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DOYLESTOWN – It certainly began innocently enough for Mike Pincus and his Central Bucks South teammates.The Titans’ point guard buried a pair from the foul line to pull South to within one of Central Bucks West with 3:24 remaining in the first half of Thursday night’s showdown.
The Titans, who trailed by as many as nine early on, were about to make this game their own.
Seconds later, Pincus stole the ball and then hit nothing but net on a three-pointer off the dribble. Another West turnover resulted in Ian Gordon finding Nick Joerger for an easy bucket in close, and when – after yet another West miscue - Will Barrett turned an offensive rebound into a basket, the Titans led by six.
Pincus, who seemed to be everywhere, blocked a shot on the defensive end, evoking chants of ‘Pincus. Pincus. Pincus’ from South’s raucous student section.
“We’re blessed to have him,” coach Jason Campbell said of Pincus. “He’s a pure point guard. He takes care of the ball. He hits the open man, and he can score when he’s open.
“He’s improving throughout the season. I feel he’s one of the best guards in the league, if not the best point guard.”
As time was about to expire in the opening half, Ryan Clark found Gordon wide open on the opposite side of the basket for an easy deuce that sent the Titans into halftime with a 27-19 lead. The Titans never looked back, rolling to an impressive 55-43 win.
“This means a lot,” Pincus said. “Our whole school was behind our net, and it helps when you have so many friends here.”
All but forgotten in the giddy post-game celebration was the fact that the Bucks actually took an 11-2 lead out of the gate before the Titans seized control of the game.
“We started pressuring them a lot,” Pincus said. “We ran our press ‘D.’ We didn’t think it would work that well, but we got some big steals, and we got out and ran on them.
“They came into the game rated above us, and I think they thought they were going to come in and take care of business. I think we kind of shocked them in the second quarter with our pressure.”
Both teams now boast identical 6-1 records in league play. While South’s win snapped the Bucks’ 10-game winning streak, it extended the Titans’ winning streak to 10.
“It feels great,” Barrett said. “This is the first time in school history we’ve ever won here, and it’s an unbelievable feeling.
“We have won 10 games in a row, and everything is just clicking. We try to come out each game harder and harder. We want to reach our goal of winning the conference and ultimately making it to states. We just want to come out and play consistent and hard.”Barrett led all scorers with 16 points to go along with 10 rebounds. Pincus added 13. Chris Dilullo was the lone West player in double figures with 13 points.
West coach Adam Sherman didn’t have to look any further than the second quarter to figure out what went wrong.
“We turned the ball over and gave them confidence,” Sherman said of a quarter that saw his team outscored 20-8. “We made some mistakes that we’re just going to have to fix.
“We did a better job in the second half, but they killed us on the glass. They’re so big, but the funny thing is it’s not the big (kids) that killed us but the guards. They got a lot of long rebounds.”
Midway through the third quarter, the Bucks trimmed the Titans’ lead to 31-28 after Shane Tyksinski scored on a drive. His bucket was followed by a two-minute scoring drought for both teams that was broken by a Barrett trey.
Chris Dilullo sank one-of-two from the charity stripe, but Clark answered with a trey to put the Bucks on top 37-29. A Clark steal resulted in an easy bucket for Mike Doty, and the Titans took a 39-29 lead into the final quarter.
“Ryan Clark and Mike Pincus got a couple of huge steals,” Barrett said. “Those steals propelled our team, got us hyped, and we scored some points off of them.”
The Titans extended their lead to 43-29 after a Pincus bucket, and the Bucks would get no closer than eight the rest of the way.
“The first half we came out a little slow, and coach said we had to step it up and we have to play as a team,” Barrett said. “We started hitting our open shots. It’s fun when we’re playing like that.”
The last three quarters were a far cry from a first quarter that saw the Bucks – behind five points from Chris Dilullo – open up a nine-point lead.
“During one of our timeouts, I just mentioned to them a couple of things we needed to do,” Campbell said. “Number one was defensively we had to smother the ball on the wing when they caught the ball because they do a great job of running their offense.
“They’re very patient, so we thought if we put some pressure, it would make it difficult for them to make passes to the open cutters.”
It didn’t really matter what Campbell’s second and third points may have been.
The Titans’ smothering defense was more than enough to stymie the Bucks’ offense, allowing the Trojans to take control of the game and their own destiny.
“We knew this was going to be a big challenge coming to C.B. West and playing a quality team,” Campbell said. “This was the test to see where we were at as far as playing the elite teams.
“This is where I wanted to be right now. We have a game (against Quakertown) tomorrow. It’s kind of a payback game (after) losing to Quakertown at their place. We’ll enjoy the win tonight, get into our game plan tomorrow and make sure we beat Quakertown. Coming off a big win like this, you can’t take the next team lightly.”
Both South and West boast identical 11-2 records overall.
CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 55, CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 43
Central Bucks South (55) – Will Barrett 7 1-5 16, Mike Doty 2 2-2 6, Ian Gordon 2 2-2 6, Greg Johnston 1 0-1 3, Mike Pincus 4 4-4 13, Ryan Clark 2 4-4 9, Nick Joerger 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 13-18 55.
Central Bucks West (43) – Chris Dilullo 3 6-8 13, Shane Tyksinski 3 0-0 6, Pat Furst 1 4-4 6, Reiss Reichwein 1 2-4 5, Joe Dilullo 1 5-6 7, Ryan Dyer 1 1-2 3, Bill Carroll 1 0-0 2. Totals 11 19-26 43.
Central Bucks South 7 20 12 16-55
Central Bucks West 11 8 10 14-43
Three-point goals: Will Barrett, Greg Johnston, Ryan Clark, Mike Pincus, Chris Dilullo, Reiss Reichwein.
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