CB East holds off North Penn to secure share of SOL Colonial title
TOWAMENCIN >> After its 3-point barrage helped in building a 25-point first-half lead, it seemed the Central Bucks East boys basketball team was going to find little difficulty in clinching at least a share of the SOL Colonial Division title Thursday night.
But when their offense stalled after the break and North Penn continued to chip away, the Patriots had to sweat things out a bit down the stretch.
The host Knights – who needed a win sitting in the 24th and final qualifying spot in the District 1-6A rankings – put together an 18-2 run to go from trailing by 23 in the third to being down just seven after Norman Gee’s three-point play made it 46-39 with 3:01 remaining
The deficit, however, proved to be too big for North Penn to fully overcome as Central Bucks East found a way to hold off the Knights’ charge and claim a 51-43 victory.
“We were up by 25 at one point in the first half so to see them come back, that’s not the way we wanted to win but we got the win though,” Patriots senior Tyriq Toney-Bailey said. “So that’s all that matters.”
Toney-Bailey scored all of his team-high 11 points in the first quarter, connecting on three of Central Bucks East’s eight 3-pointers in the opening half as the Patriots raced out to a 38-13 lead after a Kyle Berndt triple in the second quarter.
“We lacked intensity from the get-go,” North Penn coach John Conrad said. “And against a good team like that, we just dug ourselves too deep a hole.”
East was up 38-20 at halftime and extended the margin to 23 in the third but ended up registering only 13 points after intermission with no field goals in the fourth.
“We were nervous,” Patriots coach Erik Henrysen said. “We stopped attacking, we started holding the ball. Credit to North Penn, they were fighting for their lives and we knew that coming in and I thought we got off to a great start but took our foot off the gas and they kept coming so credit to them.”
But the total body for work was enough for the East (15-7, 11-5 division) to hang on and earn a split of the Colonial crown with Central Buck South, which topped Pennridge 63-53 Thursday.
It is the second straight division title for East, which won the Colonial outright last season. South’s title is its first since being a part of a four-way tie for the SOL Continental Conference championship in 2014.
“I was trying to win this game, to do my part to get us this win cause we’ve been talking about winning the league since June, July back in the summer,” Toney-Bailey said. “So to be here, to do it, it’s a great feeling.”
Terhan Wright had a game-high 16 points while Norman Gee and Joe Larkins both totaled 10 points for North Penn (11-11, 8-8), which looks as if it will miss the district playoffs. The loss, the Knights’ second straight and third in its last four, bumped them down to 26th in the 6A rankings, just outside the 24-team field.
“Just a great group of guys,” Conrad said. “I just feel bad that it would end that way for that group. Joey, Mil (Pulugura) and T (Wright), they’ve been great parts of this program and I wanted desperately for them to continue their season but we’ll wait and see what happens.”
Central Bucks East sits at 15th in the 6A rankings. The Patriots began the season 8-1 proceeded to lose six of eight but regained their form late, having now won their last five heading into the Suburban One League tournament, which starts Saturday.
“Just playing for each other,” Henrysen said. “We got into a bad space where we were playing a little bit selfish one-on-one basketball and we kind of midseason did a little bit of a reset. Hold more guys accountable and I think just as of late we’ve had 10 guys just buy in, in our rotation but our entire program.”
North Penn capped the first half with a 7-0 run to pull with 38-20 but CB East extended its lead to 23 in the third when Nick Rivera scored on a drive, putting the visitors up 44-31.
Five straight points from the Knights made it 44-26 after a Wright free throw at 2:35. A Joshua Lyzinski basket – East’s final field goal of the game – had the margin at 20 before Gee dropped in a runner and Wright scored off a Mario Sgro assist to have North Penn down 46-30 at the end of the third.
Wright collected the fourth’s first four points while a Nicholas Hoffman block led to a Sgro transition basket to make it 46-36. Gee hit a jumper and was fouled – finishing the three-point play to have NP down 46-39 at 3:01.
“Credit to them but I didn’t think we played very well on the defensive end early,” Conrad said. “And that’s what we talked about at halftime and just this isn’t how we wanted to end our season. So let’s just go out and play our best half of basketball and I thought they responded in the second half but we just had too far to go.”
Jacob Cummiskey’s two free throws put East up 48-39 with 2:27 left before Gee scored on a drive to get the Knights back within seven.
The Patriots could not convert the front end of three straight 1-and-1 opportunities but North Penn could only take advantage after East’s third miss at 1:01 – Sgro’s basket had the Knights trailing 48-43.
Young hit two free throws at 38.0 seconds while Liam Cummiskey made the first of two at the line at 26.4 seconds for a 51-43 advantage.
In the first quarter, a Ryan Deininger basket had North Penn within 8-6 but the Patriots ripped off the next 12 points – eight of those from Toney-Bailey, including back-to-back 3-pointers to put East up 20-6.
“During warmups my shot felt good,” Toney-Bailey said. “So I went out there and I let it fly.”
A Gee trey stopped the run but Toney-Bailey drained his third triple of the quarter to make it 20-9 after the first eight minutes.
Lyzinski’s corner 3-pointer had East leading 31-11 with consecutive baskets from Joey Giordano pushing the advantage to 24.
After a putback by Wright, Berndt grabbed an offensive rebound and buried the Patriots’ eighth and last three of the night for a 38-13 lead.
A Wright breakaway layup off a steal, Larkins’ three and two more from Wright cut the Knights’ deficit to 18 at intermission. East began the third with a 6-1 burst to go up 44-21.
Central Bucks East 51, North Penn 43
North Penn 9 11 10 13 – 43
Central Bucks East 23 15 8 5 – 51
Central Bucks East: Tyriq Toney-Bailey 4 0-0 11; Jacob Cummiskey 2 4-4 9; Kyle Berndt 2 0-0 6; Joshua Lyzinski 2 0-0 5; Brett Young 1 2-4 5; Joey Giordano 2 0-0 4; Nick Rivera 2 0-0 4; Liam Cummiskey 1 1-2 3; Ryan Lenahan 1 0-0 2; Aidan Weaver 0 2-5 2; Totals 17 9-15 51.
North Penn: Terhan Wright 7 1-2 15; Norman Gee 4 1-1 10; Joe Larkins 4 1-2 10; Mario Sgro 3 0-0 6; Ryan Deininger 1 0-0 2; Totals 19 3-5 43.
3-pointers: CBE-Toney-Bailey 3; Berndt 2, J. Cummiskey, Lyzinski, Young; NP-Gee, Larkins.
