FRANCONIA — Trailing Souderton by 11 points early in the fourth quarter and their hopes to earn a spot in the District 1-6A tournament fading, Lee Hammond and the North Penn boys basketball team had one option left Tuesday night.
“We just battled,” Hammond said. “We’re a team, we fight — fight together, fight as a team.”
Down 42-31, Hammond and Norman Gee sparked the Knights’ rally with 3-point shooting — each hitting twice from beyond the arc as visiting North Penn put together a 16-4 run to edge ahead 47-46 on a Tre Simpson putback.
“We were in the moment,” Hammond said. “We knew it was a win or go home game so we knew we had to hit the big shots.”
With the SOL Colonial Division matchup knotted at 49 in the final minute, Corey Meade drove and found Simpson inside for the go-ahead layup.
After Souderton made the second of two free throws with 31.2 seconds remaining, Hammond was fouled and drained his pair at the line to put North Penn up three with 19.0 seconds left. The Knights held on the game’s final possession — the Indians missing on a deep three from the right wing to give North Penn a 53-50 comeback victory.
“Usually our defense gets us going but I thought tonight, Lee had a couple big threes in the fourth and I thought that got us going defensively and then we were able to get some stops,” Knights coach John Conrad said. “I thought Corey did a great job of getting into the lane and then just dumping it down to Tre. And I give them credit, these guys just stuck with it, it looked bleak there but they stuck with it.”
Gee had four 3-pointers in scoring a game-high 16 points for North Penn (9-9, 8-5 division), who lost 61-36 to Souderton at home Dec. 12. Simpson finished with 15 points and Ahmaar Godhania added 10 points.
Hammond scored all eight of his points in the fourth in a game both sides entered just outside of District 1-6A’s 24-team playoff field. Souderton came in ranked 25th with North Penn 27th. The Knights moved up to 25th while the Indians (9-10, 7-6), who had a two-game win streak halted, dropped to 28th.
“Even though sometimes things aren’t falling, things aren’t working out for us, we just keep pushing, keep grinding,” Hammond said. “At the end we got the win.”
Bill Sackor paced Souderton with 15 points while Nolan Watkins scored 10 of his 14 points in the first half.
North Penn has two more games this week, the Knights visiting Bensalem 7:30 p.m. Thursday then at home against Central Bucks South 7 p.m. Friday.
“We’re just trying to get ourselves to 11-11 by the end of the year and see what happens,” Conrad said.
Souderton, which has not qualified for districts since 2019-20, is home against Central Bucks East 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
The Indians held a 29-24 halftime lead and while the pace of Tuesday’s game accelerated in the third quarter, points did not come with the faster tempo. Souderton started the second half with an 8-2 run for a 37-26 lead before a Gee triple had North Penn within eight heading to the fourth.
“It just felt tiring and stressful,” Hammond said. We worked so hard to get to that point and then nothing was falling, nothing was happening.”
A Sackor 3-point play at 7:40 made it 40-29 with Souderton again going up 11 at 42-31 after a Danny Dyches bucket. Meade scored off a drive with Hammond connecting on a trey to cut the margin to 42-36.
Watkins’ bucket gave the Indians a 44-36 lead before back-to-back threes from Gee and Hammond had the Knights down just 44-42.
“Just got to make the shot,” Hammond said. “Just got to put us up. We need points, no reason to hesitate, just got to shoot it and let it fly.”
Sackor was fouled on a drive and hit two free throws, putting Souderton up 46-42 at 2:29, However, a Gee 3-pointer had the Knights down just one with Simpson’s putback giving North Penn a 47-46 lead, its first since 14-13 in the second quarter.
“Tre was a beast inside the paint — got rebounds, putbacks,” Hammond said.
A Chanse Salone free throw at 1:39 knotted things at 47 but Meade drove and found Simpson inside for a basket and a 49-47 NP advantage. Watkins was fouled with exactly a minute left and hit both at the line, pulling Souderton even.
Meade drove into the lane and delivered a pass to Simpson for a layup, putting the Knights back ahead 51-49.
“When he’s aggressive and gets downhill, he’s pretty tough,” said Conrad of Meade. “But sometimes he plays passive out there, but I think part of it was the situation we’re in, he knew it was now or never and he was real aggressive and made great passes.”
Dyches was Fouled on a putback attempt at 31.2 seconds and made the second of two free throws to have Big Red down 51-50.
Souderton needed to foul four times before getting North Penn to the foul line with 19.0 seconds left. Hammond stepped up and knocked down his pair to make it a three-point game. Salone’s three try at the buzzer could not connect and the Knights comeback was complete.
In the second quarter, a Simpson putback had the North Penn leading 14-13 before the Indians scored the next eight — Clinton Kikonjo hitting a three with a jumper and triple from Watkins making it 21-14.
A Sackor three had the Indians up 24-16. Souderton went up eight twice more in the first half, the last at 29-21 on a Dyches basket before Gee hit a 3-pointer to cut NP’s deficit to 29-24 at the break.
North Penn 53, Souderton 50
North Penn 7 17 5 24 – 53
Souderton 9 20 8 13 – 50
North Penn: Norman Gee 2 4 0-0 16; Tre Simpson 7 0 1-2 15; Ahmaar Godhania 1 2 2-3 10; Lee Hammond 0 2 2-2 8; Aiden Atkinson 1 0 0-0 2; Corey Meade 1 0 0-0 2; Totals 12 8 5-9 53.
Souderton: Bill Sackor 4 1 4-5 15; Nolan Watkins 4 1 3-6 14; Clinton Kikonjo 0 3 0-0 9; Danny Dyches 3 0 1-4 7; Chanse Salone 2 0 1-4 5; Totals 13 5 9-19 50.
