Yoder, Dominic lift Pennridge over Soduerton for 6th straight win
EAST ROCKHILL >> Sean Yoder has a straightforward approach to taking free throws.
“Three dribbles and shoot, the Pennridge senior said. “Keep it simple.”
And keep on making them. Seventeen times in Tuesday night’s Suburban One League Continental Conference contest with visiting Souderton, Yoder stepped to the foul line and on all 17 — including 11 in the fourth quarter — the Navy commit never missed.
“As a senior you got a lot of weight on your shoulders to be that leader, vocal leader and then you got to lead by example,” Yoder said. “We got to knock down the free throws. I did that tonight.”
The perfection at the line propelled Yoder to game-high 31 points, while an additional scoring spark from John Dominic allowed the Rams boys basketball team to overcome a sluggish start then hold off the Indians’ late rally late to claim a 60-56 victory.
“For me, I want to make every shot, I want to make the best play possible for my team. I wasn’t doing that early on,” Yoder said. “Tonight it was free throws so I did just that.”
Souderton used a trio of 3-pointers to go out to an early 11-2 lead and never trailed in the first half — holding a 29-24 edge at the break. But Pennridge opened the third quarter with eight consecutive points and from there never lost the advantage in winning their sixth straight.
“We’re having an issue getting off to good starts and that’s going to bite us in the butt,” Rams coach Dean Behrens said. “Down 11-2 to Governor Mifflin, (13-4) to Souderton, we’re down 9-2 to CB South, that’s going to bite us. Maybe I need to change the starting lineup, maybe I need to do something to jump start it, I don’t know.”
Dominic added 18 points for Pennridge (10-2, 3-1 SOL Continental), including the last six of the 8-0 run that begin the third — a three-point play at 6:07 to tie the game at 29 then a corner triple to put the Rams up 32-29.
“How great is John Dominic tonight? I mean, he played out of his mind,” said Behrens of the senior. “If you told me in ninth grade, when he was in ninth grade, that he would have played varsity, I probably would have said no. He’s really proved that he’s a varsity player. I’m really proud of that.”
Mekhi Williams scored 12 of his team-high 20 points in the first half for Souderton (4-8, 1-4), which was playing its second game in two nights — falling 67-54 at Phoenixville Monday. Brian Reiner and Andrew Vince both chipped in 11 points as the Indians lost their second straight.
“We came into the third quarter, I think we were a little tired,” Souderton coach Tim Brown said. “I think we lost that initial excitement that we had and didn’t have a much energy in the third. And then we were kind of just taking some ill-advised shots where we just wanted to be patient and work through our offense and make them work on defense. We were taking some quick ones. But overall I’m proud of the guys.”
Pennridge is back on the court Friday as it visits Central Bucks East with Behrens looking for the Rams to shake their habit of starting slow.
“We need to do something. We can’t keep living this little drama, getting off to slow starts like that,” he said.
Souderton next plays Thursday on the road non-league matchup against Perkiomen Valley.
“They’re the closest I’ve ever had a group so we just got to figure a couple little things out and we can be all right,” Brown said. “And they know that. They know how talented they are but comes down to executing and winning games and winning tomorrow when it comes down to it.”
After Dominic put the Rams up 32-29 in the third, Souderton cut the margin down to just a point three times in the quarter, the last time at 36-35 before a Jon Post jumper and a Yoder basket had Pennridge leading 40-35 entering the fourth.
“I think the defense intensity went up, especially the third quarter we held them to six points,” Behrens said. “I thought our defensive intensity was much better.”
Yoder started the fourth with four straight points, extending the lead to 44-35. But Souderton would not go away easy with a Reiner three-point play at 6:47 then a Vince jumper putting Big Red within 44-40.
A Vince 3-pointer pulled Souderton to 48-45 then after the Rams split a pair at the line, Zach Thatcher’s three-point play off a drive made it a one-point game, 49-48, with 3:26 to go.
But 20 seconds later, Yoder was fouled attempting a 3-pointer and hit all three free throws. Yoder proceeded to push the Rams’ advantage to six with an underhand layup then made both ends of a 1-and-1 with 54.9 seconds left for a 56-48 lead.
“Honestly, I would say we did a pretty good job on him as well. I mean, we made him take tough shots,” said Brown of Yoder. “But, yeah, to see the scorebook at the end and see 31 doesn’t feel great.”
After a Vince bucket, Pennridge missed two free throws and Williams drained a 3-pointer, cutting the Rams’ lead to 56-53. Yoder’s two free throws at 16.2 seconds made it 58-53 but a deep trey from Williams had Big Red with 58-56 at 5.2 seconds. Yoder was fouled with 2.1 seconds and put the game away with his 16th and 17th made free throws.
Souderton led by nine twice in the first quarter, the second time at 13-4 after a Williams basket. A Yoder three-point play made it 13-9 at 2:05 before two from Reiner had the Indians up six at the end of the opening period.
Williams posted eight points in the second quarter, including back-to-back buckets that gave Souderton a 23-16 lead.
“One, we made them work on the defensive end and two I thought Mekhi Williams, obviously came out man on fire and he just played really well,” Brown said. “He had a great fourth quarter for us yesterday in a game that was not so bright and I think he brought that same aggressiveness, same attitude to this game. He’s got to continue to do that.”
Pennridge used a 8-2 run to pull within 25-25 on a Yoder three-point play with 1:32 remaining in the half but baskets from Reiner and Williams had the Indians leading by five heading into the second half.
