Souderton tops Quakertown in OT, Brown wins debut

FRANCONIA >> Souderton boys basketball coach Tim Brown was having a crazy start to his varsity head coaching career.

Quakertown had just hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to force overtime after his guys weren’t able to close out the win. So, he just gathered his players together and told them when they won, it would just make it a more memorable night.

Then, Souderton went out and dominated the overtime and handed Brown a 62-54 win in his debut game Friday night.

“To start the game we were playing too fast and the fourth quarter to end the game we started playing a little fast,” Brown said. “I think that’s just guys not having the experience yet, they’re gaining it and I think this was a great experience for us.”

Brown served as head JV coach last year and was a volunteer assistant the year before that, so he was plenty familiar with his players when he took over for Chuck Kornegay, who left after one season guiding the Indians. A West Chester Golden Ram, Brown still looks like he could pass for a college player and is certainly one of the youngest coaches in the area.

But he’s got plenty of energy and his players said it’s been a pretty easy transition. Most of this year’s varsity roster played for Brown the last two years, so it was just getting used to him being in a new role.

“He relates to us so well,” senior guard Mike Bealer said. “He’s so good at getting everyone in a flow and helps us build chemistry-wise. We’re a big family here.”

Bealer led Souderton with 19 points, including five 3-pointers for the game and a big assist in overtime as Big Red started to pull away. He’s one of several guys Souderton is looking to as leaders and key players on a heavily upperclassman roster. Last year, Bealer was more of a complementary to guy to Tracy Simsick but was confident and in command on Friday.

Running the show this year is Matt Cartwright, taking the wheel from graduated Ty Salone at point guard. A gritty guard, Cartwright played the whole game against Quakertown, chipping in 11 points and also had a key assist in overtime.

“Matt knows what we want him to do, just be a solid point guard and play Souderton basketball,” Brown said. “Bealer, he knows every guy on this team has the ultimate confidence in him to take any shot. Even if he misses five in a row, we want him taking that sixth, seventh and eighth shot.”

To Quakertown’s credit, the Panthers never quit on the game and hustled their way back into things, closing to 38-34 at the end of the third quarter. It came down to one final shot off an inbound play with 0.8 left on the clock.

The ball went to Dakota Suchanec in the left corner and he was on the mark at the horn, extending the game and temporarily quieting a loud and energized Souderton student section.

But no sooner had Big Red returned to the floor, the students were loud again and the players started to feed off that energy as they outscored Quakertown 11-3 in the extra frame.

“We take pride in trying to stay mentally tough and our crowd really helped us with that,” Bealer said. “We just use that to our advantage, they help us and we love it.”

Souderton missed the postseason last year, and while the team is focused on short term goals and getting better every day, Bealer said it’s a goal to try and reach the playoffs. With six seniors on the roster and the rest of the varsity guys being juniors, its on their shoulders to do it.

They have a coach who knows them well and respects their talent and their desire to become a stronger team.

“We’ve had a relationship for three years so it was awesome for me to get this position and be a leader for these guys,” Brown said. “They look up to me and I look up to them. We’ve always had this kind of relationship, so it’s been good.”