CB South earned a 65-52 Senior Night win over CB East in an SOL Featured Game sponsored by the CB South Boys’ Basketball Parents Association. To view action photos of the game, please visit the Photo Gallery.
WARRINGTON - Patience, confidence and execution.
That’s what Central Bucks South utilized to jump out to a 10-2 lead in Friday night’s Continental Conference matchup against district rival Central Bucks East. And when the Patriots trimmed a double-digit deficit to just two points early in the fourth quarter, the Titans again came out with patience, confidence and execution to pull away.
South scored 12 unanswered points and shot 13-of-16 from the foul line in the fourth quarter as the Titans rolled to a 65-52 win on Senior Night in a well-played, true team effort.
“We really wanted to come out here and win this one for the seniors,” said junior guard Kevin Raymond. “We wanted to beat our rivals, win it for the seniors on our home court.”
With all three seniors – Dave Knox, John Flaherty and Paul Zakrzewski – in the starting lineup, the Titans played a patient perimeter game and were smart and confident in driving the lane en route to an early lead. Triggered by Zakrzewski’s three-pointer, South scored the first five points of the game and led by eight on three four occasions in the opening stanza.
“Our focus tonight was to start off the game, the first five minutes, by playing good defense, trying to lead that into transition points, and just being patient on offense,” said South coach Jason Campbell, whose teams are 8-0 in Senior Night games. “Our seniors did a really good job setting the tone. Paul Zakrzewski started tonight, and he’s had three solid games in a row. He gives us life off the bench, and he gave us a spark from the start tonight.”
After shooting better than 50 percent from the floor – mostly along the perimeter – in the first half, South went inside early in the third quarter in the form of Flaherty. The senior forward used a nifty spin move in the lane to score the first points of the second half, then added South’s next three on a putback and one-of-two from the foul line. Flaherty scored seven of his team-leading 14 points in the third quarter.
“I started off good tonight, but I got into early foul trouble and I sat the whole second quarter,” Flaherty said. “I didn’t want my last game here to be a foul-out with two points, so I turned it on. And I felt like I had the advantage against them. I felt like they saw me as not-so-agile so I was able to use my post moves to get around them.”
When Flaherty wasn’t scoring in the paint, Chase Vonder Schmalz was draining buckets from the perimeter. The junior netted five of his 13 points in the third, including a big trey that pushed South’s lead to 11 points late in the quarter. Zakrzewski also added his second three-pointer of the night, this one from well beyond the three-point arc.
In all, the Titans received points from eight players and contributions in the form of assists, rebounds or smart, aggressive play from every player who saw time.
“All 12 guys work hard in practice because when your number’s called, you either have to be able to keep us at the same level, or when we need it, to pick us back up,” Campbell said. “We have some guys who are really aggressive off the bench. Matt Scamuffo is a good scorer, Paul Giaquinto is a good, tough defender.
“It’s all about being hard to guard, and if we have multiple guys scoring five, six, seven points, that’s going to help us. We don’t have that guy who’s going to score 20 points every night, but these guys care about the win and not their individual statistics. That’s nice to see.”
Though the Titans never trailed, they also were unable to shake the pesky Patriots, who continuously battled back. Following Vonder Schmalz’s three-pointer late in the third, East rattled off seven of the final nine points of the period to draw to within seven.
And when Steve Topley completed a three-point play at the foul line, followed by Ryan O’Neil’s two-for-two from the stripe, suddenly the hosts’ lead was down to two at 42-40 less than a minute into the final quarter.
South called timeout, during which Campbell stressed patience, confidence and execution. And the Titans – who have won a number of games this season in overtime and double-overtime – knew exactly how to answer the Patriots.
Deliberately moving the ball around the perimeter, the Titans found Vonder Schmalz open, and the junior guard calmly drained his third three-pointer of the game to make it a two-possession game. After Topley – who scored nine of his game-high 23 points in the fourth – hit a pair from the foul line, South responded with the next 12 points to pull away. Highlighting the run was Scamuffo’s three-pointer, followed by Raymond’s steal and coast-to-coast layin.
“During the timeout, Coach told us to run our sets and keep playing good basketball,” Raymond said. “He told us to keep being patient. And we’ve been in these situations before. We have confidence that whenever we’re in close games, we feel like we can win them.”
“We may look like a young team, but we’ve got a lot of experience in close games,” Flaherty said.
The victory returns the Titans to 10-10 overall. South is 8-4 in third place in the Continental Conference. More importantly on this night, however, was that the win gives a proper sendoff to the three-man senior class.
“This means a lot to me,” Flaherty said. “I’m really happy for Dave and Paul, too. I’ve grown up with them since elementary school. It’s pretty awesome that we were able to stick with this and make it all the way through.”
“The seniors coach us through everything,” Raymond said. “They help us through offseason workouts. Dave Knox comes in and takes me and Brennan (Rudnick) under his wing. They get us working hard and they keep us focused.”
East falls to 9-11 overall and 6-6 for fourth place in the Continental Conference. The Patriots close out the season at Quakertown on Feb. 7 and at home against Souderton on Feb. 10.
The Titans now turn their attention to a pair of road games to close their season as they try to make a case for themselves heading toward the District One playoffs. The squad will visit Hatboro-Horsham (5-7 Continental) on Feb. 7 and league-leading Central Bucks West (11-1) to close out the season on Feb. 10.
“We have to stay focused and take one game at a time,” Flaherty said. “West is another of our rivals, and they’re a great team, but we have Hatboro-Horsham first. We’ve got to take care of our business there first.”
“The ideal situation is to win straight out, but we have to take this one game at a time,” echoed Campbell. “Hatboro been hot the second half of the year, so we’ve got to make sure we go in there and do the things we did tonight. West is an outstanding team, but we can’t look ahead to them.”
Central Bucks East 11 8 16 17 – 52
Central Bucks South 16 11 15 23 – 65
Central Bucks East (52): Matt Stauffer 1 0-0 2; Lou Pannella 1 2-2 4; Steve Topley 8 5-5 23; Ryan O’Neil 6 3-4 15; Mark Kiersnowski 0 2-2 2; Liam Gallagher 2 1-1 6; Brendan McLaughlin 0 0-0 0; Reid Menard 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18 13-14 52.
Central Bucks South (65): Paul Zakrzewski 3 0-1 8; Kevin Raymond 3 5-6 11; Dave Knox 1 2-3 4; John Flaherty 6 2-3 14; Chase Vonder Schmalz 4 2-4 13; Matt Scamuffo 2 0-0 5; Brennan Rudnick 1 6-6 8; T.J. Ohntrup 1 0-0 2; Kevin Doyle 0 0-0 0; Danny Giaquinto 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21 17-23 65.
Three-point goals:
Central Bucks East: Topley 2, Gallagher.
Central Bucks South: Zakrzewski 2, Vonder Schmalz 3, Scamuffo.
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