SOL Boys’ Basketball Wrap (2-10-18)

CB West & PW earned wins to advance to Monday’s Suburban One League Tournament title game at Souderton. CR North also was a winner in its season finale. Abington/CB West photos provided courtesy of Kathy Leister Photography; PW/Pennridge photos provided by Larry Small Photography…CLICK HERE to go directly to the BOYS' BASKETBALL galleries.

By Scott Huff

There will be a brand new Suburban One League boys’ champion crowned on Monday night at Souderton Area High School at the conclusion of the title game.

Abington – the defending SOL champion – was defeated by Central Bucks West 53-43 in one of the SOL semifinal games played at Bensalem High School. Unbeaten Plymouth Whitemarsh will meet the Bucks for the SOL title as the Colonials marched to a 79-55 victory over Pennridge in the other semifinal contest.

“There are over 20 teams in the Suburban One League, and it is great to be one of the last two teams standing,” said Central Bucks West head coach Adam Sherman. “We are very happy to get to the final game.”

“We just want to keep our foot on the gas pedal and keep on going,” said Plymouth Whitemarsh head coach Jim Donofrio. “We have incentives to play for as a team, incentives as part of the Plymouth Whitemarsh program, and also some personal incentives.”

One of the most anticipated confrontations in a possible SOL championship game between Abington big man – 6-foot, 8-inch Eric Dixon and PW big(ger) man 7-3 Raheem McLeod will not take place.

One obvious reason, of course, is that CB West defeated the Ghosts. And a second reason was that Dixon missed the game with the Bucks with a jammed finger earlier this week.

“Eric jammed a finger on his non-shooting hand,” said Abington head coach Charles Grasty. “And even it we won tonight – Eric was not going to play against anybody on Monday.”

Central Bucks West 53 – Abington 43
CB West senior Shane McCusker and his Bucks have been huge Philadelphia Eagle fans this year – and CB West borrowed a rallying cry from the Super Bowl champion Birds in preparation for the game with favored Abington.
“Almost every player on this team were huge Eagle fans,” said McCusker who led the Bucks in scoring with 15 points. “We have been considered underdogs all week – and we even wore some shirts to practice with dogs on them.
“We found out before the game that Dixon wasn’t going to play for them,” added McCusker. “We wanted to beat them with their best players – but we knew we still had to play well to beat them without him.”
“Abington having to play the game without Dixon was huge,” said Sherman. “He is one of the best high school post players around.
“Good teams can adjust and play though adversity,” added Sherman. “We expected that from Abington.”
Abington, though, did not seem to adjust to playing without its dominant inside player.
“When you are missing what I consider an All-American player it changes the way that you play the game,” said Grasty. “We had our chances – we won’t make excuses – we just didn’t play well.
“Players were trying to do too much without him in the game,” added Grasty. “We got shots – good shots – but we didn’t shoot well enough.”
The game was played mostly at the pace that the patient CB West offense wanted to play the game.
“We have to play to our strength,” said Sherman. “We practice hard every day working for the good shot.
“We got the lead and we were able to finish it off,” added Sherman. “We did what we had to do to win the game.”
Abington led the contest at halftime 22-18 but the Ghosts seemed uncomfortable with the pace of the game. However, neither team shot the ball well and the game remained competitive going in the second half.
The game was deadlocked at 31-31 as the contest entered the fourth quarter.
CB West went on what proved to be a game changing 7-0 run to take a 40-33 lead with 3:28 left in the game. The Bucks would not attempt another field goal in that final 3:28 and connected on 14-of-20 free throws to ice the game.
In addition to McCusker, the Bucks received balanced double digit scoring from Jake Reichwein (14) and Jack Mulhearn (11). Collin MacAdams added nine points for the winners.
Lucas Monroe led Abington with a game-high 20 points, while Robbie Heath added nine points for the Ghosts.
Next up for Abington (18-5) will be a second round PIAA District One 6A playoff game. As the No. 2 seed, the Ghosts earned a first round bye.
Next up for CB West (19-4) will be the SOL title game against PW (23-0) on Monday with a 7:30 pm tipoff at Souderton.
Central Bucks West Bucks 12 6 13 22 – 53
Abington Ghosts 6 16 9 12 – 43
CB West: Shane McCusker 15, Jake Reichwein 14, Jack Mulhearn 11, Collin MacAdams 9, Jack Neri 4.
Abington: Lucas Monroe 20, Robbie Heath 9, JP Nolan 6, Darius Brown 4, Xavier Crawford 2, Dante Knox 2.

Plymouth Whitemarsh 79 – Pennridge 55
Plymouth Whitemarsh junior Raheem McLeod was far more impressive than even his 7-foot, 3-inch frame in the Colonials victory over Pennridge.
“Raheem is going to be a big time college basketball player,” said Donofrio. “He is big, he is talented, he has a high IQ, he has great footwork, and is just a great person.
“When he was in middle school in the seventh grade, he was told to just stand under the basket,” added Donofrio. “Same thing in eighth grade – and then we began to work with him as a freshman.
“He has made such great strides since he has been here,” continued Donofrio. “Naheem has a tougher learning curve than some other players – and it might be a little tougher than he realized.
“We are at the time of the year where every team we play is playing for something,” added Donofrio. “And competing against those teams just isn’t easy.”
McLeod, however, did make it look easy at times, scoring a game-high 26 points and dominating the offensive glass.
“I have never had to coach against a 7-3 player before,” said Pennridge head coach Dean Behrens. “He was tough to prepare for – and it was hard for our kids to play that way against a kid that big and that talented.
“He has developed so much since he was a freshman,” added Behrens. “He has really developed his game – there are going to be a lot of Division One schools that are going to take a peek at him.”
McLeod was well supported by the flashy Ish Horn who scored 22 points. Horn is looking forward to the SOL title game against CB West.
“CB West likes to run its offense – but we won’t let them run it,” said Horn. “We are very athletic and we will speed them up and make them play the game at our pace.
“There is a lot of chemistry on this team,” added Horn. “We have a 7-footer, we have good shooters, and we have what it takes to play great defense.”
PW jumped out to a 7-0 lead, but the Rams did not go away. The Colonials led 14-12 at the close of the first quarter – and led by just 21-18 with 4:25 left in the half.
“It took us some time to get in the game, but we got there,” said Behrens. “Playing like that against them will give us confidence down the road.
Pennridge was led in scoring by Sean Yoder, who was shooting well from beyond the arc and had a team-high 23 points. Tyrese Lewis had some nice moves to the basket and added 12 points for the Rams.
Next up for Pennridge (17-6) will be a second round PIAA District One 6A playoff game. The Rams earned to No. 6 seed from District One.
Next up for Plymouth Whitemarsh (23-0) will be the SOL title game against CB West (9-4) at Souderton with a 7:30 pm tipoff.
Plymouth Whitemarsh Colonials 14 20 22 23 – 79
Pennridge Rams 12 10 19 14 – 55
Plymouth Whitemarsh: Naheem McLeod 26, Ish Horn 22, Alan Glover 14, Ahmid Williams 4, Ahmad Williams 4, Danny Cooper 4, Kyree Pendelton 3, Cherry 2.
Pennridge: Sean Yoder 23, Tyrese Lewis 12, Jake Pestrak 7, Jonathan Post 6, Luke Yoder 4, Christian Guldin 2, Michael Molettiere 1.

-30-
Non-league
COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 51, HAVERFORD 43
The Indians won’t be competing in the postseason, but they made sure they ended their season on a high note, breaking a 33-33 tie with an 18-point fourth quarter to earn the win in their season finale.
“We have six seniors on our roster, and they had a really good season in terms of their leadership and helping to grow the program and just being team players,” coach Jesse Krasna said. “We wanted to make sure we sent them off on a positive.
“In our season, we had a lot of really, really close games that could have gone either way, and most of those didn’t go our way this year. We’ve been preaching to them all year – it’s not about what happens to you. It’s about how you handle it, how you respond, the character that you show when you’re dealing with disappointment. That was something we talked about all year, but it was nice to get this one and be able to celebrate a little bit after the last game.
“Not many teams get to end their season with a win. When you’re a playoff team, you have a heartbreaking loss and your season just ends like that. We’ve had a little bit of time to prepare for this being our last game. Our kids put a lot of their mental energy into this game. I was really proud of them. They could have went out and said, ‘It’s my last game. I’m going to do it my way,’ but they really came together as a team, and they played a really good game against a solid team.”
The Indians, who led 10-7 after one quarter, took a 25-15 lead into halftime. The Fords erased that lead with an 18-8 third quarter. The Indians rebounded, outscoring the Fords 18-10 in the final quarter to earn the win.
Brady Haggerty led all scorers with 17 points and completed his double-double with 11 rebounds.
“He’s been one of our main scorers throughout the season, and he’s really shown what a great kid he is,” Krasna said. “He was someone who was scoring for us a lot, but then we started bringing him off the bench. Then we put him back in the starting lineup, and he didn’t blink twice.
“He led us in scoring again today and had some big free throws in the fourth quarter and some really timely baskets for us when our offense was struggling. He stepped up and had another double-double. He had 11 rebounds, and he really controlled the backboards for us.”
Sophomore Hunter Wan added 13 points – 10, including a pair of 3-pointers, in the fourth quarter.
“He had some really big baskets for us in the second half when Haverford was making a big run,” Krasna said. “He really did a nice job coming off the bench and playing with a lot of confidence.”
Matt McAlister added 12 points. Krasna also credited the defensive effort of Josh Fisher, who had his first start of the season in Saturday’s game.
“He held Haverford’s leading scorer – Danny Roe – scoreless,” Krasna said. “He did just a tremendous job defending him. That was his assignment for just about the whole game.
“I was just very proud of our guys.”
Council Rock North (3-9 SOL) closed out its season with an 8-14 record.
Haverford 7-8-18-10 43
Council Rock North 10-15-8-18 51
Haverford (43) – JT Smyth 9, Gillen 6, Kevin DePrince 2, Canan Curry 11, John Schevient 13, John Seidman 2.
Council Rock North (51) – James Duffy 4, Brady Haggerty 17, Matt McAlister 12, Josh Fisher 5, Hunter Wan 13.