Coleman, North Penn rout Upper Merion

Upper Merion >> In its first home game of 2018, the Upper Merion High School boys basketball team didn’t have a pleasant homecoming as North Penn cruised to a 59-29 victory with the help of senior Chris Coleman and outstanding defense.

Coleman, a 5’10” guard, led the team with 15 points in the road victory. Junior AJ Mitchell had the second-most points on the team with 13.

Nine different players scored points for North Penn including Joey Lindsay, Chris Caputo, David Robinson, Nathan Hartman, Mike Chaffee, Tysim Jenkins, Matt Swanson, Coleman, and Mitchell.

The Knight defense was also impressive in the victory letting up single-digit points in three out of four quarters.

“We talked about our goal on defense is letting go less than 10 points in every quarter,” said NP head coach John Conrad. “That was our focus today and the guys did really well on that.”

The Knights best defensive quarter was in the fourth quarter when they only gave up a three-point shot to Upper Merion’s Matthew Choi, who finished the game with a team-high 10 points.

For the Upper Merion Vikings, four different players scored including Choi, Lucas Kim, Austin Moucer, and Nick Shepperd.

Upper Merion head coach Jason Quenzer had higher expectations for the game against the Knights.

“We had zero practices this past week with the holiday and the blizzard,” said Quenzer. “I expected us to come in and compete. I didn’t expect to be blown out.”

For North Penn, the win is the third out of the last four games and the team is 2-0 in 2018.

The Vikings will look to rebound from the three-game losing streak on Tuesday when they travel to Norristown High School for a rivalry game against the Eagles. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:45 p.m.

North Penn 59, Upper Merion 29

NP  16  21  12  10  -59

UM  7  13  6  3  -29

North Penn: Coleman 15; Mitchell 13; Lindsay 8; Robinson 8; Chaffee 6; Hartman 4; Caputo 2; Jenkins 2; Swanson 1.

Upper Merion: Choi 10; Kim 9; Moucer 7; Shepperd 3.