Unionville trounces Oxford to stay atop C-M American standings
EAST NOTTINGHAM – Fun fact: in PIAA basketball, if a lead reaches 40, a running clock is employed. It’s the hoops equivalent of baseball’s mercy rule.
It’s rarely invoked because 40 point leads are scarce. But it happened on Thursday in the latter stages of Unionville’s 62-17 trouncing of an Oxford boys’ program that is rebuilding under first-year head coach Brian Urig.
The hard-luck Hornets simply picked a terrible time to catch the Indians, who are still in the thick of the Ches-Mont American race, but entered Thursday with four losses in the last five and were desperate to get off the snide.
“I’d be lying if I said this doesn’t help morale, but we kept a pretty good morale throughout our skid knowing that if we did a couple things a little better, and got a bit more lucky, we’re winning four out of five instead of losing four out of five,” said Unionville head coach Chris Cowles.
A little over three weeks ago, the Indians blasted Oxford by 35, and somehow the rematch was even worse. Unionville improves to 5-2 in the division (12-6 overall) and remains in a tie for first place with idle Sun Valley. It faces Great Valley and Sun Valley next week in what will determine whether the Indians can grab the crown.
“We are definitely hungry,” said senior Drew Lenkaitis. “Losing four out of five is tough on any team, even though it was against good competition.
“We just keep preaching at practice that we have to be getting better as a team, and everything we do is to try and improve our culture. That is happening because this is the first year we are on track to make the (Ches-Mont) playoffs in 15 years.”
The Hornets have now dropped 14 of the last 15 are fall to 1-7, 3-15.
“Unionville is a tough out,” Urig said.
“This was just one of those days where the lid was on the basket. Sometimes we force the issue, play a little quicker than we should and make a bad pass or something. But we are working hard.”
The Indians took command by scoring the first eight points of the second half to make it 17-6. At one point in the second quarter, following a silly turnover, Urig muttered “self-inflicted wounds” from the bench.
At the half, it was 25-10 and Cowles had already gone deep into his bench. But things didn’t get out of hand until Unionville reeled off a 23-2 run to start the second half.
“It was a good collective team effort,” Cowles said. “A lot of guys played and a lot of them gave effort.
“Even though we were pretty bad offensively in the first half, the defense was pretty attentive to details.”
Believe it or not, Oxford handled Unionville’s 1-3-1 half-court press much more effectively than the first meeting. But there was a catch.
“(Oxford) got a few more open looks than we’d like, but they didn’t end up hitting them,” Cowles said.
“The first time around we really weren’t ready for it, so we were much more prepared this time,” Urig explained. “We didn’t do much well, but we did a decent job against the 1-3-1. We had some nice offensive possessions where we just didn’t finish it.”
Lenkaitis led the way with 13 points and a total of 11 Indians scored points. Sean Rafferty came off the bench to chip in nine.
“That’s also great for the culture,” Lenkaitis said. “To see the 11th man on the team get four points is great and it will help this team in the future.”
Junior point guard Luke Campbell led the Hornets with eight points but was saddled with foul trouble. The rest of the roster combined to score just nine.
In light of Great Valley’s Thursday victory over West Chester Rustin — which knocked the Knights out of a first place tie – Unionville’s road trip on Monday to play the Patriots takes on added importance.
“Everything is still out there for us,” Lenkaitis said.
“We put a bunch of check marks on the board of what we wanted to accomplish this season, and they are all still in front of us, and in our control,” Cowles added.
Unionville 62, Oxford 17
UNIONVILLE: Furey-Bastian 3 0-0 6; Kucharczuk 2 0-0 4; Neylon 1 0-0 3; Ash 2 2-2 6; Cutrona 0 2-2 2; Hockenberry 2 0-0 6; Passarello 3 0-0 7; Dunn 2 0-0 4; Penn 1 0-0 2; Rafferty 3 3-3 9; Thornton 0 0-2 0; Lenkaitis 5 1-1 13. Totals 24 8-10 62.
OXFORD: Ruddy 1 2-2 4; Campbell 3 2-2 8; Dukes-Vincent 1 0-0 3; Repetz 1 0-0 2. Totals 6 4-4 17.
Unionville 9 16 26 11 — 62
Oxford 6 4 4 3 — 17
Three-pointers: Neyton, Hockenberry 2, Passarello, Lenkaitis 2, Dukes-Vincent.
