Practice created a happy holiday for Penn Wood

LANSDOWNE – Two weeks of rest might have been attractive to some people during the holidays. But for Penn Wood basketball, an unexpected 14-day sabbatical between games wasn’t what the team had anticipated at the beginning of the year.

Penn Wood had entered the Audenried Tournament, only to find out just before Christmas that the tournament was wiped out. Too late to make other arrangements, Penn Wood was left with a sizeable hole in its schedule and crossed into the New Year having played just five games, unable to recoup wins after losing its first two.

The restless monotony of practice aside, the additional time has, in retrospect, paid dividends for a lineup that starts three underclassmen.

The fruits of those labors remained uneven Thursday evening. But ultimately, Penn Wood found enough to hold off Chichester and notch a 57-51 win at the newly re-floored Shoebox.

So many of the elements pacing that victory were, if not put in place during the break, certainly strengthened by the time off.

“Not having games, we went over stuff,” junior forward Jerry Flynn said. “We practiced with each other, saw who we could play with more, and see what we could do.”

For one, the Patriots (8-3, 2-1 Del Val) don’t have an exclusive point guard on offense. Instead, they use a variety of looks to start their attack, with a one-to-eight rotation of players comfortable putting the ball on the floor. In action Thursday, against Chichester’s 2-3 zone, that meant using Flynn to attack the soft spot near the free-throw line and create offense.

The final tally for Flynn was just seven points, but pretty much everything else: Team-high eight rebounds, six steals, five assists and two blocks.

His delicate touch to Desman Johnson (eight points) early in the fourth ended a long barren run and put them up 49-42. He cleaned up his miss four trips later to stretch the lead back to five, the Patriots’ only two baskets of the fourth quarter.

“We trust each other,” senior guard Shamir Baynes said. “We give everybody the ball. Everybody can shoot the ball. We just play as a team.”

The main target was Baynes, who scored a game-high 23 points to go with eight boards, shaking off early free-throw woes to ice the game with four straight makes at the line.

Ramir McDowell the one-handed. Chi within 8 at 40-32 pic.twitter.com/sMsZgRX6bu

— Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) January 17, 2020

The understanding that all of the Patriots have manifested in 13 assists on 21 made baskets, despite generating a lot of offense from 10 steals.

That didn’t make Penn Wood immune from the ebbs and flows of Del Val basketball, however. Baynes had the game’s first six points and Penn Wood started on an 11-0 run. But by the end of the first quarter, Chichester (5-9, 0-3) got back to within 14-13. The Patriots led by as many as 13 in the third, but Chi trimmed it to two by the midway point of the fourth.

Photo Gallery: Penn Wood vs. Chichester

That was impressive given Chi’s cold shooting night, especially for leading scorer Josh Hankins. Entering the day third in Delco at 19.1 points per game, he endured a 2-for-11 shooting night for eight points. He adjusted by dishing a team-high four assists, particularly in the third-quarter rally. But he went to the bench with 2:53 to play in the third; the Eagles finished the frame on an 8-2 run to make it a game.

Hankins returned to hit the 3-pointer to get Chichester within 51-49, but a 4-for-17 day from beyond the arc wasn’t enough.

“We weren’t really hitting nothing, but we tried to stick together,” guard Ramir McDowell said. “Nothing was really falling for us.”

McDowell scored a team-high 12 points, including six in the third-quarter charge. Jasir Shaw added 11 points. Despite first-half foul trouble to Chi’s three-deep rotation of bigs, Andrew Monroe recovered to provide team-highs with six boards, three steals and two blocks, impacting the game most in the fourth quarter.

But the mountain for Chichester was too big to climb. It’s the kind of growth that Baynes, who with Johnson represent the two starting seniors, has seen from the team all season.

“The first two games, it’s like they were nervous,” he said. “And after a while, we started picking it up. We started practicing harder, and it was like everyone was more confident.”

Also in the Del Val:

Chester 86, Interboro 34 >> Karell Watkins scored 24 points as all 12 Clippers scored in a comfortable win, Chester’s seventh consecutive victory. Akeem Taylor added 13 points, and Zahmir Carroll had 10 for Chester (11-2, 4-0).

Jeremiah Butts led Interboro (1-11, 0-3) with 14 points.

In the Central League:

Garnet Valley 59, Strath Haven 47 >> Justin Langan scored all 11 of his points in the second half as the short-handed Jags won their 10th straight.

Valantis Apostolopoulos had 13 points, Carl Schaller added 12 and Gannon McKee chipped in 10 for the Jags (13-1, 9-1).

Strath Haven got a career-high 21 points from Matt Shuler. Ibo Pio added 13 for the Panthers (9-5, 5-5).

Penncrest 73, Upper Darby 56 >> Marquis Tomlin scored a season-high 25 points as the Lions (13-3, 7-3) exploded for a season-high point total in snapping a two-game mini-slide.

Denzel Atkinson-Boyer scored 10 points to go with 14 rebounds and five assists. Aidan Carroll added 11 points, and Denzel Quinn had 10 points.

Mo Konte led Upper Darby with 17 points. Jamere Kosh and Iyan Joshuasville added 10 apiece for the Royals (9-6, 5-5).

Ridley 49, Marple Newtown 39 >> Josh Howard and Josh Hagan scored 13 points each as the Green Raiders (8-7, 5-5) outscored Marple, 23-10, in the fourth quarte to surge ahead.

Mike Tansey scored 10 points and Ryan Straub hit three 3-pointers for nine points for the Tigers (7-8, 4-6), who’ve lost four straight.

Haverford 53, Springfield 43 >> John Seidman went off for 20 points, including eight in the fourth quarter, as the Fords (7-8, 3-7) held off Springfield and snapped a six-game skid.

Cole Rhodes led Springfield with 26 pints, and Brian Ward chipped in nine.

Lower Merion 58, Radnor 50 >> Lew Robinson scored 25 points and Jack D’Entremont added 15, but those two accounted for 80 percent of the Raiders’ points in a loss.

In the Bicentennial League:

Christian Academy 56, Bristol 42 >> Jourdan Greene tied a season-high with 22 points and added six rebounds, and Grant Sareyka chipped in 17 points as the Crusaders (12-3, 9-0) remain unbeaten in the BAL.

Delco Christian 54, Plumstead Christian 29 >> Joshua Parks nailed five 3-pointers for a game-high 18 points, and Obinna Nwobodo controlled the paint for 16 points as the Knights (10-4, 7-1) rolled. Jordan Mitchell added 11 points.

In the Ches-Mont League:

Rustin 56, Sun Valley 40 >> Kenny Lazer hit five 3-pointers for a career-high 17 points, and Billy Fisher added 10, but the Vanguards (5-9, 1-5) couldn’t quite keep pace.

In nonleague action:

Academy Park 70, Abington 64 >> Derrick Northern tallied 29 points as the Knights (10-4) scored a quality nonleague win, their fourth consecutive W. Tahriq Marrero added 24 points and Kenny Wright tallied 11.