Thomas beats buzzer & Pennsbury basketball at Council Rock South (VIDEO)

NORTHAMPTON – Free throws – you can win the game if you make them but miss a bunch of them and the opponent usually makes you pay the price.

That’s what happened Thursday night (Jan. 7) at Council Rock South. Visiting Pennsbury missed 10 shots from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter including a pair with less than five ticks left on the clock.

South junior Michael Krepich came down with the rebound, tossed an outlet over to classmate Austin Thomas (11 pts.) and the 5-8 junior guard tossed a one-handed floater in off the glass from the baseline for the win.

“Those two misses at the end were big for us,” said Thomas. “Otherwise, we would have had to go for a three and try to win it in overtime.”

“That’s the game right there; we shot 21 for (43) from the foul line,” stated Pennsbury senior reserve guard Mike Alley. “We have to improve that and we have to continue to play as we are expected to play Pennsbury basketball.”

The game was the second straight in which the Falcons shot poorly at the stripe. Pennsbury also shot poorly from the line in its previous duel at Neshaminy.

For the Golden Hawks, it was a solid win against a team that entered the battle unbeaten in the Suburban One League. For Thomas, the winning basket was sweet redemption. He had just one field goal at halftime and two when he tossed up the buzzer-beater.

“We always talk about playing with poise,” stated Thomas after the game. “My shot wasn’t falling and all my teammates were all sticking together and pushing me and saying ‘it’s going to fall.”

“It fell at the end.”

In addition to finishing badly, the Falcons got off to a slow start. After registering just two field goals in the first period, they trailed 13-6 heading into the second.

With a minute and a half to go in the first half, Pennsbury closed the gap to three points on Alley’s putback basket. However, the Falcons trailed 31-23 at the half after South finished the first half on a 7-2 run, highlighted by a 3-pointer by Krepich – one of two by the 6-foot junior – that beat the buzzer and put the Hawks up 31-23 at the half.

South expanded its edge to 10 points in the third period when Pennsbury senior Rob Daly was called for a foul and then hit with an ensuing technical for arguing the call.

From there however, the Falcons switched to a press defense and went on a tear, outscoring the Hawks 15-2 to take their first lead in the contest. Capped by a 3-pointer by Addison Howard (15 pts.) – he had three shots from behind the arc in this one – Pennsbury went up 38-35 with 3:45 left in the third period.

A putback basket by junior Mark Flagg (17 pts.) put the visitors up by five points with a minute to go in the third period and a pair of free throws by junior Tyler Sessa-Reeves (9 pts.) kept the gap at five heading into the final frame. Struggling to handle the Falcon defense, South made just one field goal in the quarter. If not for junior Kevin Newbert (15 pts.) making 5-of-6 free throws late in the period, the Hawks may have trailed by more than that going into the last period.

“We struggled in the third quarter. They came out strong – they adjusted at halftime – and they went on a run against us,” stated CR South head coach John Easterly.

“But good teams are going to go on runs like that and our guys didn’t quit; they battled back.”

Before that, Pennsbury junior Isaiah Carpenter hit a pair of short jumpers to expand the Falcons’ edge to nine points before the first minute had elapsed in the fourth quarter.

South responded with a run of its own, putting up the next seven points, a spurt that was sparked by a pair of field goals by 6-6 junior Ryan Boyd, the second of which was a baseline jumper that closed the gap to three points with 5:30 remaining in regulation.

Flagg put one back for Pennsbury and got to the line to put the falcons back on top by five with 3:30 left. But he missed two of three free throws followed by a pair of missed foul shots by junior Corey Dea.

That opened the door for Thomas who went coast to coast for the layup and a made foul shot for a 3-point play that closed the gap to 52-50 with 1:30 remaining.

Free throws made by Howard, Sessa-Reeves and Dea expanded the Falcons edge back to five points with 30 seconds left.

In the closing moments of the contest however, South senior Mike Stock hit a jumper –his only field goal in the game but without it, the Hawks probably lose the game – and Newbert poured in his second 3-pointer to close the gap back to a single point with 6.1 seconds remaining.

The shot by Thomas helped erase the pain CR South felt just two nights before when it fell 60-59 to sister school North.

“Our guys have to learn how to win and tonight was a major step in that direction,” said Easterly.

“We came out on the wrong end against North on Tuesday night and we talked about correcting those mistakes.

“We came out here tonight and we were tough. We won a lot of those 50-50 battles tonight.”

One of those came near the end in this one. With less than 20 seconds left and the Hawks trailing by four, South nearly turned the ball over on an inbounds pass when Howard went for the steal. The Hawk in question fought for the ball and that forced Addison to take an extra step and the Falcon was subsequently called for traveling.

A tightly-called contest, there was a total of 39 team fouls, split evenly among both sides. Each team was hit with a technical foul. Pennsbury went to the line 15 times in the second half and made good on just 5-of-15 shots from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter.

Four players fouled out in the game – two for each side including Rob Daly for the Falcons and Ryan Boyd for CR South.

Junior Alex Nordenholt paced the Hawks in the first period with seven of his 14 points in the initial frame. With the win, the Hawks push their way to 5-5 overall, 3-3 in the SOL National Conference while Pennsbury falls to 9-3 overall, 5-1 in the SONL.

NOTES: The Falcons went 1-1 over the Christmas break with a win over St. Joe’s Prep and a loss to Coatesville. They’re back in action tonight at Ben Franklin against defending PIAA Class A champion Constitution.

Contact the author at ssherman@21st-Centurymedia.com, or @BucksLocalSport on Twitter

Council Rock South 57, Pennsbury 56

(Jan. 7 at CR South)

CR South 13 18 9 17 – 57

Pennsbury 6 17 22 11 – 56

CR SOUTH — Ryan Boyd 8, Kevin Newbert 15, Alex Nordenholt 14, Mike Stock 3, Austin Thomas 11, Michael Krepich 6; TOTALS — 15 23-33 57.

3-POINT GOALS — Newbert 2, Krepich 2.

PENNSBURY — Mike Alley 2, Tyler Sessa-Reeves 9, Addison Howard 15, Vaughn Ward 2, Mark Flagg 17, Rob Daly 2, Isaiah Carpenter 8, Corey Dea 1; TOTALS — 16 21-43 56.

3-POINT GOALS — Howard 3.