North Penn’s season ends in heartbreak at Central Bucks East

BUCKINGHAM >> Last season Kolby Barrow hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to send North Penn to the state playoffs and end Central Bucks East’s season.

Three hundred eighty one days later and 84 feet away, the Patriots got their revenge.

After Josh Jones hit two free throws to give No. 18 North Penn a one-point lead with 8.3 seconds left, East freshman Jake Cummiskey took the ball under the basket where Barrow’s 2020 game-winner went in. He raced end-to-end and converted a layup through traffic. Billy Coley’s three-quarter court heave was off and No. 7 CB East celebrated its 56-55 District 1-6A quarterfinal win at Central Bucks High School East.

Final sequence pic.twitter.com/rEo8wnGzun

— Ed Morlock (@emor09) March 13, 2021

“In hindsight I probably would have taken Cummiskey away and face-guarded him,” North Penn coach John Conrad said. “He made a nice play. Give him credit.”

“They got the ball in quick and raced down the court,” Jones added. “He beat us to it. Props to him.

“There’s not really much to say. We’re all really disappointed right now with that being my last game and Billy’s last game. I just wish we would have gotten another chance to go further because I really enjoy and love playing with these guys. It’s going to be hard to not do that next week.”

It was a fitting end to a tight game between two Suburban One League Colonial Division rivals that split their regular season meetings. Each side committed just five turnovers. CB East’s biggest lead of the game was four – 10-6 in the first quarter and 42-38 in the fourth – while the Knights held a 10-point advantage, 23-13, in the second.

Jack Hamilton put East ahead 42-38 when he scored through contact and completed the three-point play on the first possession of the fourth quarter. Coley hit a three and Jones made a layup to put North Penn on top, 43-42. Cummiskey and North Penn’s Mario Sgro traded baskets and, after two scoreless minutes, Jones hit a pair of free throws to give the Knights a 47-44 lead with 3:56 to go.

East’s Joe Jackman, who left the game with four fouls at the 5:34 mark of the fourth quarter, returned during Jones’ trip to the free throw line. He immediately scored eight straight points for East, including a three off a friendly bounce to tie the game at 49 and a second triple to give his side a 52-51 lead with 1:25 to play.

“(Jackman’s) a good player,” Conrad said. “He hit big shots. We were right on him, they were well-contested and they were deep. Give him credit.”

Cummiskey, who also made the game-winner in a second-round win over Boyertown, hit a pair of free throws with 38.6 seconds remaining to make it a three-point game before Jones trimmed the Knights deficit back to one, 54-53, with 26.3 to go. Hamilton missed the front end of a one-and-one for East before Jones got fouled and put North Penn ahead, 55-54, with less than 10 seconds remaining.

“It was a game of runs,” Jones said. “We went on one in the beginning. They came back. They ended with the ball last and that’s how they ended up on top.”

Cummiskey led the Patriots, who will host No. 14 in Abington in the District 1-6A semifinals Tuesday, with 18 points. Jackman added 15 and Hamilton had 10.

Jones scored a game-high 23 points for North Penn. Coley added 14 and Ryan Zeltt had nine.

The Knights used a 12-0 first-quarter run to turn a 10-6 deficit into an 18-10 lead. Jones had eight in the first while Coley added five and Zeltt four to build a 19-13 lead through eight minutes.

East went on a 13-4 run to get within two, 28-26, late in the second quarter before Jones hit a buzzer-beater to send North Penn to the break with a 30-26 lead.

East tied the game at 34 halfway through the third and again at 36 before Jackman hit a three-pointer to give the Patriots their first lead, 39-36, since 10-8. Jones scored in the final minute to make it 39-38 heading into the fourth.

North Penn’s season ends with the one-point loss.

“It’s a successful year,” Conrad said. “We’ll take some time to get over this, but when we look back it was a great group of kids and it was a lot of fun to be around them.”

“I’m just very thankful we even got a season in,” Jones said. “I didn’t even know if we were going to get this chance to play. I’m just grateful that we got the chance to play and go out, not in this way, but in a way where we had some control over it and not just ending the season.

“For me personally, I never even thought about playing high school basketball until last year. I’m really going to miss this.”

CB East 56, North Penn 55
North Penn 19 11 8 17 – 55
Central Bucks East 13 13 13 17 – 56
North Penn: Sgro 1 0-0 2, Larkins 2 3-4 7, Coley 6 1-2 14, Pulugura 0 0-0 0, Jones 9 4-6 23, Zeltt 4 0-0 9. Total 22 8-12 55.
Central Bucks East: J Cummiskey 7 2-2 18, L Cummiskey 0 0-0 0, Markowitz 1 0-0 2, Harte 2 1-2 6, Young 0 0-0 0, Weaver 2 0-0 5, Jackman 5 2-3 15, Hamilton 3 3-4 10. Total 20 8-11 56.
Three-point goals: NP: Coley, Jones, Zeltt. CBE: J Cummiskey 2, Harte, Weaver, Jackman 3, Hamilton.