Council Rock South boys basketball pulls away late in Coach Derek Wright’s first trip back to North (VIDEO)
Council Rock South senior Shaun Smith rips off a pass down the center of the lane with CR North seniors James Kosyla (12), Tyler Shields and Noah Ehlin (23) defending for the Indians in boys basketball battle between the sister schools Dec. 16, 2016 at CR North, Newtown, Pa. (Steve Sherman – 21st-Century Media)
NEWTOWN – It was perhaps the biggest play of the game and Council Rock South head coach Derek Wright freely admitted after the game he didn’t even see it.
The one who guided sister school North’s Indians for the past 14 years said he turned away when his new team, the visiting Golden Hawks, turned the ball over on a set play. What Wright didn’t see was the turnabout steal pulled off by South senior Austin Thomas.
The point guard for the Hawks – who led his team with 12 points – stole the ball right back and made the ensuing free throw for a 3-point play that put South on top by seven with 54.7 seconds remaining in the contest.
“That was huge and I didn’t even see it because I was so bothered by whatever set we called. we just consistently did it wrong and North stole it and I was so upset, I turned to our coaches,” explained Wright, who was making his first appearance at North since jumping to CR South in the offseason.
“That was the turning point and Austin has been so great. He’s been great with his changes, he’s the coach on the floor for me, comes to me at every free throw, makes sure our matchups are always right.
“He earned the right to make that play with his attitude on the court.”
With the steal by Thomas turning a 4-point margin into a 7-point swing, the Indians had no choice but to play pressure defense and foul. To their credit, the Hawks (4-0, 1-0: SONL) made 8-of-9 free throws in the closing minute and 13-of-17 in the fourth quarter to win their fourth straight, 42-34, to start the season.
Playing their first year under head coach Jesse Krasna, North falls to 1-3, overall, 0-1 in the Suburban One National League (SONL).
Another big play in the game came on North’s next trip up the court. Indians leading scorer Ryan Costello (18 pts.) missed a 3-point shot but South senior Alex Nordenholt couldn’t get the ball going the other way for the Hawks.
While North senior Noah Ehlin came up with the steal in his own end of the court, he couldn’t can the ensuing layup. Coming down with the rebound was Nordenholt, who drew the foul and made two free throws for a 37-28 Hawks’ lead with less than 30 seconds to go.
“On that play, we could have been lazy and reached and tried to block a shot or maybe reached and tried to get a steal,” said Wright. “But Alex kept playing, hands up, got the defensive rebound and made the free throws.
“We did a really good job in the second half of not fouling and keeping our hands up when they drove the ball. That was a big emphasis for us and we weren’t in the bonus in the second half, which was huge.”
Defensively, South limited North’s starters to four field goals in the contest and just one in the first three quarters, an opening 3-pointer by junior Drew Burton to start the battle between the sister schools .
Of course, that doesn’t account for the points registered by Costello, the sixth man for the Indians who canned seven field goals in the contest including three 3-pointers.
“We knew they had shooters on the perimeter and we didn’t want to lose them,” explained Wright. “We were willing to give up some 2-pointers to not give up open threes. Ryan Costello, we lost him a couple times. That was our fault but there were also a couple possessions where he just made shots.”
Coming in off the bench in the first period, Costello started making shots in the second quarter. After the Indians took a 6-5 lead at the end of the initial frame, the Hawks mounted a 9-4 scoring run to begin the second. South’s second-quarter scoring spurt was capped by a 3-pointer by Nordenholt, putting the Hawks up, 14-10, with two minutes to go in the first half.
While Costello answered right back for North with a trey of his own, South finished off the second quarter with a 4-1 spurt with Thomas hitting a jumper and senior Ryan Boyd canning a pair of free throws.
The Hawks sandwiched a pair of putbacks by Boyd and senior Ryan McNamee (2 pts.) around a jumper by Costello to go up 22-16 three minutes into the second half. Costello really came through for the hosts when he made back-to-back three-pointers to tie the battle up at 22-all with 2:30 remaining in the third quarter.
While all kinds of crazy stuff happened before the start of the fourth period – North was called for traveling, South was called for a double dribble and there were fouls called on both sides that were nowhere near the ball – there were no points scored in the closing moments of the third quarter, sending the sides into the final frame still deadlocked at 22-all.
Nordenholt opened the fourth period with a driving layup, but Ehlin found classmate James Kosyla streaking down the center of the lane for a nifty basket that drew the sides even again at 24-all. While South junior Christian Jabbar made a pair of foul shots, that was countered by Ehlin, who put back a miss by Costello to deadlock the score at 26-all.
The Hawks made two of their next four free throws to go up by two midway through the last quarter. While Thomas missed on his next jumper, Nordenholt came down with the rebound and relayed the ball back outside the arc to Austin, who canned his second 3-pointer in the game to put South on top 31-16 with three minutes remaining.
While North senior Eric Levine missed a pair of free throws, he and Costello closed in on Thomas to force a turnover. However, Costello was called for an offensive foul and Newbert made 1-of-2 foul shots to make it a 6-point game with 2:30 remaining.
Ehlin may have had the ball plucked on his next attempt at driving the lane, but he didn’t miss on an ensuing chance he was given after a steal by Kosyla. The layup by Noah drew the Indians within four, setting up the late-game heroics by Thomas.
“Coach always says, on turnovers, just erase it,” said Thomas, of his big play. “We turned it over but we came back the next play, got a steal and went up for a layup.
“We did a nice job tonight just buying in. There were plays where we didn’t play like we wanted to but I think we did a good job, for the most part. Defense is what is going to win us games this year; if we keep playing defense, we’ll be fine.”
Away from the court, all the focus was on Wright’s first trip back to the place where he began his coaching career. As soon as Wright came into the gymnasium, North’s student section started taunting the former coach for the Indians with the chant, “you’re a traitor.”
“When I made the decision to do this, you knew it was coming,” said Wright. “They’re expected; I’d be disappointed if there weren’t any (chants).”
“That’s how it should be with high school sports, so it’s all good.”
The coach was quick to add, however, that after the opening tip, all the focus on his transferring teams gets swept aside.
“We told the guys that it was going to be a circus but that once the game started, it’s really about playing basketball. The illusion might be that all that stuff that you’re feeling on the outside has an impact on the game but it really doesn’t.
“When it comes right down to it, it’s your passion and love for the game and for each other.”
For the game, South had three players reach double digits including Thomas (12 pts.), Nordenholt (10) and Boyd (10), who gave the Golden Hawks a huge boost with seven points in the second quarter.
In the first half of the doubleheader, the CR North girls posted a 44-32 triumph over the CR South women. The Lady Indians were led by Megan Haggerty, who led all scorers with 15 points, all on 3-pointers. North canned eight treys in the game, helping the host team to a 21-6 second-half run that enabled the Indians to pull away late.
Coincidentally, the same number of combined points – 76 – was scored in both the boys and the girls games.
Council Rock South 42, Council Rock North 34
(Dec. 16 at CR North)
CR South 5 13 4 20 – 42
CR North 6 8 8 12 – 34
CR NORTH (1-3, 0-1: SONL)— Noah Ehlin 2 1-2 5, Eric Levine 0 0-2 0, Matt McAlister 0 0-0 0, Drew Burton 1 0-0 3, James Kosyla 1 3-4 5, Ryan Costello 7 1-1 18, Tyler Shields 1 0-0 3; TOTALS — 12 5-9 34.
CR SOUTH (4-0, 1-0: SONL) — Austin Thomas 4 2-5 12, Alex Nordenholt 3 3-4 10, Kevin Newbert 0 3-4 3, Ryan McNamee 1 0-0 2, Ryan Boyd 3 3-4 10, Christian Jabbar 0 3-4 3, Trey Irvin 0 2-2 2; TOTALS — 11 17-24 42.
THREE-POINT GOALS: CRN — Burton, Costello 3, Shields; CRS — Thomas 2, Nordenholt.
