Aleks Smith leads Souderton to win over North Penn

TOWAMENCIN >> North Penn had no answer for Souderton forward Aleks Smith Monday night. 

The senior scored 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the Indians 63-49 Suburban One League Colonial Division win at North Penn High School.

“Coach told me to get the ball and score and that’s exactly what I did,” Smith said. “He gave me the opportunity to score and I did it. I crashed the glass hard and that showed up, too.”

“This is a versatile team,” Souderton coach Okoteh Sackitey said. “We can definitely score inside. We can score outside. Tonight it was Aleks’ night. That’s just what the matchup presented to us. The team was happy to do whatever it takes to give us the best chance to win. The team is happy to defer to the best matchup. We just play together and it worked out.”

Smith got involved early and never slowed down. He scored five points in the first quarter, six in the second, 10 in the third and four in the fourth.

“I don’t think we had an answer for their big kid, (Smith),” North Penn coach John Conrad said. “He really played well. They created some matchup problems for us.”

The Indians (4-2, 1-2 SOL Colonial) took control of the game late in the first half, closing the second quarter on a 7-0 run to turn a 24-23 lead to 31-23 at intermission. After half, the run expanded to a 14-3 Souderton stretch, with Big Red building a 38-26 advantage.

“We’ve just been playing really hard,” Sackitey said. “I think that’s been a constant throughout the season. We’ve been talking about closing out quarters and closing out halves. I’m really proud of the guys for stepping up and making plays. We rebounded really well, got some second chance points, and took care of the ball. Just doing the little things, nothing fancy. We’re playing hard and getting better.”

“We ended the first half well,” Smith said. “I think we ended the first half with an eight-point lead. In the locker room we really wanted to make that eight-point lead larger. That was our goal and that’s what we did.”

Souderton took a 48-33 lead to the fourth quarter and maintained a double digit lead until the final whistle.

Jay Bonnet joined Smith in double figures with 16 points, including nine in the fourth quarter, and Levi John added nine.

Joe Larkins led the Knights (3-2, 2-1 SOL Colonial) with 15 points. Mario Sgro and Milind Pulugura joined him in double figures with 10 points apiece.

Souderton jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, but North Penn battled back. Larkins scored eight points in the first quarter to help the Knights trim their deficit to one, 14-13, after eight minutes.

The game remained tight for most of the second quarter. Pulugura scored six points in the frame as North Penn stayed within 24-23, but Souderton finished the half with seven straight points to take momentum and an eight-point lead into the locker room.

“I thought our shot selection was not good against the zone,” Conrad said. “A lot of that is on me, I don’t know that I had us prepared well enough.”

Souderton 63, North Penn 49

Souderton 14 17 17 15 – 63

North Penn 13 10 10 16 – 49

S: Bonnet 6 3-3 16, Towsen 2 1-4 5, Blair 0 1-2 1, Bhandari 0 0-0 0, Smith 11 3-5 25, Vince 2 0-0 5, John 3 1-2 9, Schevren 1 0-0 2. Total 25 9-16 63.

NP: Sgro 3 2-2 10, Wright 0 0-0 0, Gee 1 1-2 4, Zeltt 3 0-0 7, Larkins 5 5-6 15, Deininger 1 0-0 3, Dorsey 0 0-0 0, Pulugura 3 4-5 10. Total 16 12-15 49.

3-point goals: S: Bonnet, Vince, John 2. NP: Sgro 2, Gee, Zeltt, Deininger.