Big night for Big Red: Souderton upends North Penn

FRANCONIA >> His team, coach Tim Brown said, seemed to be playing for something much bigger.
Souderton Area put forth an inspired performance Thursday night in the second half of the Coaches vs. Cancer doubleheader, earning a 57-46 victory over rival North Penn.
“Matt Cartwright is one of our basketball alums, and his mom passed two years ago (from cancer),” Brown said. “Matt came in and talked to us before the game and talked about what his mom would want. And it kinda seemed like they were playing for something much bigger than basketball.”
The Indians put together a strong performance on both ends of the court, gaining a regular-season split with North Penn. The Souderton girls also prevailed earlier in the evening in their Suburban One League Continental Conference matchup with the Knights.
Andrew Vince led Souderton with 14 points, May eve Williams added 12 and Sami Chouriaf had 10, and Big Red limited the Knights to just six points in a pivotal second quarter.
“The energy part — we have that part down,” Brown said. “We’re talking about the execution side of it. If we mix those two together, we’re pretty scary.”
Vince scored nine of his points in the second quarter, during which Souderton stretched its lead to double digits. The 6-foot-4 junior also loomed large when North Penn had the ball.
“Andrew did a terrific job of protecting the rim when they drove,” Brown said. “We did a good job of closing out on their shooters. And everyone did a good job of helping the helper and finishing possessions. And just getting going from there.
“Our defense created our offense.”
The Knights were afforded few open shots.
“They defended well,” North Penn coach John Conrad said of Souderton. “We got a little stagnant on the offensive side and we didn’t make shots. And we couldn’t get any stops that led to transition.”
A.J. Mitchell had the game high with 19 points for North Penn, but Souderton made outside shooting more and more difficult as the game wore on: the Knights were limited to just two 3-pointers in the second half.
“Defensive focus,” Vince said of what made the difference this time around against NP. “We were constantly talking on defense. And just the energy in the gym — from the bench, everybody, was just great. And it kept us on track and helped us get the win.
“Shutting down those big men was key. And then getting out on those three-point shooters was huge. We were able to shut that down. That’s a big part of their game and that’s a big reason why they won last time against us.”
Souderton widened the margin to 15 heading into the fourth.
“It feels good to get back on track,” Vince said. “We’ve had a tough few games the past couple weeks and this was a good one to get at home and in front of a big crowd.”
Souderton (5-11, 2-5 conference) hosts Central Bucks West Tuesday night at 7 and North Penn (8-9, 3-4 conference) hosts Bensalem Saturday at 1:30 p.m.