).
Faatir Al-Ahad led the Panthers with 16 points, while Aaron Burton and Justin Sutton added 12 and 10, respectively.
“Faatir played excellent defense, and generally, that’s how I assess kids,” said Timms, who had no idea that Al-Ahad had accumulated 16 points on the night. “I think he played an excellent floor game, and I think he’s been excellent. He got sick and lost his starting spot, but he got it back and he’s right back to where he was if not better.”
The Eagles were led by Chris Evans’ 20 points and Kip Patton’s 10.
Cheltenham and Norristown went into the half tied at 23-23, but a five-point advantage in the third gave the Panthers the slight lead. In the fourth, Cheltenham put it away with 21 points to only 10 for Norristown.
Cheltenham 11 12 14 21—58
Norristown 13 10 9 10—42
Upper Dublin 47, Upper Merion 30
Upper Dublin’s Simeon Fryer led the way with 16 points as the Cardinals defeated Upper Merion by 17 points. Marc Conran added 12 for the Cardinals while Kevin Woods and Ryan Stover each added six. Upper Dublin led by only one point after one quarter (8-7), but took a 21-15 advantage into the half.
In the third, Upper Dublin put up 13 points to the Vikings’ nine and then closed it out with another 13-point fourth quarter.
“It was a really good defensive game from our team,” Upper Dublin coach Josh Adelman said. “We held them to only 30 points, and we played good defense and that led to some offensive points for us.”
The Vikings were led by Samik Patel, who finished with eight points.
Upper Dublin improved to 7-6 overall and 4-3 in conference play with the victory, while the Vikings dropped to 4-8 and 1-6, respectively.
Upper Dublin 8 13 13 13—47
Upper Merion 7 8 9 6—30
Wissahickon 63, Upper Moreland 47
Wissahickon, which took a 30-16 lead into halftime, received 15 points from Chris Vila and another 10 from Chase Wilson in a 26-point win over visiting Upper Moreland on Tuesday night.
Kevin McFall led the Bears with 14 points while James Martin added 11.
As a team, Wissahickon knocked down eight three-pointers. The Trojans outscored the Bears in the first three quarters before the Bears managed to hold a 16-15 edge in the final frame.
The Trojans closed out the first half of conference play with a 4-3 record (7-6 overall) while the Golden Bears are 2-5 in league play (4-10 overall).
Upper Moreland 7 9 15 16—47
Wissahickon 12 18 18 15—63
Plymouth Whitemarsh 80, Springfield 33
Plymouth Whitemarsh has officially gone through the entire American Conference schedule without a loss, improving to 7-0 in league play with a monstrous 47-point win over host Springfield.
The Colonials (12-2 overall) were led by junior Jimmy Murray, who finished with a game-high 25 points.
Springfield fell to 2-11 overall and 0-7 in conference play.
National Conference
Council Rock North 56, Council Rock South 39
Anytime Council Rock North and Council Rock South take to the court, it’s generally an exciting game between the neighboring rivals. When one of those teams goes into the other team’s house and comes away with a win, it’s a pretty big deal for the team coming out on top.
The Indians took the short trip down the road to Council Rock South High School on Tuesday night and came out with a 56-39 win.
“It’s always a big game against this team and always with a lot of emotions, and it was good to get a road win,” CR North coach Derek Wright said. “They played really well tonight, and I thought we executed our game plan and played really hard.”
Rock North led 11-9 after one quarter but managed to stretch that into a 28-17 lead going into the half. The Indians added to that lead, thanks to an 11-5 third quarter burst.
Chris Rowland went 6-for-6 from the free throw line, knocked down a pair of three-pointers and led the Indians (6-6, 3-3) with 20 points. Josh McWilliams added 13 points while Glenn Dunn added six.
CR South, which dropped to 5-8 overall and 3-4 in conference play, was led by Will Faccenda, who knocked down a pair of treys, went 4-for-4 from the line and finished with 13 points.
“This was a team win and so many guys did so many things well,” Wright said. “Chris (Rowland) and Josh (McWilliams) really led us on both ends of the floor. They scored, but they also defended real well, and the other guys contributed in a bunch of different ways.
“It’s just important that we’re going better each game and playing well, and we’re in a good little groove right now. Winning three straight games is important to be playing well and confidently.”
CR North will visit William Tennent on Friday night at 7.
Council Rock North 11 17 11 17—56
Council Rock South 9 8 5 17—39
Abington 71, Bensalem 26
Matt Penecale was one of 13 Abington players to get in the scoring column in the Ghosts’ 49-point win over visiting Bensalem.
Matt Penecale led Abington, which improved to 11-2 overall and a perfect 7-0 in conference play, with nine points. Jake Porter and Eric Gaines each added eight while Avery Nyekan led Bensalem with five.
Abington led 16-3 after one quarter and took a 39-14 lead into the half before being able to clear its bench. In the second half, Abington outscored Bensalem 32-12.
Abington gets right back to action on Thursday for a home meeting with Council Rock South.
Bensalem 3 11 7 5—26
Abington 16 23 17 15—71
Pennsbury 70, Neshaminy 37
Pennsbury improved to 9-2 overall and 5-1 in conference play with a dominating 33-point victory over Neshaminy.
The Falcons received 20 points apiece from Cameron Jones and Mekhi Bryant. The win kept the Falcons only 1 ½ games behind Abington in the battle for first place in the conference. Derrick Woods added 10 for Pennsbury.
The Redskins fell to 1-8 overall and 1-5 in conference play.
William Tennent 50, Harry S. Truman 48
William Tennent’s Cory Hamlet, who led the way with 14 points and six rebounds, scored in the lane on a pass from Vinnie Case with only two seconds remaining to give the Panthers the victory over host Harry S. Truman. John Ryan added 13 points for the Panthers while Matt Alden added 11 points and six rebounds.
Tennent improved to 5-5 overall and 4-2 in league play with the win, while Truman dropped to 3-11 and 1-6, respectively.
Tennent led by four at the half (25-21) and seven going into the final quarter before the Tigers made it a game in the final minutes.
William Tennent 15 10 17 8—50
Harry S. Truman 10 11 14 13—48
Continental Conference
North Penn 72, Pennridge 71
Suleyman Hakim’s floater with 1.9 seconds remaining helped lift North Penn a dramatic one-point win over visiting Pennridge.
The win was huge for North Penn, which is now 5-2 in conference play (7-6 overall). The Knights remain tied with Central Bucks South for second place in the conference. The loss was the first of the conference season for the Rams.
Despite leading by 18 points at one point in the game, North Penn was forced to come from behind to win in the final seconds.
“I don’t even know what to say, to tell you the truth,” North Penn coach John Conrad said. “In the second half, we let them score 48 points. It was a tale of two halves. I thought we played very well in the first half, and we didn’t defend well in the second half. Any time you give up that many points in a half, you’re fortunate to win the game.”
Pennridge coach Dean Behrens echoed those sentiments.
“It was a game of two halves actually,” he said. “They were up 18 on us and then we had the game won with only a couple seconds to go. You don’t like the loss, but we showed a lot of mental toughness coming back from being down that big after we came out flat in the first half.”
Pennridge (10-3, 5-1) was led by Zach Muredda’s 19 points. Joe Unangst added 15 while Joe Molettiere added 13. Dan Long chipped in with 10.
Hakim’s 21 points led the way for the Knights while James Edwards added 20. Brian Coleman also played well, scoring 16 points.
North Penn trails first place Pennridge by just a half game.
“It’s a great win, and it puts us right there in terms of being at the top,” Conrad said. “More importantly, we’re playing good basketball. We just won six of seven games, and Plymouth Whitemarsh was a great barometer for us on Saturday with the way we played them tough. Pennridge - at 10-2 coming in - was another good barometer. It’s great to get the win and I feel great about it, but I am still a little worried about our ability to play defense.”
Pennridge 10 13 23 25—71
North Penn 23 12 17 22—72
Central Bucks West 55, Hatboro-Horsham 36
Central Bucks West improved to 7-5 overall and 3-3 in conference play with a 19-point win over Hatboro-Horsham.
CB West was led by Evan Dunn’s 15 points and Patrick Kelley’s 12. The Hatters (5-8, 2-5) were led by Walt Kimble (14) and Zach Quattro (nine).
CB West went on top 16-2 in the first quarter and never looked back, leading by double-digits at the half as well (20-7). CB West then put up 23 points in the third quarter to open the game wide up.
Central Bucks West 16 4 23 12—55
Hatboro-Horsham 1 6 7 21—36
Central Bucks South 65, Central Bucks East 49
Central Bucks South traveled to Central Bucks East and left with a 16-point win on Tuesday night, thanks in large part to Matt Scamuffo’s 23 points. Bryce Dobisch added 13 points for CB South.
CB East trailed 14-7 after one quarter and was outscored in all four quarters. The Patriots were led by Tommy Strasburger’s 14 points, while Brendan O’Neil and Brendan McLaughlin added 10 and nine, respectively.
CB South improved to 8-5 overall and 5-2 in conference play, while CB East dropped to 4-7 and 2-4, respectively.
Central Bucks South 14 11 12 28—65
Central Bucks East 7 10 11 21—49
Souderton 55, Quakertown 41
Souderton’s Tracy Simsick, in only his second game as a starter, finished with a game-high 17 points and played excellent defense in a 14-point win for the Indians over visiting Quakertown.
“I’m really proud of the way the guys covered their guards tonight,” Souderton coach Pete Chimera said. “Tracy really stepped up big now that he’s starting. Once Steve Shaffer went down (MCL), he has really been playing great for us.”
Chimera moved Simsick to the 3 from the 4 and put him in the starting lineup this past weekend.
“We came into this year inexperienced, and Tracy has really stepped up,” Chimera said. “Hopefully his experience helps the whole team to also get more experienced.”
Jared Bernhart and Tim Markow each added nine points for Souderton (8-5, 3-4), while Evan Slone added seven.
The Indians took a commanding 37-15 lead into halftime before the Panthers (5-8, 1-5) rallied to outscore the Indians 13-5 in the third quarter.
Quakertown was led by Kevin Norvaisas’ 13 points and Brian Rejniak’s 12.
Quakertown 9 6 13 13—41
Souderton 18 19 5 13—55
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