Check out the recaps for SOL boys’ basketball teams in action Friday. Wissahickon/Plymouth Whitemarsh photos by Larry Small; Quakertown/CB South photos by Keith Clemens Photography, and Upper Dublin/Hatboro-Horsham photos provided courtesy of Geanine Jamison. Check back for a gallery of photos.
SOL National Conference
PENNSBURY 73, HARRY S TRUMAN 50
Shane Simmons scored a game-high 23 points and also had a team-high four steals to lead the Falcons to their fourth consecutive win. The Falcons are just one game under .500 after a 2-7 start.
“I’m a big believer in a hard early non-league schedule,” coach Bill Coleman said. “It really got to our guys being challenged like that, but I do it to prepare our guys for anything that comes up in the future.
“I think what you’re seeing – the guys are really understanding what we’re asking of them from an execution standpoint and an effort standpoint. We took a big loss against (Archbishop) Carroll or Ryan, and we get back into it and it’s like, ‘Here we go again’ type of thing. I think the guys are understanding – ‘We can fight through this, we’ve been through it before. We’ve seen everything, let’s get through it.’ I think that’s what we’re starting to see. We need to keep it rolling. We dug ourselves a hole in the league and in the district rankings early on. We’re not there yet, but we’re coming together.”
The Falcons, who led 17-15 after one quarter, scored 23 points in the second quarter and took a 40-29 lead into halftime. They added to that with a 19-9 third quarter.
Evan Reichard followed his career-high 26-point showing against Council Rock North one night earlier with 14 points and seven rebounds.
“That’s huge – it’s another scorer,” Coleman said. “In the beginning of the year we were Shane-Collin, Collin-Shane, and we were very easy to guard. Now with Reichard finding a way to contribute, it will hopefully open things up for everybody else.”
Also for the Falcons, Collin Connor had 11 points and Kyrie Miller added 10 points and five assists. Amir Johnson had six points and three assists. BaShawn Glover shared the team lead with seven rebounds.
“Shane had a big game,” Coleman said. “BaShawn did another fantastic job on the boards. Kyrie and Amir Johnson distributed the ball very well to our shooters.
“We are starting to get contributions from everybody, and that tells me we’re getting close. Obviously, there’s lots of stuff to work on, but we’re coming together, which at this time of year is always good to see.”
For the Tigers, Fernando Vargas led the way with 12 points.
Pennsbury (6-7, 4-3 SOL) is scheduled to host Chichester in a non-league game Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Harry S Truman (3-11, 1-6) will travel to Council Rock North on Thursday.
Harry S Truman 15-14-9-12 50
Pennsbury 17-23-19-14 73
Pennsbury (73) – Shane Simmons 9 2-4 23; Kyrie Miller 5 0-0 10; Collin Connor 3 3-5 11; Amir Johnson 2 0-1 6; Evan McNeely 1 0-0 3; BaShaun Glover 2 1-2 5; Evan Reichard 5 4-5 14; Liam Donnelly 0 1-2 1; Totals 27 11-19 73.
SOL Continental Conference
CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 52, CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 48
Playing in front of a packed house, the Patriots avenged an early season 66-53 loss at the hands of their archrivals, opening up a 27-23 halftime lead and holding off the visiting Bucks down the stretch.
“We just did a much better job on the defensive end,” East coach Erik Henrysen said. “Just controlling the lane and not allowing them to penetrate. Collectively, it was a team effort on the defensive end, and I think that was a key for us.
“I think we’re starting to click a little bit. We had a couple of nail biters that we weren’t able to pull out at the end with our Pennridge and Bensalem games, and it was nice to get over that hump tonight. This is one of the best rivalries around – the crowd and the anticipation of the game. It’s nice to come out on top.”
The Patriots took a 40-35 lead into the final quarter and led by as many as seven.
“Credit to West – they kept clawing,” Henrysen said. “They ended up going up three, and Joe Jackman hit a big three to tie it up.
“A key at the very end of the game – down one, Anthony Giordano had a drive to the basket and got a pull-up to go.”
Jackman led all scorers with 20 points while Giordano and Tyler Young both had 10 points. Jack Hamilton added six points and was a defensive force with five blocks.
“Joe Jackman finished with 10 points in the fourth quarter, but early on, Jack Hamilton got us going with some key blocks that gave us momentum,” Henrysen said. “Tyler Young was great taking the ball to the basket, and he did a great job on Mika Munari.
“That’s what we were looking to do – just throw waves of guys at Mika and try and control him.”
For the Bucks, Munari had 12 points to lead a balanced attack, Danny Miller added 11, and Owen Haney finished with 10 points. Teddy Spratt added nine points.
The Patriots connected on 12-of-14 at the foul line while the Bucks were 10-of-15.
Central Bucks East (10-7, 4-3 SOL) will be on the road at Central Bucks South Tuesday, and Central Bucks West (11-5, 4-3) will host Souderton on Tuesday.
Central Bucks West 13-10-12-13 48
Central Bucks East 15-12-13-12 52
Central Bucks West (48) – Mika Munari 12, Owen Haney 10, Teddy Spratt 9, Jack Neri 4, Danny Miller 11, Jack Slaymaker.
Central Bucks East (52) – Joe Jackman 20, Jack Hamilton 6, Chris Charlton 3, Anthony Giordano 10, Tyler Young 10, Brendan Harte 3.
CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 59, QUAKERTOWN 55
Alex Dietz scored a game-high 20 points while teammate Mike Waltrich added 19 to lead the Titans to the hard fought win.
“I give credit to my players,” said coach Jason Campbell, whose team had dropped five of six games after a 7-1 start. “They came out and battled. No one is pointing fingers. When you’re losing games, you could point fingers at your teammates, you could point fingers at the coaches, and none of that is happening. It’s a good core group of guys. They have each other’s backs. They understand the situation we’re in.”
The situation the Titans find themselves in has been difficult. In Friday’s win, they were down five players – four starters.
“Tonight’s game I had one starter – the rest of them are coming off the bench,” Campbell said. “We’ve lost four guys over the last two weeks. I’ve never seen anything like it – a lot of firsts for me in year 16.
Michael Farley (injury) and John Hackendahl (concussion symptoms) are scheduled to return to the lineup on Tuesday, but the Titans are still without starters Zach O’Connor and Josh Consoletti.
“I’m very pleased with the win, but win or lose tonight – for me, our goal is getting back to playing with effort and a sense of urgency for all four quarters the way we were playing at the beginning of the year,” Campbell said. “We did some tweaks the last several days with our offense, adding in something different just to get the 10 that I was able to roll out something new and fresh and work it with a couple of jayvee guys I brought up – one of them played tonight and got a bucket.
“It worked well for us tonight. We really shared the ball, we really pushed the ball well in transition. Guys got good looks in rhythm instead of trying to force something, which was the difference in tonight’s game versus the last five or six games for us.”
The Titans opened up an 18-12 lead after one quarter and took a 29-23 lead into halftime. They added to that lead in the third quarter and then held off a Panther comeback attempt in the fourth.
Included in Dietz’s 20 points were a pair of 3s. He also had three rebounds and three assists. Waltrich buried four 3-pointers.
“Mike Waltrich is a Quakertown killer,” Campbell said. “He came off the bench and had 21 points the last time we played them. He’s been starting for us since John Hackendahl went down. He was a beast tonight.”
Nick Wursta, who stepped into the starting lineup when Consoletti got hurt, had eight points, including a pair of 3s. He also had a team-high nine rebounds. Josiah Harrison – in his first varsity start – added six rebounds.
“He played great defense,” Campbell said of Harrison. “He really made a difference in the things that don’t make the box score. He was incredible.”
Evan D’Orazio added six points and six assists.
“Aidan Van Zanten got in in the second quarter and third quarter and gave us some good minutes,” Campbell said of a sophomore power forward pulled up from the jayvee. “He hit a nice jump shot, he made some good plays on defense – being in the right spots, grabbing a board. He had a steal. This is a kid that got his second taste of a varsity game. He plays hard, he’s going to be a great player down the road for us.”
For the Panthers, Kayden Roley (13 points) and Matt Tuley (12 points) both finished in double figures. Jack Gordon had nine points, Ty Wilkin had seven and Luke Bauer added six points.
Central Bucks South (9-6, 4-3 SOL) will host Central Bucks East on Tuesday, and Quakertown (1-13, 1-7) will be on the road at Pennridge on Tuesday.
Central Bucks South 18-11-15-15 59
Quakertown 12-11-12-20 55
Central Bucks South (59) – Mike Waltrich 19, Evan D’Orazio 6, Jay Macalindong 1, Aidan Van Zanten 2, Josiah Harrison 3, Alex Dietz 20, Nick Wursta 8.
Quakertown (55) – Matt Catalano 3, Kayden Roley 13, Jack Gordon 9, Jake Hollowell 5, Matt Tuley 12, Ty Wilkin 7, Luke Bauer.
SOL American Conference
WISSAHICKON 59, PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 53
What a difference a month can make.
On Dec. 13, the Trojans lost their fifth straight game to open the season, falling to Plymouth Whitemarsh 77-49.
“They walloped us,” Wissahickon coach Kyle Wilson said. “Two games before that, Carmen Ostroski went out with his back, Josh Twersky broke his wrist.
“We went into our first (conference) game without our two starting big men. They beat us by 30. Kids always get frustrated. I said, ‘You can’t complain and whine about what the other team does. You have to work hard, and you’ll play them again. You factor that stuff in and let it motivate you.’ Even though Upper Dublin is our crosstown rival, PW is a team our guys really get up for. They’ve had our number, but if there’s somebody that gets to knock them off usually it’s us.”
Fast forward to Friday night, and the Trojans avenged that early season loss, notching their first win over PW since Feb. 21, 2014.
“It was just an exciting night – I’m so happy for the kids,” Wilson said. “There’s a lot of emotion in the game. It was at our place.
“Their second leading scorer behind Caelin Peters is Zuri Jerman. He was our starting jayvee center last year. There were just a lot of different emotions going through the game. Our kids were like, ‘How great would it be if we continued our streak and actually beat PW.’ I told our guys, ‘They crushed us on the boards the last time. They beat us 45-31. We need to win the rebounding battle and we can’t turn the ball over like we did the last time.’
“I don’t have the numbers, but I think we actually won the rebounding. Jimmy (Donofrio) does such a nice job jump trapping and creating turnovers, and although we had some, we didn’t make nearly the mistakes we made the first time. We capitalized on opportunities when they pressed and got easy baskets early.”
The two teams were deadlocked 14-14 after one quarter, and the Trojans took a 27-26 advantage into halftime. Jackson Intrieri’s nine points led the Trojans while Caelin Peters had eight for the Colonials.
The Trojans – behind eight points from Matt Compas – outscored the Colonials 18-14 in the third quarter to go on top 45-40.
Compas added 10 points in the final quarter as the Trojans maintained their lead until the final horn.
“Matt Compas had eight points in the first half and 18 in the second,” Wilson said. “He came over to me in the first half and said, ‘Coach, I’ve got to get out.’ I said, ‘Matt, we’re winning, and you’re a scorer. Shots will flow your way – just let it come to you.’ In the second half, he got out in transition, he found opportunities in the half court sets and just let things come to him.”
Compas led all scorers with 26 points. Intrieri added 18 points, including a perfect 6-for-6 at the foul line.
“Jackson Intrieri had a nice game,” Wilson said. “Shots weren’t falling for some other guys, and he just came in and gave us (a lift).
“It was just a real nice win for the team. The kids were just so excited. They knew where we were, and by winning four in a row, we moved up in the rankings to 24 and there’s PW sitting right behind us at 25. They beat us by 30 last time, and that plays into the kids’ psyche. I said, ‘Don’t focus on those things. Just focus on the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter and take care of business. You can’t focus on what the records are and what the rankings are. You have to go out and play the game.’
“It was really nice to see the kids go out there and share the rock, take care of the basketball and just make big plays throughout. We took the lead early on and controlled it throughout the game and never relinquished it. It was exciting to see them put together four solid quarters.”
For the Colonials, Peters led the way with 17 points, and Jerman added 14. David Harris contributed nine points on three 3s.”
Wissahickon (8-8, 6-2 SOL) will travel to Hatboro-Horsham on Tuesday. Plymouth Whitemarsh (6-9, 5-3) is scheduled to play at Newark High School in the Play by Play Classic Saturday at the 76ers Field House in Newark, Del.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 14-12-14-13 53
Wissahickon 14-13-18-14 59
Plymouth Whitemarsh (53) – Caelin Peters 5 5-7 17; Davi Harris 3 0-0 9; Zuri Jerman 5 4-8 14; Zende Hubbard 2 2-3 6; Jaden Pryce 1 0-0 2; Ray Tomassetti 1 0-0 3; Teddy Rinck 1 0-0 2; Totals 18 11-18 53.
Wissahickon (59) – Andrew Buck 1 1-2 3; Harrison Williams 1 0-0 2; Jackson Intrieri 5 6-6 18; Stefan Lowry 3 0-0 6; Josh Twersky 1 0-0 2; Matt Compas 10 6-7 26; Carmen Ostroski 1 0-2 2; Totals 22 13-17 59.
3-point goals: PW – David Harris 3, Caelin Peters 2, Ray Tomassetti, Wissahickon – Jackson Intrieri 2.
UPPER DUBLIN 44, HATBORO-HORSHAM 28
Drew Stover scored 16 of his game-high 22 points in the opening half, propelling the Flying Cardinals to a 29-15 lead on their way to the convincing win.
The Hatters scored just three points in the third quarter and had 18 points heading into the final quarter.
“It was a good defensive game for us,” coach Chris Monahan said. “We had a great stretch of defense in the third quarter that was led by Aidan Pullian.
“Drew gets a lot of the attention in the box score but Aidan was blocking shots, changing shots, rebounding, diving on the floor – everything. At one point we got six defensive stops in a row that enabled us to push the lead to 20 and helped us close out the game.”
In addition to Stover, who had a pair of 3s, Jason Williams added six points.
The Hatters were led by the seven-point efforts of DJ Cerisier and Zehier Cheeze.
Upper Dublin (7-7, 3-5 SOL) is scheduled to host Council Rock North in a non-league game Saturday at 7 p.m., and Hatboro-Horsham (1-13, 0-8) is scheduled to play a non-league game at Radnor on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Hatboro-Horsham 6-9-3-10 28
Upper Dublin 10-19-9-6 44
Hatboro-Horsham (28) – N’Gianni Cerisier 2 01 5; DJ Cerisier 3 0-1 7; Zehier Cheeze 1 4-5 7; Shane Gallagher 0 1-2 1; Shane Gallagher 0 1-2 1; Jack Marvin 1 2-2 5; Simpson 0 1-2 1; N. Schlosser 1 0-0 2; Totals 8 8-13 28.
Upper Dublin (44) – Jason Williams 2 1-4 6; Drew Stover 10 0-0 22; Bazel Brady 1 0-0 2; Will Mead 1 0-0 2; Aidan Pullian 2 0-1 4; Amare Johnson 1 2-2 5; Lebron Snead 1 0-0 3; Ron Johnson 0 0-2 0; Totals 17 3-9 44.
3-point goals: HH – N’Gianni Cerisier, DJ Cersier, B. Schlosser, UD – Will Mead 2, Amare Johnson, Lebron Snead, Jason Williams.
ABINGTON 57, SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP 31
The Ghosts opened up a commanding 34-13 halftime lead on their way to the decisive win.
Joey Brusha buried four 3-pointers and led a balanced attack with 12 points. He was 4-for-5 from long range while the remainder of the Ghosts were a combined 0-for-17. Manir Waller and Oreck Frazier both had 10 points. Waller also had seven rebounds and four assists. 
Robert Bell led the defense with four steals, and Yashawn Watts had three. Connor Fields had a career-high seven rebounds with one block and four points.
The Ghosts connected on 22-of-57 shots from the field (38.5 percent). They had only four turnovers and came up with 17 steals – 13 in the first half.
Abington (7-7, 6-2 SOL) will host Upper Moreland on Tuesday, and Springfield Township (5-10, 1-7) will be on the road at Lower Moreland for a non-league game Monday at 2:30 p.m.
Springfield Township 7-6-9-9 31
Abington 21-13-9-14 57
Springfield Township (31) – Amir Williams 1 0-0 2; Jay Joseph 2 0-0 4; Ethan Hamilton 1 3-3 5; Andrew Kennedy 0 3-4 3; Austin Maggioncalda 1 0-0 3; White 1 0-0 3; Gabe Harris 3 4-6 11; Dylan Mckenzie 0 0-2 0; Totals 9 10-15 31.
Abington (57) – Robert Bell 4 0-0 8; Oreck Frazier 4 2-4 10; Manir Waller 3 4-7 10; Joey Brusha 4 0-0 12; Zyeir Olaswere 1 0-0 2; Karim Boyd 2 0-0 4; Connor Fields 2 0-0 4; Kyle Wilson-Bailey 1 2-2 4; Yashawn Watts 1 1-2 3; Totals 22 9-15 57.
3-point goals: Springfield Twp – Austin Maggioncalda, White, Gabe Harris, Abington – Joey Brusha 4.
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