Fergus earns win No. 500 as Christopher Dock beats Sankofa Freedom
TOWAMENCIN >> A determined Jared Exler, along with some strong defensive play down the stretch, propelled Christopher Dock to a 52-48 victory over Sankofa Freedom Tuesday night, as Pioneers coach Mike Fergus earned his 500th career victory.
“It feels great, because it’s such a privilege to play for him,” Exler said of Fergus, who has won at least 100 games at three different stops, including several playoff seasons at nearby North Penn. “I love playing for him so much. He’s helped me so much in the offseason and he’s helped so many guys get into college.
“If you ask him to work you out in the offseason, he’ll do it. I’m just really happy to be part of his 500th win.”
The final two minutes, especially, were a tribute to Fergus, as Dock’s defense clamped down and used an effective box-and-one on Sankofa’s Terron Bacon.
With 1 minute and 53 seconds left in this Christopher Dock Holiday Tournament Semifinal, Exler drove to the basket for two to break a 46-46 tie and put Dock in front for good.
That capped a 30-point night for Exler, who hit three 3-pointers in the contest.
“I’m just really happy we won the game,” said Exler, whose team will face Springfield Montco in the tournament final Wednesday night at 7:30. “We gotta get this championship. If we can get it, it will jump-start us going into the new year.”
A pair of defensive rebounds by Misrahim Nyagwegwe helped keep Dock (2-6) in front in the final minutes, with Justin Burkholder sinking one of two free throws with under a minute to go to give the Pioneers a 50-46 lead.
Ibrahima Dabo scored for Sankofa Freedom to slice the margin to 50-48 with eight seconds to play, but two clutch foul shots by Nolan Bolton iced the game for the Pioneers.
“That was a freshman. We actually set up a play to get him the ball,” Fergus said, “because I just felt like he was gonna make them. He doesn’t let anything bother him. Sure enough, he went and knocked ’em both down.
“Defensively, we played pretty well. (Sankofa Freedom) is capable of scoring some points, and we did a pretty good job in the fourth quarter.”
Burkholder intercepted a pass as time expired, and the celebration could officially begin. Fergus was soon surrounded by his other team – his family – and given a commemorative ball signed by all of the Pioneer players and sporting a big number 500.
“I have the most supportive wife in the world.,” said Fergus, whose career spans 39 years – 34 as a high school head coach and five as a college assistant. “Three of my kids are here, and they’ve always been supporting me through all this craziness.
“It’s nice to be in the finals of the tournament, get this game behind us and hopefully get some momentum. We’ve played some really good teams early on – our schedule’s not been kind to us, and we have a pretty young team. So it would be nice to get some momentum coming out of the tournament going into January, keep it going and be playing our best at the end of the year.”
Exler had a big first half for Dock, scoring 11 points to propel the Pioneers to a 26-21 lead at the break.
The versatile guard hit a pair of threes, and the Pioneers were also looking strong underneath with the steady contributions of 6-foot-4 Nick Schnable, who added five points in the opening half.
Naseem Brown and Terron Bacon each scored five points in the first half for Sankofa Freedom. The two teams battled to a 14-14 tie at the end of the first quarter before Dock gained a five-point edge going into the break.
The lead would grow to seven heading into the fourth before one final push by Sankofa evened things up. Had it not been for a tough night at the foul line (14-of-31), things may have been less tense for Dock, but another monster effort by Exler, a senior, helped smooth the ride.
“Jared can do that. He had 28 the other night, 26 the game before – he can score,” Fergus said. “He’s a scorer. I wasn’t surprised. When he has games like (tonight), I almost expect it.”
