Souderton handed Hatboro-Horsham its first conference loss in Tuesday’s SOL Featured Game, sponsored by Millennium Insurance in memory of Mark Picard. To view photos of all the action, please visit the Photo Gallery.
By Ben Reese
FRANCONIA – Souderton handed Hatboro-Horsham its first SOL Continental Conference defeat of the season Tuesday night.
In the end, it was the Indians' will to win that turned the game in their favor, a 49-46 victory over the Hatters.
And that will to win could be summed up in two words, or rather one name – John Kanas.
Kanas was all over the court, driving to the basket, grabbing rebounds and defending the Hatters' top scorer Mike Brown. It was almost anti-climactic that he grabbed the ball on a steal with less than 10 seconds remaining in the game and dribbled the final seconds off the clock.
“He is our will to win,” said Souderton coach Pete Chimera. “He's incredible.
“He's such a competitor; he's such an athlete.”
Hatboro-Horsham coach Dennis Steinly knows all about Kanas.
“That's the kind of player he is,” Steinly said when asked about the energy Kanas brings to the court. “He's an energy guy.
“He's a bull. He wants to get to the basket and he gets there. I thought we defended him okay.”
How about him guarding Brown?
“I asked him,” Chimera said. “I said ' John, do you want to cover Brown?' and he said yes. I said ' Don't get fouls and don't wear out,' and he didn't.”
Kanas guarded Brown for the entire first half. In those first two periods, Brown, who scored 33 points in the initial meeting between the two teams, had eight points.
“We know he's the best scorer, and I wanted to take him and personally shut him down,” Kanas said. “He's the best scorer on their team, and if we stop him, we win the game.”
It wasn't quite that simple, however. The Hatters have a couple of other players who can put the ball in the basket as well, namely, Zach Quattro and Ryan Kelly.
Chimera put 6-8 Brendan Wagner on the 6-5 Quattro. The Hatter, who had 20 against the Indians the last time, scored 17 in this game.
“I challenged him a little bit,” Chimera said of Wagner. “I was with Hatboro (as an assistant coach) and I've seen Quattro beat (Souderton). I said to him, ‘How about you beat him?’
“Quattro is a great player and he played terrific, but Brendan just took it straight at him as we wanted him to do and just played as hard as he possibly could. His shooting percentage probably went down, but his offensive rebounds went up.”
When it came down to it, the fourth quarter decided the game. Souderton led 14-11 after one quarter and Hatboro-Horsham led 30-25 at halftime.
The Hatters held a slim one-point lead after three periods, 37-36. That set the stage for the final quarter.
Souderton scored the first five points of the stanza and six of the first eight, but Hatboro came right back and took the lead with four straight points to go on top 43-41. The Indians tied it at 43, but the Hatters took the lead right back on a pair of Quattro foul shots.
A Wagner free throw cut the margin to one point at (45-44), and his layup with 16 seconds left off a missed Hatboro free throw put the Indians up 46-45. Two Kanas freebies upped the lead to 48-45.
When Brown made only one of two foul shots with 11.6 seconds remaining, Souderton still held a 48-46 lead. Austin Murphy made one from the stripe with 10.6 left and then Kanas stole the ball and dribbled away the final ticks of the clock.
“It was a great win,” said Chimera. “They're a great team with great players. Those three – Kelly, Quattro and Brown – are just phenomenal.
“I just think we handled adversity today. It was one of our keys today and we just handled adversity.
“The kids hate when I make them run, but the fourth quarter is why we make them run. They were tired and we weren't.
“We were still going to the boards. We just pounded the boards.”
Kanas could barely contain himself after the win.
“It feels great to win that game,” he said. “It's a huge win.
“We thought we should have won at their place, but to get this now is a great feeling.
“We need the energy to win like that. They're a great team and we need everything we can get in order to win a game like that, but we knew we were a good team and could beat them. It was just a matter of effort.”
Steinly was understandably disappointed with his team's first loss.
“I thought we were in good shape,” he said. “I thought we weathered the storm.
“We had the lead at halftime, and I thought we played pretty decent in the third quarter but they came back. We knew they were going to come back.
“You don't want to lose but at least learn from it. It makes us a little stronger down the road if we learn from it.”
Early on, Kanas led the way for Souderton in the first half, scoring 12 points. But Quattro matched that with 13 of his own as the Hatters held a 30-25 halftime lead.
In the third quarter, Hatboro-Horsham started to go to Brown. He scored five points in the quarter, but the Hatters only scored seven while Souderton put 11 on the board.
The fourth was all Indians. They scored 13 points and held Hatboro to nine.
Kanas topped Souderton with 15 points with Wagner and Murphy contributing 13 each. Brown scored a game-high 18 and Quattro added 17 but only two other Hatters scored.
Hatboro-Horsham 11 19 7 9 – 46
Souderton 14 11 11 13 – 49
Hatboro-Horsham: Walt Kimble 0 0-1 0; Jack Lavery 1 0-0 2; Ryan Kelly 1 2-2 5; Chris Hobbs 2 0-0 4; Eric Rubenstein 0 0-0 0; Mike Brown 6 4-6 18; Zach Quattro 6 2-2 17. TOTALS 16 8-11 46.
Souderton: John Kanas 5 5-6 15; Anthony Williams 0 0-0 0; Carter Knight 0 0-0 0; Steve Shaffer 1 0-2 2; Dan O'Hara 1 0-0 2; Kurt Muhlberger 0 0-0 0; Austin Murphy 5 1-2 13; Jared Bernhart 0 0-0 0; Brendan Wagner 5 3-6 13. TOTALS 19 9-16 49.
3-point field goals: HH – Quattro 3, Brown 2, Kelly 1. S – Murphy 2.
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