Jones, Pulugura help North Penn hold off Pennsbury

TOWAMENCIN >> If Milind Pulugura has an open look, there’s little reluctance from the North Penn boys basketball junior.

So when Billy Coley rifled a chest pass to him behind the right side of the 3-point arc in the fourth quarter, Pulugura quickly let a shot fly over a closing Pennsbury defender that hit nothing but net.

“I had the shot and when I hesitate, I feel like I miss my shots so I just took the shot,” he said. “Don’t hesitate, don’t overthink it, just hope it goes in.”

Pulugura’s trey gave the Knights a 12-point lead in the SOL nondivision contest. It also ended up being their final field goal Wednesday. But a strong night at the free throw line allowed North Penn to withstand a late charge from the visiting Falcons and hold on for a 53-50 victory.

“We knew it’d be an ugly game from the beginning,” Pulugura said. “We knew that they would pressure us as soon as we crossed half court cause that’s just their style of play but we were just training yesterday and the day before to handle that pressure and we just kept our poise.

“I know at the end we kind of lost it but we tried our best to just stay focused and make good passes and just get easy layups.”

Pennsbury pulled within 33-32 in the third quarter but the Knights responded with a 15-4 run that stretched into the fourth to push their lead to a dozen twice – first on Pulugura’s three that made it 46-34 while Coley hitting both ends of a 1-and-1 with 3:01 remaining put NP ahead 48-36.

Mario Sgro’s two free throws at 2:01 had North Penn up 50-40 at 2:02 but the Falcons scored the next five – Evan McNeely’s three cutting the margin to 50-45 with 32 seconds left.

After Pulugura made 1-of-2  foul shots at 18.3 seconds, Amir Johnson drained a three to make a one-possession game at 51-48 with 10.8 seconds to go.

Pulugura, however, went back to the line and hit both to give the Knights a five-point edge at 9.6 seconds. Johnson drove for a layup but North Penn (10-4, 6-3 SOL Colonial) did not attempt an inbounds and let the clock run out.

“I felt we defended really well, I just don’t think we were good late in the fourth quarter,” Knights coach John Conrad said. “Thankfully we made a couple free throws but, yeah, we didn’t play with a lot of poise down the stretch there.”

North Penn, which never trailed in the game, connected on its first 10 free throw attempts and finished 17-of-19, including 10-of-12 in the fourth as the Knights earned their second straight victory.

“We practice, we shoot foul shots just to make sure we’re consistent in every game,” said Pulugura, who was 5-of-6 on free throws, all in the final quarter. “Like this game where it gets ugly at the end we have to just make those shots cause that’s what going to win us the game.”

Josh Jones paced North Penn with a game-high 16 points, the senior’s last seven coming in the third. Pulugura knocked down a trio of 3-pointers in finishing with 14 points.

“He hit some huge free throws down the stretch,” said Conrad of Pulugura. “They were really doing everything in their power to take Josh away and I thought Mil did a good job.”

North Penn entered this week having dropped two of three but wins over Wissahickon Monday and Pennsbury Wednesday have the Knights sitting eighth in the District 1-6A power rankings, which would give them a home game in their playoff opener.

North Penn is scheduled to visit Upper Dublin 7 p.m. Thursday then is on the road against 7 p.m. Tuesday at Central Bucks East.

“We’re trying to get our momentum back,” Conrad said. “It’s tough in this league, everybody we play you got to play well and you got to play four quarters to get a win. So we’re just trying to make sure we can do that.”

McNeely led Pennsbury (5-8, 4-6 SOL Patriot) with 15 points while Johnson scored 10 of his 14 points in the second half. The Falcons, who had a three-game win streak snapped, are slated to visit Central Bucks South 7 p.m. Friday.

Two Jones free throws at 4:07 in the third gave the Knights a 33-27 edge but a McNeely three and Robinson’s basket had Pennsbury down a point.

“They got good guards, they got good quickness,” said Conrad of the Falcons. “So yeah you certainly don’t want to play from behind and try and come out and catch them cause that’s when I think that can really exploit you.”

North Penn answered with a 7-0 run to finish the quarter. Joe Larkins made two at the line at 3:09 with Jones hitting a floater in transition then drained a three off a Larkins kick-out for a 40-32 NP lead entering the fourth.

“Honestly, it’s a nice luxury to have a kid like Josh Jones,” Conrad said. “He can cure a lot of ills from the coaching standpoint.”

Two free throws from Pulugura with 6:18 remaining in regulation put the Knights up double digits for the first time at 42-32.

A Pulugura three that hit the front of the rim, tapped high off the backboard and then dropped in gave North Penn a 15-10 lead after the first quarter.

North Penn pushed the margin to seven four times in the second quarter, the last time at 27-20 after two Jones free throws at 2:56. Robinson knocked down a jumper in the lane and McNeely made a contested layup to have Pennsbury trailing 27-24 at the break.

North Penn 53, Pennsbury 50
Pennsbury 10 14 8 18 – 50
North Penn 15 12 13 13 – 53
Pennsbury: Evan McNeely 5 3-6 15; Amir Johnson 4 5-6 14; Aidan McCormack 1 4-4 6; Kennan Taddei 3 0-0 6; Ty Kocak 1 0-0 3; Totals 16 13-18 50.
North Penn: Josh Jones 5 5-5 16; Milind Pulugura 3 5-6 14; Ryan Zeltt 3 0-0 7; Billy Coley 1 2-2 5; Joe Larkins 1 3-4 5; Tehran Wright 2 0-0 4; Mario Sgro 0 2-2 2; Totals 15 17-19 53.
3-pointers: P-McNeely 2, Kocak, Johnson, Taddei; NP-Pulugura 3, Coley, Jones, Zeltt.