PIAA-6A First Round: North Penn boys basketball earns first ever state win against Central
PHILADELPHIA >> North Penn struggled on offense through much of the second quarter on Saturday afternoon and its lead of 10 points over Central shrank to just two. But the Knights turned to their defense to shake things up and regained the momentum with a 10-point run to end the half.
And that spurt proved to be decisive in a 64-52 PIAA Class 6A boys basketball opening round win at West Philadelphia High School. Ryan Deininger topped North Penn (19-8), the No. 8 seed from District 1, with 18 points on nearly perfect shooting and Norman Gee scored 10. Sizwe Morris-Louis led the Lancers (16-12), the District 12 runner-up, with 22 points and Jasir Dollard scored eight.
North Penn, which earned its first state win in program history, advances to the final 16 and will play Coatesville, a 68-58 winner over Scranton, on Wednesday at a time and place to be determined.
The Knights shot 9-for-11 from the field in the first quarter to open a 20-11 lead and Teddy McAllister (9 points, 9 rebounds) made one of two at the free throw line to start the second. But North Penn went a good amount of the quarter without scoring and the lead was down to 23-21 after Malachi Brown hit back-to-back 3-point shots for the Lancers and Morris-Louis grabbed a defensive rebound and raced the length of the court for a basket.
“We just had to keep moving the ball,” Deininger said. “We only scored two points in the first six minutes of the second quarter. That’s not us.”
But instead of thinking up some new offensive schemes, the Knights switched up their defense instead.
“No. 2 (Morris-Louis) is a really good player and No. 15 (Brown) hit a couple of 3’s,” said North Penn coach John Conrad.”We tried to go to a zone and that was pretty effective.”
Ryan Zeltt (6 points, 6 rebounds) got the Knights going again by hitting both ends of a 1-and-1, Gee knocked down a 3-pointer from the left wing, Lee Hammond made a pair at the line and Deininger drilled a 3-pointer from the left corner after a Lancer turnover to make it 33-21 at the half.
Central turned the ball over six times in the second quarter to just two for North Penn.
“Really, today the difference was defensively,” said Conrad. “Once they closed the gap, we switched up the defense and the kids played well. Defensively, we got stops and got easy baskets in transition.”
Zeltt scored inside to start the second half, Deininger put in a layup off an inbounds pass under the basket by Mario Sgro (6 points, 5 assists) and the Knights continued to pull away, building a lead of 20 points by early in the fourth quarter.
The Knights wound up at 50 percent shooting from the floor (23-for-46), including 8-for-9 by Deininger.
“Honestly, I’ve been struggling the last couple of games with my shot,” he said.”I was due for a decent shooting game.”
“When we get him to the front of the rim, he makes a difference,” Conrad said.
North Penn limited the Lancers to 35.2 percent shooting (19-for-54) and held a 38-31 advantage in rebounds, including five by Corey Meade.
The last state appearance for North Penn came in 2020 when the Knights lost 49-39 to Wilson in the opening round.
“We haven’t gotten over the hump,” said Conrad. “This time we walked away on the right side. It was a goal. The guys have really come together. They have good chemistry.”
North Penn 64, Central 52
North Penn: Godhania 2 0-0 4, Sgro 2 2-4 6, Gee 3 2-4 10, McAllister 3 1-3 9, Cody 0 0-0 0, Zeltt 2 2-2 6, Hammond 0 5-6 5, Deininger 8 1-3 18, Meade 2 0-2 4, Hoffman 0 0-0 0, Sukaly 0 0-1 0, Simpson 1 0-0 2, Totals 23 13-25 64
Central: Dollard 3 0-0 8, Rosman 1 0-0 2, Morris-Louis 7 8-10 22, Taylor 1 1-2 3, Meer 0 0-0 0, Kelly 1 0-2 2, Glaser 0 0-0 0, Brown 2 0-0 6, Martin 2 0-0 5, Zellars 1 0-0 2, Borgin 1 0-0 2, Totals 19 9-14 52
North Penn 20 13 14 17 – 64
Central 11 10 10 21 – 52
3-point goals: Gee 2, McAllister 2, Deininger, Dollard 2, Brown 2, Martin
