Check out the recaps for SOL girls’ basketball teams in action Saturday. Bensalem/Wissahickon photos provided courtesy of John Gleeson. PW/Exeter photos courtesy of Larry Small. Check back for galleries of both games. All SOS photo galleries for BOYS’ BASKETBALL can be viewed by clicking HERE.
Patriot Division/Colonial Division crossover
Neshaminy 50, Central Bucks West 34
Neshaminy bounced back in a big way on Saturday.
After suffering a tough overtime loss to Central Bucks South on Friday night, Neshaminy came out strong, followed leading scorers Sean Curley (17 points) and Evan Esposito (15 points), and powered to a 50-36 victory over Central Bucks West in Saturday’s crossover contest.
“Sean Curley and Evan Esposito, our leading scorers, did what they were supposed to do. They led our team in scoring,” said Neshaminy coach Mark Tingle. “It was a good bounce-back win. We had a really tough loss (Friday) night against CB South. We were up late, and they ended up beating us in overtime, so it was good to come right back the next day and make sure we took care of business and got a win.”
Curley scored 12 of his 17 in the first half, and Esposito contributed 10 of his 15 before halftime, as Neshaminy jumped out to a 27-14 lead at the break.
“We were up the whole game,” Tingle said. “(The lead) basically stayed around 10, 13 the whole game, which was great. It was a good game.
“They played hard, but it was really nice. We got defensive and held them to 36. It was a good bounce-back game for us definitely.”
Emeer Coombs contributed 7 points for Neshaminy, all from the foul line, including 6-for-6 shooting from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter.
“Emeer was 7-for-9 from the foul line, a lot of them were late in the game, so that was key to make sure we kept the lead,” Tingle said. “It was an all-around good defensive effort from our team.”
John Lee led Central Bucks West with 10 points. Matt Engle added 8 and Donte Mancini sank a pair of three-pointers among his 7 points.
Neshaminy (7-3 Patriot Division, 9-5 overall) can now see the light at the end of a tunnel loaded with quality opponents. Next up will be a 7 pm Monday matchup hosting Spring-Ford, then a road game at 7 pm Tuesday game at Central Bucks East.
“We had four games this past week, and we still have two on Monday and Tuesday, so we’re going through a gauntlet right now,” Tingle said. “We were able to win three of four last week, so we’ll see. (Spring-Ford) is a good team right now. We have them on Monday before we play CB East on Tuesday, which is another good game.”
The Bucks (2-8 Colonial Division, 3-12) will host Pennsbury at 7 pm Tuesday.
Central Bucks West (34)
Matt Engle 4 0-0 8; Kyle Kubit 1 0-0 2; Donte Mancini 2 1-2 7; Colin McKenna 0 1-2 1; Bowen Gugger 2 0-0 4; John Lee 3 2-2 10; Michael Fountain 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 13 5-6 34.
Neshaminy (50)
Joey Zack 0 0-2 0; Evan Esposito 5 2-2 15; Emeer Coombs 0 7-9 7; Kade Benjamin 2 0-0 4; Nunzio Zydzik 0 3-4 3; Sean Curley 7 0-0 17; Nate Townsend 2 0-2 4; TOTALS 16 12-19 50.
Central Bucks West 8-6-11-9 34
Neshaminy 12-15-10-13 50
3-point goals: CBW – Mancini 2, Lee 2; N – Esposito 3, Curley 3.
Nonleague
Bensalem 81, Wissahickon 60
The Owls set a record for three-pointers in a game.
Bensalem rained down 16 three-pointers, with half of them coming from Aaron Sanders, as the Owls downed Wissahickon 80-61 in Saturday’s nonleague clash. Sanders also shattered the record for
3s in game.
“We shot the ball extremely well, and when we shoot well like that, it makes me look like a genius, but it’s all a credit to the kids,” said Bensalem coach Ron Morris. “They’re really buying in, they get along well on and off the court, and they’re just happy to take this journey together.
“Aaron was amazing today. We know at any given time he can get hot, and we know just feed him the ball because he’s going to pour it in. His shot was really good. He ended up with 31 points.”
But Sanders couldn’t have reached 31 points without his teammates dishing off the ball selflessly. Eric Gonzalez contributed 7 assists to go along with his 4 three-pointers and 14 points.
“These guys are just really coming together as one. We were sharing the ball,” Morris said. “We had 15 assists on 26 made baskets, which is just a true testament. Like I’ve said all year, we have different guys that can score.
“Eric Gonzalez was awesome as well. He was able to get in the paint and kick out. Eric spent a half-hour after our shootaround today getting extra shots because his shot hasn’t been up to his standard, so he put in the extra time, and he reaped that reward. Same with Aaron—he puts in a lot of extra time, and he got the same reward with his shots going in today.”
Morris also noted the efforts of Jack Wineburg (13 points) and Allen Myers (8 points).
“Allen did another great job. Allen’s been awesome underneath. Jack shot the ball well today, and on any given night, anybody can score,” Morris said. “It’s a credit to hard work. We put a lot of time in. We took one week off after last year, and we’re seeing the dividends of that. On any given night, multiple guys can score in multiple ways.”
For the Trojans, Josh Twersky scored 11 of his team-leading 17 points in the first half, including 8 points in the opening quarter to stake the Trojans out to a 20-17 lead after the opening frame. Dominic Vacchiano scored 10 of his 16 points in the first quarter. Phil Dias added 10 for Wissahickon.
The Owls move to 12-2 overall (9-1 Patriot Division) and are ranked fifth in the latest district power rankings. They return to the hardwood at 7 pm Tuesday, when they host Souderton. Wissahickon (9-6 overall, 5-3 Liberty Division) visits Springfield Twp at 7 pm Tuesday.
Wissahickon (60)
Gabe Lassiter 2 1-2 5; Josh Twersky 7 1-2 17; Brayden Ryan 2 0-0 5; Jaylon Williams 1 2-2 4; Morgan Wilson 1 1-4 3; Phil Dias 3 2-4 10; Dominic Vacchiano 4 5-7 16; TOTALS 20 12-21 60.
Bensalem (81)
Jeremy Rodriguez 0 4-6 4; Tra Edwards 1 0-0 3; Allen Myers 3 2-4 8; Eric Gonzalez 5 0-0 14; Aaron Sanders 10 3-3 31; Antonio Morris 0 2-4 2; Jack Wineburg 4 2-2 13; Jalen Soberg 2 0-0 4; Sadeq Wahab 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 26 13-21 81.
Wissahickon 20-11-12-17 60
Bensalem 17-22-21-21 81
3-point goals: W –Twersky 2, Ryan, Dias 2, Vacchiano 3; B – Edwards, Gonzalez 4, Sanders 8, Wineburg 3.
Upper Dublin 52, Central Bucks East 48 (OT)
The frosty conditions outside had nothing on the ice running through DJ Cerisier’s veins late in Saturday’s nonleague matchup against Central Bucks East.
Upper Dublin’s junior point guard, who scored a team high 15 points, sank two fourth-quarter three-pointers and sank two key free throws in overtime as the Cardinals pulled out a 52-48 victory over the Patriots in a battle between two teams ranked in the top 20 of the latest power rankings (East is ranked 17th, Upper Dublin is 10th.)
“(East is) a very good shooting team, they made 3 threes in the fourth quarter, but a huge part was us matching that and making 3 threes,” said Upper Dublin coach Chris Monahan. “DJ made two, and Seaton (Kukla) made one. They had the ball at the end of regulation with the score tied and chance to win. I thought we had a really good stop. They didn’t get a decent shot. They had a look at a putback that they missed.”
The Cardinals put on a defensive clinic in the extra session, holding the Patriots scoreless. But that proved to be critical as the hosts clung to a 2-point lead before Cerisier’s two free throws.
“The overtime was a defensive battle, for sure,” Monahan said. “We didn’t score a field goal, they didn’t score a field goal. They had a good look at a three from (Aidan) Weaver, but other than that in the overtime, I thought our defense was phenomenal. We rebounded, we got stops.
“We struggled a little bit from the foul line. We go 4-for-8 in the overtime, three of those misses were front ends of the one-and-one. We’re up two with 27.2 seconds left shooting a free throw and we miss, but we get a stop. We’re up two with 11.3 seconds left shooting a one-and-one, and we miss, but we get an ‘O’ board. Finally, they fouled DJ with 5 seconds left and he makes both free throws.”
Upper Dublin overcame a slow start that saw the Cards trailing 9-5 after the first quarter. Kukla scored all of his 13 points over the final three quarters (including 5 points in the crucial fourth quarter), and Griffin Pensabene did the same for his 10 points. Ellis Johnson went 2-for-4 from the foul line in the extra frame to account for the rest of the Cardinals’ overtime points.
“The whole game was kind of a game of runs,” Monahan said. “They led by four going into the second quarter. We had a decent second quarter, and they hit a half-court shot at the buzzer which evened up the score. We had a very good third quarter where we took the lead, and the fourth quarter was back and forth.”
Tyriq Toney-Bailey led all scorers with 16 points for the Patriots. Weaver netted all 8 of his points—including a pair of treys—in the fourth quarter.
Having dropped a league game to neighborhood rival Wissahickon on Thursday, rebounding with a win against a ranked team makes for a very satisfying end to the week.
“It’s a big win on a couple of levels,” Monahan said. “Obviously, the bounce-back from Wissahickon. We were disappointed. We had a great crowd, the gym was a great local rivalry gym. We really didn’t play well, and they played well, so we were disappointed with ourselves, so we wanted to bounce back from that.
“And then against a good team. This is like a District One playoff game, and we showed up, and we did it without Colin O’Sullivan, who’s out of town playing football. A guy like Mason Pensabene gets the start, and he did a phenomenal job on Jacob Cummiskey, who is a good scorer for East. He only had one field goal and a couple of foul shots, so Mason played really well. Chris Kohlbrenner, in the overtime, misses the front end of a one-and-one and then he comes right back and gets a steal, just making plays like he’s done all year. DJ had a good game scoring. On all of those levels it was a very good win.”
The Cardinals improve to 11-4 overall (7-2 Liberty Division) and will look to continue their winning ways when they visit New Hope-Solebury at 7 pm Tuesday. The Patriots (10-6, 6-4 Colonial Division) are back in action at 7 pm Wednesday when they visit Pennridge.
Central Bucks East (48)
Tyriq Toney-Bailey 5 3-3 16; Jacob Cummiskey 1 2-5 4; Liam Cummiskey 2 0-0 6; Nick Rivera 1 1-2 3; Brett Young 1 0-0 2; Aidan Weaver 3 0-0 8; Ryan Lenahan 0 2-2 2; Kyle Berndt 1 0-0 3; Joey Giordano 2 0-0 4; TOTALS 16 8-12 48
Upper Dublin (52)
DJ Cerisier 5 3-4 15; Noah Lee 1 0-0 2; Chris Kohlbrenner 2 1-3 6; Griffin Pensabene 4 2-2 10; Ellis Johnson 2 2-4 6; Seaton Kukla 5 1-3 13; TOTALS 19 9-16 52
Central Bucks East 9-17-7-15-0 48
Upper Dublin 5-17-13-13-4 52
3-point goals: CBE – Toney Bailey 3, L. Cummiskey 2, Weaver 2, Berndt; UD – Cerisier 2, Kohlbrenner, Kukla 2.
North Penn 59, Dock Mennonite Academy 56
Ryan Deininger scored 16 of his team-leading 19 points in the second half to power a furious comeback as North Penn rallied past Dock Mennonite Academy 59-56 in Saturday’s nonleague rivalry matchup.
The Knights—coming off a big victory over Council Rock North a day earlier—spotted Dock a 14-0 lead before climbing out of the hole.
“It was a great game,” said North Penn coach John Conrad. “They got out to a 14-0 lead. We ended the quarter 14-6 and got it to 2 at halftime. Then pretty much the entire second half it was a bunch of lead changes.
“Deininger had 19 points, and 16 were in the second half, and that was obviously huge for us.”
What changed to Deininger in the second half?
“He just stayed with it,” Conrad said. “He can get it going. He’s been streaky all year. The guys have a ton of confidence, as do I, and it paid dividends tonight.”
Ryan Zeltt scored all 8 of his points in the second half (including two treys) and also provided a strong defensive effort for the Knights.
“I thought Ryan Zeltt did a great job defensively on their big kid in the middle (Hoyt Bultje),” Conrad said.
North Penn led by 6 with a minute left, but Dock got back to within 1 point before the Knights put the game away.
“We made a little run at the end, but give them credit, they never quit. They hit a couple of threes and cut it to 1,” Conrad said. “It was a good win for us, especially coming off of last night.”
The Knights (8-8 overall, 5-5 Colonial Division) return to action when they visit Harry S Truman for a 7 pm Tuesday game.
North Penn (59)
Mario Sgro 1 4-4 6; Terhan Wright 3 1-2 7; Norman Gee 2 0-0 5; Ryan Zeltt 2 2-2 8; Joe Larkins 3 0-0 7; Ryan Deininger 7 3-5 19; Milind Pulugura 2 1-2 7; TOTALS 20 11-15 59.
Dock Mennonite (56)
Bergey 3 0-0 6; Bultje 5 3-3 13; Johnson 3 2-2 9; T. Martin 2 0-0 4; Lapp 9 2-4 22; V. Martin 0 2-2 2; TOTALS 22 9-11 56.
North Penn 6-18-15-20 59
Dock Mennonite 16-10-9-21 56
3-point goals: NP – Gee, Zeltt 2, Larkins, Deininger 2, Pulugura 2; DM – Johnson, Lapp 2.
Pennsbury 60, Chichester 39
There’s nothing like a solid team effort to put a team back on track. Following back-to-back losses to Central Bucks East and Central Bucks South, Pennsbury put together a full effort from every man on every part of the floor and rolled to a 60-39 victory over Chichester in Saturday’s nonleague matchup.
“I was most pleased with our defensive effort,” said Pennsbury coach Bill Coleman. “We disrupted them from what they normally do. We were able to beat their pressure and make them pay for pressing us, and we got contributions up and down the board from everybody.”
Thanks to the strong defensive effort, the Falcons led 15-6 after one quarter, and extended their lead to 39-16 at halftime.
On the other end of the court, Tyler Kocak paced the Falcons with a game-high 21 points, including three 3-pointers. Evan McNeely dropped a pair of treys among his 12 points.
“It starts with Tyler and Evan, Aidan McCormack had 9, and in a game like that, everyone is looking for minutes,” Coleman said. “It was a good game for everybody. If we defend and we’re sharing the ball, it’s a pretty nice thing to see as a coach.”
With the victory, Pennsbury moves to 8-3 overall (5-3 Patriot Division) and gets back to its winning ways after two road bumps.
“Winning this game was extremely important,” Coleman said. “(Central Bucks East and South) were two very good teams, and we just lost focus in both of those games for about four minutes in the third quarter. We have not played a full 32-minute game yet. We want to use this opportunity to build our focus and continue that focus it takes to win as we move forward.”
The Falcons visit Central Bucks West for a 7 pm Tuesday matchup.
Chichester (39)
Sayad 4 2-4 13; Keys 1 0-2 3; Keys 3 2-3 9; Diggs 1 0-2 2; Wildrick 1 0-0 2; Robertson 1 0-0 2; Anderson 1 2-4 4; Thomas 2 0-2 4; TOTALS 14 6-17 39.
Pennsbury (60)
Justin Hedges 1 2-2 5; Aidan McCormack 2 2-3 9; Craig Stargell 1 1-2 3; Isaac Woltjen 0 1-3 1; Connor Taddei 2 3-3 8; Seamus Kelliher 0 1-2 1; Evan McNeely 5 0-0 12; Tyler Kocak 9 0-3 21; TOTALS 20 10-17 60.
Chichester 6-10-13-10 39
Pennsbury 15-24-18-3 60
3-point goals: C – Sayad 3, Keys, Keys; P – Hedges, McCormack 2, Stargell, Taddei, McNeely 2, Kocak 3.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 65, Exeter 60
It’s been a season of streaks so far for Plymouth Whitemarsh. After a 4-1 start, the Colonials stumbled, dropping 5 of 6. Since righting the ship, the Colonials are on an unbeaten roll, and made it
six straight with a 65-60 victory over Exeter in Saturday’s nonleague game.
“The kids are doing a great job trusting and listening right now and trying to reinvent themselves game to game,” said PW coach Jim Donofrio. “All the expertise I can give is based on years of experience and hoping you’re right. We have to become more sophisticated, we have to become more disciplined, we have to stay really humble right now after that beginning.”
The Colonials played a strong defensive game from the start of this game, but with shots not quite falling, the score was perilously close at halftime, with PW clinging to a one-point lead.
“We played really good defense to start the game,” Donofrio said. “We have these moments where we struggle putting the ball in the basket even though we’re defending beautifully. You’re looking at 22-21 at halftime and you’re saying, ‘Man, that looked like a 35-15 halftime type of score.’”
The turning point came in the third quarter, where PW sank five 3-pointers as part of a 21-16 period.
“The kids put together a terrific six minutes of ‘wow’—threes are going, defense is everything we like to be,” Donofrio said.
Qudire Bennett dropped a pair of treys in the third as part of his game-high 28 points. Jayden Colzie also sank 2 treys in the third among his 12 points for the game. Bennet hit 5 free throws in the fourth quarter, and Colzie added 5 as the Colonials maintained the lead and pulled out the solid win.
“It was a little bit of a tricky ending, but in the end, it’s two straight 3-0 weeks,” Donofrio said. “Winning breeds confidence. We’ll look at the film of this and try and straighten out the IQ stuff with every game, and next week it’s three more.”
The Colonials improve to 10-5 overall (7-2 Liberty Division) and are looking at another busy week ahead.
“For a team that, on paper, we thought we could have a really nice run, we still can,” Donofrio said. “We’re doing nine games in three weeks. In the NBA, that’s part of your job, but for high school kids who are trying to climb out of a hole, there’s only so much emotional energy that a team has in a season. So I’ve got to be careful. I hope we can balance the emotional energy, so you can wake up with two weeks to go saying, ‘Okay, are we fresh? Are you mentally, emotionally and physically fresh?’”
The Colonials will look to extend their winning streak when they visit Lower Moreland at 7 pm Tuesday.
Exeter (60)
Ryan Paschall 1 0-0 2; Trevor Keperling 3 0-0 6; Colin Payne 6 12-18 27; Teddy Snyder 3 0-0 7; Reece Garvin 2 0-0 4; Joey Schlaffer 2 1-2 5; Alex Kelsey 1 2-2 4; Anthony Carcese 1 3-4 5; TOTALS 19 18-26 60.
Plymouth Whitemarsh (65)
Jaden Colzie 3 3-7 12; Marshall Baker 2 3-3 9; Jah Sayles 1 0-0 2; Trey Jones 1 4-6 6; Taji Hubbard 2 4-4 8; Qudire Bennett 7 12-20 28; TOTALS 16 26-40 65.
Exeter 6-15-16-23 60
Plymouth Whitemarsh 12-10-21-22 65
3-point goals: E – Payne 3, Snyder; PW – Colzie 3, Baker 2, Bennett 2.
Upper Moreland 50, Bristol 37
After trailing 12-2 early in the game, Upper Moreland spent the first half of Saturday’s nonleague game playing catchup against Bristol.
Once the Golden Bears took the lead early in the second half, they simply shut down their opponents. Holding the Warriors to just 12 second-half points, the Bears completed the comeback and pulled away for a decisive 50-37 victory.
“Our defense ramped up in the second half, for sure,” said Upper Moreland coach Dan Heiland. “We started putting a little more pressure on their guard play, pressuring them in the half-court and even the full-court and just getting them to dribble into the areas we were able to trap and just create pressure.
“We were able to turn them over a bunch. We didn’t get too many transition points from that, but we were able to control the ball and control the pace and tempo from that standpoint.”
The defensive spark was provided by Byron Hopkins, who also scored 12 points.
“He did a tremendous job on their top two scorers, really limiting them scoring the ball, not giving them many great opportunities and making them work for all their points,” Heiland said.
Offensively, Stefano Garofalo is making the most of his chance to start. The senior led the Bears with 16 points in an outstanding effort.
“Offensively, Stefano Garofalo really stepped up today,” Heiland said. “He’s a kid that’s been our sixth/seventh man the majority of the year. Due to injury, he was able to start the last couple of games and has really stepped up for us. He was our leading scorer today with 16 points, he rebounded the ball. He just did a tremendous job defensively and offensively.”
Rashim Lancit joined Garofalo and Hopkins in double-digit scoring with 12.
The Golden Bears (9-5 overall, 4-5 Freedom Division) return to action when they host Abington at 7 pm Tuesday.
Upper Moreland (50)
Stefano Garofalo 16, Rashim Lancit 12, Byron Hopkins 12, Matt Tiernan 6; Bo Meakim 4
Bristol (37)
Upper Moreland 10-11-17-12 50
Bristol 12-13-7-5 37
Methacton 55, Abington 50
Abington responded to a disappointing loss to William Tennent with a fantastic effort against District One 6A #1 seed Methacton, but after a back-and-forth battle for four quarters, the Ghosts came up just short in a 55-50 loss.
Fhenyx Scutt led Abington with a career-best 20 points along with 4 steals and a pair of assists. His five 3-pointers is the most in a single game for Abington in 8 years. Derrius Lucas scored 12 and added 5 boards, 3 blocks, and 3 steals while holding Methacton’s 6-8 forward Cole Hargrove to just 9 points. Connor Fields pulled down 9 rebounds (5 offensive) and Jimmy Marino dished out 4 assists. As a team, Abington shot 19-of-56 (33.9 percent) and 10-for-23 from the 3-point line (43.4 percent), one night after going 5-for-27.
Abington led after the first quarter (16-10) but trailed by 5 at halftime. Methacton extended the lead to 10 to start the third quarter, but Abington responded with a 12-0 run to take a 39-37 lead.
Methacton regained and extended the lead to 51-42 in the fourth quarter, but a 7-point Abington run sparked by two Scutt treys brought the Ghosts to within three at 51-48. They had several chances to get closer but came up empty. Cam Chilson’s 4-for-4 effort down the stretch sealed the Ghosts’ fate.
The Ghosts (7-6 overall, 6-3 Liberty Division) will host Upper Moreland at 7 pm Tuesday.
Abington (50)
Connor Fields 3 0-0 6; Fhenyx Scutt 7 1-2 20; Jimmy Marino 1 0-0 3; Jeremiah Lee 2 0-0 6; Derrius Lucas 5 1-2 13; Kayjel Morris 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 19 2-4 50.
Methacton (55)
Matt Blakemore 1 0-0 2; Brett Byrne 7 0-1 16; Cole Hargrove 3 3-4 9; Cam Chilson 2 4-4 9; Matt Christian 7 0-0 19; TOTALS 20 7-9 55.
Abington 16-11-15-8 50
Methacton 10-22-12-11 55
3-point goals: A – Scutt 5, Lee 2, Lucas 2, Marino; M – Christian 5, Byrne 2, Chilson.
Holy Ghost Prep 62, Quakertown 31
Friday, Jan. 21
SOL Patriot/Colonial crossover
Harry S. Truman 68, Central Bucks West 60
Ethan Flail and Makai Jackson scored 22 points each for the Tigers, who snapped a two-game losing streak.
“It really came down to my two stars, Ethan and Makai, combining for 44 points and the role players playing their part and making timely shots,” said Tigers coach Tyrone Lewis. “Defense was on point, (taking) three major charges in the fourth quarter. We played a complete game tonight.”
The Tigers, who trailed 15-12 after one quarter, found themselves on the short end of a 30-27 score at halftime. The Bucks were led by Donte Manncini’s 13-point effort – which included four 3s. Mike Fountain added six points. For Truman, Flail (13 points) and Jackson (seven points) contributed the bulk of the scoring.
The tide began to turn in the third quarter, and the two teams were deadlock 45-45 heading into the final frame as the Tigers held an 18-15 advantage in the frame.
“Ethan (Flail) started off hot, so it looked like (West coach Adam Sherman) went faceguard on Ethan, and the adjustment we made was we had Ethan set a ball screen for Makai,” Lewis said. “Makai had eight points in the third quarter.”
The Tigers – behind seven points from Jackson, six from Flail and five from Franz Fabian – outscored the Bucks 23-15 in the final quarter to earn the win.
“It was a good game – back and forth from the beginning, and we kind of ran away with it in the (second half),” Lewis said. “This (win) was good for us because we had a great win at home over CB South, and we go on the road, played two teams that were struggling before we got to them, and we kind of laid an egg on both games.
“You kind of take two steps forward and then take 10 steps backwards, so for them to come out against a pretty solid CB West team – we’re pretty even teams and both teams are looking to get a momentum game before we go back into our league play, so for them to come out the way they did, it was good. We were losing in the first quarter, we were down at half, and we came out with a big third quarter, and we finished it in the fourth with 23 points.”
Also for the Tigers, Khavier Adams had six points on a pair of 3-pointers.
“Khavier Adams played very well – he had some big 3s for us in the third quarter,” Lewis said.
Listening to the Tigers’ coach tell it, there was plenty of credit to go around for this win
“Wyatt Spinks only scored three, but that three was huge for us in the third quarter,” Lewis said. “Michael Burns played huge for us. He did everything. He’s our center, and he was the straw that stirred the drink.
“He doesn’t score a lot points, but he does a lot of the little stuff for us. He was huge with key passes, and he did other stuff to make sure we got what we needed.”
Truman (4-9, 2-7 SOL) next plays at North Penn on Tuesday. CB West (3-11, 2-7 SOL) plays at Neshaminy on Saturday.
Central Bucks West (60)
Matt Engle 0 2-2 2; Kyle Kubit 1 3-7 6; Luke Birkhead 1 0-0 2; Joey Gallagher 1 0-0 3; Donte Mancini 7 5-6 24; Colin McKenna 3 0-1 6; Bowen Gugger 1 0-0 2; John Lee 3 1-1 7; Mike Fountain 3 2-2 8. Totals 20 13-19 60.
Harry S Truman (68)
Ethan Flail 8 3-5 22; Shanbul Lewis 0 4-6 4; Michael Burns 1 0-0 2; Franz Fabian 2 0-0 5; Wyatt Spinks 1 0-0 3; Khavier Adams 2 0-0 6; Blake Alvarez 2 0-0 4; Makai Jackson 9 2-4 22. Totals 25 9-15 68.
3-point goals: CBW – Donte Mancini 5, Joey Gallagher 1, Kyle Kubit 1; HST – Ethan Flail 3, Makai Jackson 2, Khavier Adams 2, Wyatt Spinks 1, Franz Fabian 1.
Souderton 60, Council Rock South 54 (2 OT)
(Stats provided by Zak Wolfe/City of Basketball Love. To read Wolfe’s complete story, click on the following link: https://www.cityofbasketballlove.com/news_article/show/1204766
Jay Bonnet scored 24 points and had a big three-point play late in regulation to help force overtime for the Indians, who pulled away in the second OT for the cross-division victory.
“It was a great game,” Souderton coach Okoteh Sackitey said. “The kids were resilient, and they were poised. We had a lead in the fourth quarter, and we lost it. We turned the ball over a little bit. They had an offensive rebound and a putback, but we never gave up.
“We grinded every second of the game until the clock hit zero. I was really proud of the way they continued to fight when we could have given up.”
The Indians, who led by as many as nine in the third quarter, trailed by four in the fourth, but back-to-back and-ones by Aleks Smith and Bonnet put the Indians back on top.
The Golden Hawks knotted the score when Shane Dawson buried one-of-two at the foul line, setting the stage for overtime.
“We could have given up when we were down four late in the fourth, but we got a bucket, called a timeout,” Sackitey said. “We regrouped and pressed, got a turnover and just kept playing hard all the way through. We were fortunate to get it to overtime.”
In the first, the Indians – trailing by three – needed a clutch 3-pointer by Levi John to knot the score and send the game into a second OT. In the second overtime period, John had another clutch three, and a Bonnet dunk put the finishing touches on the win for the Indians.
“In overtime, we shared the ball well,” Sackitey said. “In the first overtime, Aleks Smith hit Levi (John) for a big three. He was able to step up.
“Jay Bonnet had huge performance late game. Chris Towsen did what Chris Towsen always does and facilitated extremely well for us. I didn’t count the assists, but he must have had at least 10. He did a phenomenal job.
“Paul Vince played his role extremely well and gave us great defense and really performed well. The bench was extremely live, the fans showed out, and I think that gave us a little bit of an edge and was definitely helpful to have them behind us supporting us.
“It was a great atmosphere and just a resilient poised performance to make those passes and those reads and to knock down the shots when you can see the seconds ticking down. I was so proud of the squad. It was just a great game.”
In addition to Bonnet, Smith scored 12 points, while John added 10. Towsen contributed seven points.
For the Golden Hawks, Gavin Holloran led the way with 19 points, and Dawson had 12. Matt Robinson finished with nine points.
Souderton (10-5, 5-5 SOL) went into the game having won just one of his previous four games. It plays at Bensalem on Tuesday. CR South (7-8, 3-7 SOL) plays at Central Bucks South on Tuesday.
Souderton (60)
Jay Bonnet 24, Aleks Smith 12, Levi John 10, Chris Towsen 7, James Blair 3, Paul Vince 3, Shaun Purvy 1.
Council Rock South (54)
Gavin Holloran 19, Shane Dawson 12, Matt Robinson 9, Zach Schwartz 6, Gavin Stock 6, Anthony Burns 2.
Souderton 9 14 14 8 4 11 – 60
Council Rock South 9 8 13 15 4 5 – 54
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