Check out the recaps for SOL boys’ basketball teams in action Friday. CR South/CB West photos provided courtesy of Tracy Valko, and Upper Dublin/Tennent photos courtesy of Greg Lindsay. Check back for galleries of both games.
SOL non-league crossover
Council Rock South 52, Central Bucks West 51
Brendan Balmer hit the game-winner with three seconds remaining, as CR South went on the road and knocked off CB West 52-51 in a crossover thriller on Friday night.
“Credit to CB West,” said Golden Hawks coach James Cassidy. “That’s an outstanding high school basketball atmosphere, and they are very well coached. We knew going in that we would probably see some of their matchup zone, and I thought our
guys did a fine job passing and cutting against it early on, which allowed us to get a little bit of a cushion.”
Key Players: Ryan Delp and Brendan Balmer had 11 points each to lead the Golden Hawks, while Lucian Mirc had 10 points. Ray Haglund had eight points, including a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter.
Dan Pellegrini had a huge night for CB West, scoring 28 points, 18 in the second half. John Vrettos added 12 points.
CR South coach James Cassidy:
“Pellegrini did a great job for them, especially in the third quarter when they made their run. But our guys, specifically our backcourt of Haglund and Balmer, were outstanding in the fourth when West turned up the heat a bit. Ray hit four huge free throws, and Balmer showed tremendous heart and skill in finishing at the rim for the game winner with three seconds left.
“Once again, we got 15 from Lucian Mirc, who’s playing with confidence on both ends of the floor, and we got nine more rebounds from Joey Madara against a tall and physical West team.
“Really happy for our program. It was a win that we really needed, and our guys battled 32 minutes to earn it.”
Up next: Council Rock South will travel to Wissahickon for an SOL non-league crossover game Tuesday, and Central Bucks West will be on the road at Lower Moreland Tuesday.
CR South 15 12 10 15 – 52
CB West 10 10 17 14 – 51
CR South (52)
Ryan Delp 11, Ray Haglund 8, Joey Madara 4, Owen McLean 2, Brendan Balmer 11; Lucian Mirc 16.
CB West (51)
Max Milillo 2, Connor Chuo 3, Melo Aylmer 5; Dan Pellegrini 28, John Vrettos 12, Gavin Reichner 1.
Council Rock North 55, Pennridge 53 (OT)
An Owen Crowne bucket with two seconds remaining in overtime was the difference, as CR North went on the road and won a key crossover game, knocking off Pennridge by two.
“Honestly, we just played our brand of basketball,” said Indians coach Brandon Knotts. “We fought and clawed the whole game. Never gave up.”
Key Players: Junior Danny Cuneo had a big game for the Golden Hawks with a team-high 18 points. Crowne finished with 14 points.
Pennridge was led by Connor Murray with 18, Ryan Flood with 16 and Mike Alba with 10 points.
CR North assistant coach Brandon Knotts:
“Down the stretch, we executed exactly how we needed to. Owen Crowne hit a big shot with about two seconds left in overtime.
“Props to Cameron Wright, who hit a shot that tied the game at the end of the fourth quarter.”
Up next: Council Rock North will travel to MaST Charter for a non-league game Saturday (7pm), and Pennridge will host Perkiomen Valley in a non-league game Saturday (1pm).
CR North 8 17 11 13 6 – 55
Pennridge 13 10 12 14 4 – 53
CR North (55)
Leif Peterson 2 3-4 7; Owen Crowne 5 2-2 14; Justin Freed 1 0-0 2; Dylan Kiefer 4 1-2 9; Cameron Wright 1 2-2 5; Danny Cueno 9 0-0 18. Totals 22 8-10 55.
Pennridge (53)
Rownan Smith 1 1-2 3; Ryan Kuntz 2 0-0 4; Ryan Schwind 2 0-2 4; Jake Dietl 2 0-5 4; Ryan Flood 6 3-4 16; Mike Alba 3 2-3 10; Connor Murray 5 2-2 18. Totals 21 8-18 53.
3-point goals: CRN – Crowne 2, Wright; P –Murray 6, Alba 2, Flood.
Neshaminy 64, Central Bucks East 53
A huge fourth quarter was the difference as Neshaminy outscored CB East by 13 in the final eight minutes to pull away for the road crossover victory.
“It was a great game, great atmosphere,” said Neshaminy coach Mark Tingle. “It was a back-and-forth game the whole game. We were up two after the first, down one at half, down two after the third. It was just a back-and-forth game the whole time. But, fourth quarter, we were able to stay composed and finish it out.”
Key Players: Logan Gale was the game’s high scorer with 19 points for Neshaminy, and he also had eight rebounds while Marlon Yon had 15 and 12 rebounds. Jason Levia 10 and Eriq Gold had 10 points each.
Keegan Marascio (17) and Henry Bartchuk (10) were in double figures for CB East.
Neshaminy coach Mark Tingle:
–The game: “It was more we were able to get a couple stops in a row in the fourth, and then we were able to capitalize. I think momentum-wise, it was back-and-forth momentum, but we got to the line 33 times, so it kind of breaks things up. I think their subbing has to change a little bit because of it, so that definitely helped us that way. And we played well.”
Up next: Central Bucks East will be on the road at Cheltenham for an SOL non-league game Tuesday, and Neshaminy will travel to Plymouth Whitemarsh for an SOL non-league crossover contest.
Neshaminy 15 13 12 24 – 64
CB East 13 16 13 11 – 53
Neshaminy (64)
Logan Gale 19, Eriq Gold 10, Cadenn Amati 6, Marlon Yon 15, Jason Leiva 10, Luke Amrheim 4
CB East (53)
Connor Mekanik 7, Henry Bartchuk 10, Keegan Marascio 17, Quinn Slack 3, Brady Colbert 3, Sean Korlesky 7, Ryan Dailey 2, David Oliver 4
3-point goals: N – Leiva 2, Gale, Gold; CBE – Bartchak 2, Mekanik, Colbert, Korlesky.
Central Bucks South 61, Harry S. Truman 50
It wasn’t always pretty, but late CB South turned it on and was able to pull away in the fourth quarter to get past Truman in a crossover game at home on Friday.
Alex Shahin led CB South with 18 points, 11 of which came in the fourth quarter. Brayden Barrett added 13 points.
Truman was led by Jaden Luchansky, who hit six 3-pointers and scored 24 points, Davae Vaughn added 13 points.
CB South coach Louie Ditri:
“(Truman) did a nice job. Their kid (Jaden Luchansky) had six 3s. He had 24 points. They were playing their zone defense well, and they did a nice job defensively. I think once they got the ball rolling defensively, that helped them on their offensive end, too, giving them some confidence.
“(Luchansky) had four 3s in the first half, and he still finished with 12 (points) in the second half. He had 12 in each half, but we made it harder for him in the second half, which helped us.”
–Props: “Cade Crim coming off the bench did a great job denying (Luchansky) the ball. And we were a little stagnant in our offense in the second and third quarters. We did put up points, but it wasn’t crisp. But we definitely got it rolling better at the tail end of the third quarter and the fourth quarter,
“We got better offensively. And then Alex Shahin had a nice fourth quarter for us with 11 points and he did the offense for us and Cade did the defense, and it kind of worked out well for us.”
Up next: Central Bucks South will travel to Holy Ghost Prep in a non-league game Saturday (1pm), and Harry S. Truman will host Unionville in a non-league game Saturday (1pm).
Truman 10 15 13 12 – 50
CB South 15 13 17 16 – 61
Truman (50)
Luchansky 9 0-0 24; Edwards 2 0-0 4; Vaughn 4 5-9 13; Rogers 1 0-0 2; Parker 2 1-2 5; Andre 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 6-11 50.
CB South (61)
Adebayo 3 1-2 8; Shahin 6 3-6 18; Crim 3 0-0 8; Barrett 4 3-4 13; Van Zanten 1 3-6 5; Ross 1 0-0 3; Medwid 3 0-2 6. Totals 21 10-20 61.
3-point goals: T – Luchansky 6. CBS -Adebayo, Shahin 3, Crim 2, Barrett 2, Ross.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 68, Cheltenham 42
Coming back from a successful West Coast trip over the holidays, Plymouth Whitemarsh had a big week locally with three games against three quality teams.
Friday night, the Colonials made it 2-for-2. After beating Upper Dublin Tuesday, the Colonials took care of business against archrival Cheltenham by a 68-42 final score on Friday night.Up by only three after one quarter, PW scored 38 points in the middle two quarters to completely take over the game.
Key Players: Mani Sajid and Michael Peirera had 18 points each to lead PW. Terron Davis added 12 points.
Cheltenham was led by Chris Harmon with 13 and Mark Hill with 11.
PW coach Jim Donofrio:
–The game: “There’s just a handful of athletes in the world that maintain focus no matter what they do all the time. Most of us are human, and we emotionally go up and down. That’s why they call them ‘trap games’ and everything else. Cheltenham is a team we’ve had great games with over the years. You go down there, and you respect it to death. I’ve had good wins in that place, and I’ve had nightmare scenarios.
“My thinking is, how are we going to be when you have Coatesville in 24 hours and you’re coming off Upper Dublin. I didn’t realize the emotionality of this schedule, the emotional energy this is taking. I needed us to be businesslike tonight with great respect that Cheltenham plays with a lot of heart and fire. Yet, at the same time, would we have anything left over for 24 hours from now?
“We were down that road three times so far, and I thought we really handled it pretty well tonight. We were a little bit offensively flat, but the defense, you can tell. I learned tonight that I think we’ve turned a corner on mental toughness, and that’s really important. We had them at 20 points at the half, and that’s pretty good.
“The players had a look in their eyes. They’re getting to the point where Mani (Sajid) and Michael Pereira – those guys are looking at me and letting me rant and rave and just kind of smiling at me, and that’s a good sign. They’re carrying a different kind of self-confidence. ‘We’re good, okay.’ That’s what you want. That was important.
–Props: “Mani is playing more and more consistently with the confidence of a high level player all the time. Michael Pereira is starting to come around. He had a really tough ankle sprain that he just kind of massaged his way through the first month of the season, and now you can see the bounce is back.
“We’re a team that has multiple looks, and it takes a long time to get all these looks to gel. So when we pull one of the bigs, Terron Davis goes in the game tonight, and we’re just as good, only just a little different. There are other guys starting to step into these roles. The timing is good.”
–Coatesville in the wings: “It’s always fun when you get invited to a showcase game. I really don’t know if we’ve had too many at our place that were just naturally scheduled as a home-and-home. We played at Coatesville last year, and coach (John) Allen said, ‘We’ll come to you this year.’ In the middle of that, they have one of the top three sophomores in the country, and we have a really nice team with big-name guys, so for the basketball fan, this is a show game. It’s fun, and we still have to find a way to figure them out and give it our best. There should be a great crowd. It’s a high level game.”
Up next: Plymouth Whitemarsh will host Coatesville in a non-league game Saturday (7pm), and Cheltenham will be on the road at Abington for an SOL non-league game Saturday (1pm).
Plymouth Whitemarsh. 13-19-19-17 68
Cheltenham 10-10-10-12 42
Plymouth Whitemarsh (68)
Jack Hayes 1 2-3 4; Terron Davis 4 4-6 12; Eric Conicello 1 0-0 3; Mani Sajid 5 7-8 18; Michael Pereira 5 8-13 18; Buddy Denard 1 0-0 2; Zhaiden Gray 2 0-0 5; Micah Thompson 3 0-0 6; TOTALS 22 21-30
Cheltenham (42)
Isa Vargas 0 1-2 1; Chris Harmon 5 2-4 13; Mark Hill 3 4-4 11; Isaiah Dill 3 0-0 8; Micah Millis 0 2-2 2; TyreeMartin 1 1-8 3; Elijah Saintillidor 1 0-0 2; Peyton McClendon 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 20 10-20 42.
3-point goals: PW – Conicello, Sajid, Gray; C – Dill 2, Harmon, Hill.
Springfield Twp 50, Quakertown 41
Springfield shook off a slow start and after worked itself back into the game. The Spartans dominated in the fourth to pull away from visiting Quakertown 50-41 in a crossover game on Friday night.
“Tonight was a lot of fun and a true measure of our team’s character,” said Springfield coach Mike DeCandido. “Quakertown came out ready to go and we got down early in the first quarter.
“Our guys handled the adversity, stayed positive, and fought back. It was a slow and steady grind, and Quakertown made us earn every point, but we just kept fighting.”
Key Players: For Springfield, Julian Ciasullo led the way with 14 points, Chadrack Kiamba added 13 points and five rebounds, while Cahlin Spearman had 11 points, five assists and four rebounds.
Jameson Sykes had 15 for Quakertown.
Springfield coach Mike DeCandido:
“A lot of guys stepped up as leaders and used their voices. It’s awesome when you have a group of guys who pick each other up and stick together. We were able to slowly take back the lead and then pulled away in the fourth quarter. We had five to six guys rotating in at the end of the game and they took incredible care of the ball. We didn’t have any turnovers in the last three minutes.”
–Props: Our bigs played great tonight. Quakertown has a lot of height, which made us play two forwards at a time. Chadrack Kiamba, Jake Gibson, and Gavin Cleary rotated in the game, making a big impact, especially on the defensive end. They altered shots and made it difficult for them to score. Chadrack finished extremely well around the rim, and Jake controlled the floor when we were trying to work the clock. We are a guard-heavy team, so it’s always great to see our forwards make such a big impact.”
Up next: Springfield Twp will host Pennridge in an SOL non-league crossover game Tuesday, and Quakertown will host Council Rock North in a non-league crossover game Tuesday.
Quakertown 12-12-12-5 41
Springfield Twp. 5-16-14-15 50
Quakertown (41)
Jameson Sykes 6 1-1 15; Declan Mooney 1 0-0 3; Luka Duric 2 0-0 4; Trae McCray 4 1-1 11; Lochlan Everitt 2 0-0 4; CJ Peacher 0 2-3 2; Jonathan Major 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 16 4-5 41.
Springfield Twp (50)
Cahlin Spearman 2 5-6 11; Justin Ciasullo 5 4-10 14; Nathan Davis 1 0-0 2; Ryan McGuickin 1 2-4 4; Chadrack Kiamba 6 1-1 13; Jake Gibson 1 1-1 4; Gavin Cleary 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 17 13-22 50.
3-point goals: Q – McCray 2, Sykes 2, Mooney; S – Spearman 2, Gibson.
Upper Dublin 75, William Tennent 42
Upper Dublin went on the road Friday, needing a big bounce-back win after falling to first-place Plymouth Whitemarsh on Tuesday, and got just that against William Tennent, to the tune of a 33-point victory.
The Flying Cardinals scored 22 points to go up by 14 points in the first quarter.
Key Players: Horace Jackson led Upper Dublin with 18 points, while Jake Scherzer added 15 points.
For Tennent, Evan Eiler scored a team-high 15 points, including 12 in the second half.
UD coach Derek Brooks:
“There were three different runs in the game tonight. We got off to a great start in the first quarter to build a large lead. Credit to Tennent they started to make some shots in the second and early third to bring them within four in the third. Then we were able to turn it on during the last stretch of the game to pull away.
“When we played with good intensity and energy tonight, we were great. We need to bring that all four quarters to prevent these runs allowing teams to stay in the game.”
–Props: “Horace Jackson had good energy tonight and did a great job finishing at the rim. Kobe Bazemore did great as a distributor with eight assists. Justin Ragsdale and Noah Cohen each had a nice scoring contribution of 13 and 11. Jake Scherzer and Luke Caron had big nights scoring for us off the bench tonight.”
Up next: Upper Dublin will host Spring-Ford in a non-league game Saturday (12:30 pm), and William Tennent will host North Penn in a non-league SOL crossover game Tuesday.
Upper Dublin 22 14 22 17 – 75
Tennent 8 15 14 5 – 42
Tennent (42)
Braden Goldberg 12, Tre Stracuzzi 7, Carter Jameson 6, Evan Eiler 16, Medhi Wahid 2
UD (75)
Kobe Bazemore 4, Brandon Altman 2, Noah Cohen 11, Horace Jackson 18, Justin Ragsdale 13, Jake Scherzer 15, Luke Caron 8, Tyler 2
Wissahickon 60, Lower Moreland 23
With a stifling defensive effort, Wissahickon jumped out early and never looked back in this one, routing Lower Moreland 60-23 on Friday night.
The Trojans outscored the Lions 20-2 in the first quarter and went on to lead 33-7 at halftime. Lower Moreland was held to single digits in all four quarters.
Key Players: Nico Vacchiano scored 23 points, 19 in the first half, to lead Wissahickon, while Zach Schwartz added 13 points.
Up next: Wissahickon – it’s non-league game against Central scheduled for Saturday – will host Council Rock South in an SOL non-league crossover Tuesday, and Lower Moreland will be on the road at Bristol for a non-league game Tuesday.
Wissahickon 20-13-19-8 60
Lower Moreland 2 5 9 7 – 23
Wissahickon (60)
Zach Schwartz 4 2-2 13; Luke Slobotkin 2 0-0 4; Owen Haughey 1 2-2 4; Nico Vacchiano 10 2-3 23; Jack Weiss 2 0-0 4; Jona Sellenriek 4 0-0 8; Delmar Taliaferro 1 2-4 4; TOTALS 24 8-11 60.
Lower Moreland (23)
Luke Wheeler 3 0-0 7; Nathaniel Udal 1 0-0 2; Thomas Keaton 0 1-4 1; Marco Marino 2 0-0 5; Nathan Fellah 1 1-3 3; Thomas Maloney 1 3-4 5; TOTALS 8 5-11 23.
3-point goals: W – Schwartz 3, Vacchiano; LM – Wheeler, Mirano.
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