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FRANCONIA TWP – Early in the first quarter of Wednesday night’s non-league contest against Cheltenham, Souderton’s Nate Moyer stole an inbounds pass under the Panthers’ basket. His theft set up a fast break that A.J. Picard finished off with a basket that put the Indians on top 4-3.Moments later, Moyer came up with another steal on the defensive end, and this time the senior point guard took it coast to coast for a layup, evoking chants of ‘Nasty, Nasty, Nasty’ – Moyer’s nickname since he was a sophomore – from the Indians’ student section.
“I’m just trying to use my point guard role to get my teammates involved,” Moyer said. “I used to be - in my sophomore year - a shoot first kind of guy, but now I’m a pass first kind of guy.”
Moyer finished the night with six points, but his hustle at both ends of the court helped set the tone for yet another dominant effort by the Indians, who opened up a 32-13 halftime lead and coasted to a 63-48 win over the Panthers.
The win upped the Indians’ early-season record to 3-0 heading into Friday night’s SOL opener against Hatboro-Horsham.
“I’m expecting nothing but the best for us,” Moyer said. “It’s my senior season, and I’ve been dreaming about this since I was young watching the other varsity players play.
“This win was big for us. Allentown (Central Catholic) and Christopher Dock don’t have the rep of Cheltenham, so beating Cheltenham let’s people know that we’re the real deal.”
Leading the Indians offensively was senior A.J. Picard with 19 points. Seniors Jeffrey Bishop and Kyle Connolly also came up big as both posted double-doubles with Bishop contributing 12 points and 11 rebounds and Connolly, 11 points and 11 boards. Sophomore Mark Wonderling added nine points and five rebounds.
“We need all the rebounding we can get because sometimes we’ll have four guards on the court, so everybody rebounding is a key thing for us,” Connolly said. Rob Mansell led the Panthers with 21 points, but 15 of those came in the fourth quarter when the game had already been decided.
“We were watching film, and we saw that 22 was pretty much their whole offense – from what we saw at least,” Picard said. “In (coach’s) pregame speech, he told us we were going to a maverick, which is a diamond-and-one, on him.
“Me, Mark, and Kyle were going to switch guarding him. He got going in the fourth quarter, but it was too late.”
“Taking him out of the game was definitely one of our key things,” Connolly added. “We knew he was their main player. He was the one who got their offense going, and we wanted to shut him down before he got going.
“Actually, our coach just threw (that defense) in tonight. We didn’t practice it this week, but it worked.”
Cheltenham coach Brian Johnson is hoping his team will take some lessons from an Indian squad that received contributions from everyone up and down the lineup.
“One of the great things I liked about Souderton was they didn’t care who scored just as long as Souderton scored,” the Panthers’ coach said. “We know Rob is a really good player for us, and we know his strengths, and we want to accentuate that.
“At the same time, we want to look to try to make plays for each other, and that’s something we can take from Souderton.”
Souderton coach Perry Engard acknowledged that he is especially pleased to see his new players embrace their roles on the varsity level.
“Jeff Bishop, Anthony Sergio and Mark Wonderling are stepping on the varsity court for the first time in their careers,” he said. “Nate Moyer is playing the first significant time in his varsity career, so you have four (new) players in your top six, and they’re fitting in nicely around Kyle (Connolly) and A.J. (Picard). “Kyle and A.J. are treating them as peers, not as lesser players. If your leaders respect you, you’ll certainly respect your own game, and everyone is playing like they belong. The chemistry being at such a high level three games into the season is easily the thing I’m most happy about.”
Engard also lauded his squad’s defense.
“The first two games we held teams in the 30s, and it should have happened tonight,” he said. “The team defense has been a pleasant surprise.”
The Panthers took their first and only lead of the game when Malcolm Weston (12 points) buried a trey on his team’s first possession of the night. They did not score again until Mansell connected on one-of-two from the foul line six minutes later.
Despite their offensive woes, the Panthers trailed by just four at the end of one quarter (8-4).
“We just didn’t finish around the basket,” Johnson said. “We had some good looks and some opportunities in the paint, and when we didn’t finish, it kind of gave Souderton confidence.”
The two teams exchanged foul shots to open the second quarter, but when Anthony Sergio buried a trey with six minutes remaining in the half, it not only gave the Indians their first double-digit lead (15-5) it also marked the beginning of a deadly 20-8 run to close out the half.
Connolly followed Sergio’s three-point basket with a putback, and after Mansell scored for the Panthers, Picard reeled off seven straight points to put the Indians on top 24-9 – a run that included a trey as well as a conventional three-point play.After Connolly connected on both ends of a one-and-one, Bishop scored on a putback to give the Indians a 28-9 lead. The Panthers interrupted that run with baskets by Mansell and Ben Jacob, but it was only a temporary reprieve as Moyer found Wonderling cutting to the hoop for an easy deuce to send the Indians into halftime with a 32-13 lead.
Mansell had six of his team’s points.
“Mark and Kyle did a wonderful job facing him, frustrating him,” Engard said. “The big thing is when they lost him, the guards that were in the vicinity helped out and recovered nicely.”
The Indians took a 43-21 lead into the final quarter when the Panthers – sparked by their pressure defense – cut the Indians’ lead to 13 on several occasions, but they could get no closer.
“As the game progressed, we kept talking about making plays for each other, and that’s what we were able to do in the fourth quarter,” Johnson said. “We were able to make plays for each other.
“We were fairly even the rest of the game except for that second quarter when things just really got away from us. There were some positive things we can take away from the fourth quarter, and hopefully we’ll take that into our league game on Friday.”
While the Panthers will host Upper Dublin on Friday, the Indians will travel to Hatboro for their SOL opener.
“We’re 3-0, and we’re trying to win our first league game this Friday,” Picard said. “That’s what I want – the league title.”
NOTES: In addition to scoring six points, Moyer also had four steals and two blocked shots with both blocks preventing an easy basket at the end of fast breaks. “The most impressive part of those two blocks was that they came after offensive miscues on his part,” Engard said. “Nate has very much matured into a next-play type of player. For him to run back and take care of business like that – to me – showed that he has matured as a player and is deserving of a starting position.”
SOUDERTON 63, CHELTENHAM 48
Cheltenham (40) – Ben Jacob 2 0-0 4; Kareek Best 0 0-0 0; Malcolm Weston 4 3-4 12; Nick Myarick 0 0-0 0; Rob Mansell 9 3-8 21; Ryan Francis 2 0-0 4; Avery Young 0 0-0 0; Travis Bennett 1 0-0 2; Leroy Hurley 0 0-0 0; Kyle Davis 0 0-0 0; Anthony Johnson 2 1-1 5. TOTALS 20 7-13 48
Souderton (63) – Jeffrey Bishop 5 2-2 12; Nate Moyer 2 2-3 6; Mark Wonderling 3 3-5 9; A.J. Picard 5 7-10 19; Kyle Connolly 4 3-7 11; Anthony Sergio 2 1-2 6; Greg Mendrzycki 0 0-0 0; Joseph Plank 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 21 18-29 63.
Cheltenham 4 9 8 27-48
Souderton 8 24 11 20-63
3-point goals: Cheltenham – Weston, Souderton – Picard 2, Sergio.
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