North Penn falls to CB West in SOL Continental opener
TOWAMENCIN >> North Penn opened up its Suburban One Continental Conference play Friday night with a tough tussle with Central Bucks West.
The Knights played well for stretches of the game including a 20-point first quarter. Unfortunately for the Knights some turnovers and missed layups late in the game cost them as they fell to the Bucks 46-43.
“It’s going to be a tough league and we’re going to have to show up to play every game. We did show up to play we just struggled at certain times making foul shots and layup,” North Penn coach Maggie deMarteleire said.
After the Knights jumped out to a 20-11 lead after the first quarter the Bucks chipped away at the lead with some sharp shooting and forcing turnovers defensively. West got the score level at 22 heading into halftime.
“We were finishing (in the first quarter) and then in the second we weren’t,” deMarteleire said. “I don’t know how many foul shots we missed and I don’t know how many layups we missed but I know we missed a lot.”
After the Bucks got the score even the game stayed within a five-point window as the teams traded buckets, turnovers and free throws much of the second half.
As the game hit its closing moments North Penn just couldn’t make the play it needed. Missed free throws and turnovers came from unexpected names as normally very reliable ball handlers like Mia Melchior, Sam Carangi and Jess Huber just couldn’t get the Knights offense back on track in the final quarter.
“I think that people wanted to step up and make a play and we kind of got ahead of ourselves,” deMarteleire said. “At that point, we just needed to run a play and find an open person like we had been doing the whole game.”
Irisa Ye led the Knights in scoring with 14 points but didn’t get a lot of touches down the stretch. There was a combination of factors that could have led to Ye’s lack of touches but deMarteleire wasn’t concerned with who was or was not getting the ball but what they were doing with it.
“She made good plays,” deMarteleire said of Ye. “We don’t really go to any one person. A lot of times we get her in transition. When we were running transition we were very effective so we have to make sure we continue to do that.”
The loss puts North Penn slightly behind the eight ball, as the bulk of league play is yet to come. It might be a little over dramatic to say the opening game of league play is a big loss but that speaks to the quality of the SOL Continental.
