Defense carries Wissahickon to victory over Norristown

LOWER GWYNEDD >> Norristown scored 12 points in the first quarter of the season-opener against Wissahickon Friday night and held a one-point lead after eight minutes.

The Trojans held the Eagles to just 16 points the rest of the way and cruised to a 52-28 win at Wissahickon High School.

“Our defense,” Wissahickon coach Kyle Wilson said. “We held them to 11 points in (the second) half. That’s pretty impressive. When we play good defense, good things happen. I think some of our guys are motivated, so that’s something they’ve been taking pride in — playing good defense no matter what five are in there. We probably played 10 or 11 guys tonight. To do that and hold a team to the points we did, I thought was a pretty good job.”

“We turned the ball over 17 times, which isn’t good,” Norristown coach Chris Podsobinski said. “It’s not a lot of varsity experience. Maybe it’s being in their place, not aggressively meeting the ball and stuff.”

While the defense was getting turnovers, Wissahickon’s bigs were getting easy baskets at the other end. Zach Reiner finished with a game-high 18 points and Shane Ford added 11.

“I felt that our inside game was falling,” Reiner said. “I knew going into the game that I had a little trouble with my wrist so my shot wasn’t going to fall, so I think getting to the line really helped, driving to the basket really helped and I thought we overall had a great team win.”

Norristown’s full-court press was forcing Wissahickon into mistakes, too, but the Eagles could not convert on the offensive end. They struggled with jump shots from outside of the paint and went just 4-for-12 from the free-throw line.

“We caused a lot of havoc,” Podsobinski said. “We just couldn’t score to create the havoc. They ran a tempo press — they didn’t want us to run up and down, which worked. We didn’t make them pay for it and that’s something else we have to figure out. It’s something to learn from.

“I can’t fault the effort, but we’ve got a lot of work to do on offense. We have a bunch of young guys without much varsity experience. Wissahickon came out in the second half and made a run and we couldn’t really score. We were having trouble scoring all night.”

Kurran Clark scored a team-high 13 points for Norristown and Marcus Sanford added six.

The Eagles forced Wissahickon into 21 turnovers in the game.

“I would say possessions have to end with good shots,” Wilson said. “Possessions end with turnovers — it’s a wasted possession.

“Give credit where it’s due, Norristown is a quick team. I looked at the schedule and we had them early. Playing Norristown early December is better than playing Norristown in January because they are going to fix a lot of those mistakes. They’re a well-coached team.”

Wissahickon 52, Norristown 28
Norristown                         12 5 7 4 — 28
Wissahickon                       11 12 17 12 ­— 52
N: McGowan 2 0-0 4, Sanford 3 0-0 6, Clark 6 1-2 13, Dorman 0 1-2 1, Edward 1 1-2 3, Greenwood 0 1-6 1. Total 12 4-12 28.
W: Owen 2 0-0 4, Oliphant 2 0-0 4, Johnson 2 0-0 4, Gellman 0 1-3 1, Rapoport 3 0-0 8, Graeff 0 2-2 2, Ford 5 0-0 11, Reiner 7 4-6 18. Total 21 7-11 52.
3-point goals: W: Rapoport 2, Ford.