Fast start fuels Wissahickon to win over Upper Moreland

LOWER GWYNEDD >> Wissahickon quickly asserted its dominance over Upper Moreland Tuesday night.

The Trojans scored the first 17 points of the game and didn’t allow the Golden Bears to make a field goal until the middle of the second quarter.

Wissahickon maintained a comfortable lead throughout and picked up a 56-34 Suburban One League American Conference win at Wissahickon High School.

“The biggest fear when you see a game like that is when one of their best players isn’t on the floor, you don’t want guys to change their mentality or get overconfident out there,” Wissahickon coach Kyle Wilson said, referencing Upper Moreland missing Chris O’Donnell, who was out for the second consecutive game with a rolled ankle. “I said, ‘Guys we have to play them hard regardless of who they have out on the floor.’ I think as well as we played defense, they were also out of sync not having one of their key players out there. Then it became a perfect storm. They couldn’t get into the lane, they had to be primarily perimeter orientated and we really contested inside shots and we got out to a good jump.

“It was a good start for us to get out to and it gave us a little breathing room to do some things, work on some things and get some guys in there, get comfortable. It was a good win for us all the way around.”

Eddie Fortescue, who scored a team-high 16 points for the Trojans, had seven in the first quarter and Carmen Ostroski added six. They built a 17-0 lead before allowing two free throws with 31.5 seconds left in the opening quarter.

“We didn’t execute,” Upper Moreland coach Sean Feeley said. “We did everything that we didn’t practice yesterday. It was weird — a weird game. We knew what they were going to do. (Wilson is) a really good coach and we just took some bad shots and it snowballed, unfortunately.”

The Golden Bears first made field goal came from Jahair Johnson, who scored a game-high 17 points, with 5:36 left in the second quarter. Johnson scored seven points in the second to keep his side from totally getting blown out, trailing 31-16 at the half.

Wiss quickly took away any ideas of a comeback in the third quarter. The hosts started the second half with a 7-0 run and — thanks to a pair of Harrison Williams three-pointers — extended the 15-point halftime advantage to 24, 48-24, heading to the fourth.

“We just didn’t have it tonight,” Feeley said. “Just a disappointing all-around game for everyone involved. It was disappointing. Credit to Wissahickon — they’re good, they’re well-coached.”

The Trojans kept the margin around 20 throughout the final eight minutes and walked off the court with a 22-point win, 56-34.

Fortescue was the only Wissahickon player to score in double figures. Ostroski had seven points and Andrew Buck, Williams, Maurice Willis and Matthew Compas each had six.

Tyler Caso led the team with 12 rebounds and added two assists.

Ostroski had seven rebounds, five assists and two blocks.

“I really feel with our team we don’t need to make a ton of steals even though we’re a team that presses a lot,” Wilson said of the defense’s success against the Golden Bears. “We don’t want to give up second and third shots. I said we especially can’t do it against a team that has no height advantage on us. We’ve been playing teams like (Central Bucks) East that has a big guy, Upper Dublin has a big guy, everybody we play has a big guy — we’re battling to win the rebounding battle. Tonight was one where I said there’s not excuse for us to lose the rebounding battle and I thought our guys did a nice job.”

Johnson almost posted a double-double for Upper Moreland. He had nine rebounds to go along with his 17 points.