Healey carries Cheltenham in win over Upper Dublin

CHELTENHAM >> It wasn’t pretty from start to finish, but all that mattered to Kyin Healey was the win.

With pretty much all of his teammates struggling around him, the Cheltenham senior center put his team on his shoulders and made sure the Panthers didn’t fall too far behind. He didn’t have to score much in the second half as his teammates came to life, but Healey stayed involved on defense and the glass.

Thanks to his efforts, the Panthers clawed out a 57-54 win over visiting Upper Dublin to stay unbeaten in SOL American play on Tuesday night.

“I felt like I had to provide a lot of defensive energy and help my team out on offense by scoring, making layups and getting rebounds,” the 6-foot-7 Healey said. “We had to run our plays all the way through and execute them right.”

It was a miserable first half offensively for Cheltenham’s Tim Myarick and Zahree Harrison, the two guys the Panthers (4-2, 2-0 conference) want making things go. Upper Dublin (4-2, 1-1) knew if it wanted to win, it had to slow those two down, which, for almost 16 minutes, it did.

Cheltenham opened 4-of-16 from the floor and watched as the Cardinals took a 17-8 lead after the first quarter. Healey had six of the Panthers’ eight in the frame, twice scoring on putbacks. The senior, who ended up tied with Harrison for a team-best 14 points, scored 12 total in the first half as Cheltenham fought its way back into the game.

“They’re a good team and ever since (Cardinals coach Chris Monahan) has taken over Upper Dublin, we’ve seen a lot of changes from them,” Panthers coach Pat Fleury said. “I didn’t take this game lightly, I don’t think our kids took this game lightly and I don’t think they were looking ahead to PW. It comes down to us running through our things, seeing all our options and being patient.”

Myarick and Harrison combined for just three first half points and shot 1-of-11 between them. Harrison, who picked up two first quarter fouls still made his lone basket of the first half count, hitting a left wing three to end a 7-0 run and pull the Panthers within 28-27 at the break.

“I just got done telling our guys, games in conference are hard and everybody is going to be a tough game,” Monahan said. “You can’t win games turning the ball over like we did and missing free throws.

“Those guys are good players, I agree that we did a good job in the first half, that was certainly the game plan but eventually good players will make plays and make shots. I was kind of happy with how things went and if we did a better job executing on the offensive end, it might have been a different story.”

Healey felt that Harrison’s trey was a big shot, because it sent the Panthers to the locker room knowing they were right in the game despite all their struggles in the first half.

Brandon Scott came out and slammed home a dunk to start the third quarter, giving Cheltenham its first lead. The Panthers scored 14 points in the frame, and while Healey didn’t have any of them, Harrison and Myarick did combine for 11.

“I felt like I had to keep playing hard, rebound and just keep bringing the energy my team needed,” Healey said. “If it was scoring, fine, but also the blocks, rebounds and defense, whatever we needed I wanted to give.”

Healey posted eight rebounds, five of them offensive, and three blocks. Harrison racked up five steals as Cheltenham’s defense made up for its still somewhat struggling offense. The Panthers hounded UD into 21 turnovers, but it wasn’t enough to totally take the Cardinals out of the game.

Down 43-38 after a Scott drive and score, UD’s Cory Ladov scored a layup off a Mike Slivka assist, then hit a corner three off a pass from Bazel Brady that tied the game 43-43 with 6:44 left.

“They did a good job of being scrappy,” Fleury said of the Cardinals. “They did a good job of hitting the glass hard, a good job of hitting the open man. They had shots and opportunities but tonight we kind of lucked out that some of the plays could have gone either way but went ours.”

Drew Stover led UD with 14 points while hard-working Corby Watkins notched 13. Jason Williams had 10, all in the first half while Slivka contributed eight points, five assists and four steals off the bench.

Harrison put Cheltenham back up with a pair of free throws, then Healey scored his only second half basket to give the hosts a two-score lead with 3:20 left. UD got within 47-45 and 51-49 before the Panthers iced the game away at the free throw line with six straight makes.

“This brings a big amount of confidence, especially with PW on Friday,” Healey said. “This game needs to be our spark, getting this win should carry us into Friday. We try to stay on one game at a time, win that then go back into practice and get ready for the next one.”

CHELTENHAM 8 19 14 16 — 57
UPPER DUBLIN 17 11 10 16 —54
C: Zahree Harrison 4 4-4 14, Jalen Mickens 2 3-4 7, Tim Myarick 3 0-2 6, Brandon Scott 3 2-3 8, Kyin Healey 7 0-0 14, Mike McClain 1 0-0 2, Sean Emfinger 2 1-1 6. Totals: 22 10-14 57.
UD: Jason Williams 4 0-0 10, Corby Watkins 5 2-2 13, Drew Stover 6 2-3 14, Mike Slivka 3 0-0 8, Micah Bootman 2 0-2 4, Cory Ladov 2 0-0 5, Bazel Brady 0 0-2 0. Totals: 22 4-9 51.
3-pointers: C – Harrison 2, Emfinger; UD – Slivka 2, Williams 2, Watkins, Ladov.