Pennridge charges past Central Bucks South
EAST ROCKHILL >> Planning to limit the production of Pennridge’s versatile guard, Dan Long, Central Bucks South defended the Rams throughout the first half with a feisty box-and-one.
But by halftime, that defense — time and again — had been scorched by a determined Ryan Kinky.
“I thought Ryan coming off the bench, hitting those shots — huge,” Rams coach Dean Behrens said of Kinky’s four three-pointers. “And we know he can do it. With him, I think it’s confidence.
“Coming off the bench, you have a guy that can hit four threes, kind of like a ‘Microwave,’” Behrens said, alluding to the former Pistons great, Vinnie Johnson. “It extends the defense. And it helped get South of that defense that they were in.”
Kinky’s 12 points helped keep the Rams within one at the break, and Long led the way to a dominant second half, as Pennridge pulled away to a 61-46 victory over South in a Suburban One League Continental Conference game at ‘The Barn.’
“You never wanna lose two games in a row in the conference — you could fall behind the eight ball, and there’s a lot of good teams in (the Continental),” Long said, as his team came back from a defeat at CB West to improve to 5-1 overall and 2-1 in the conference. “Every game’s gonna be a battle.”
Down 26-25 at the half, the Rams pulled ahead on a three by Ryan Cuthbert in the opening minutes of the third quarter, and led the rest of the way.
A big sequence by Long, where he hit a jumper, came up with a block and defensive rebound at the other end, then followed up with a three-point play, pushed Pennridge’s lead to 33-26 midway through the third.
A fourth three by Kinky stretched the margin to 36-28 moments later, and the Rams would eventually charge into the fourth in command with a seven-point lead.
“It’s tough to stay in front of Dan Long,” Behrens said. “I think he’s as good a guard in the area. So they know you gotta stop the engine.”
Pennridge’s engine was going strong in the fourth, as Long kept getting to the basket and drawing the foul, sinking two free throws to provide a 44-37 lead.
Long would hit 8-of-9 from the line, finish with a game-high 18 points, and he also threaded a pass to Stephen Lowry on the break, running the Ram lead to 48-37 with 5:06 to play.
“I was just trying to play in the flow of the game,” Long said. “My teammates did a great job of picking it up and it worked well.”
The Titans (2-4 overall, 1-2 conference), getting a team-high 11 points from Tim Waddington, would close to within 52-44, but Pennridge put the game away at the line, with Cuthbert sinking a pair of free throws with three minutes to go, boosting the lead back into double digits.
After both offenses sputtered in the opening moments, a jumper by Long gave the Rams a 2-0 lead with 4:26 left to go in the first quarter.
The two squads would battle back and forth in the first eight minutes, exchanging the lead three times. Three pointers by Waddington, Tom Doyle and Alex Karras pushed the Titans in front, but Kinky got going from the outside, hitting a pair of threes to bring Pennridge within 11-10 at the end of the first.
South, getting seven first-half points from Ryan Joerger, would stay in front for the majority of the second quarter, but Long’s layup to beat the buzzer made it a one-point game at the half.
Kinky’s nine points — coming off a trio of threes — led all scorers in the opening 16 minutes. And Pennridge would control things from there.
“CB South is big, they’re well-coached,” Behrens said. “We put one thing for a key tonight: out-rebound them. And I thought that, for us, keyed the win.”
