Devon Prep begins league play by defeating Cowell-Egan

TREDYFFRIN<< The PIAA 3A defending champion Devon Prep basketball team opened the Philadelphia Catholic League part of their schedule Tuesday night at Devon Prep and three key components of that championship squad played big parts in the Tide’s hard fought 72-56, win over a tough Conwell-Egan team

Seniors Jacen Holloway and Lucas Orchard and junior Ty Mishock combined for 67 of the Tide’s 72 points with Holloway leading all scorers with 26 points while Orchard tallied 23 points and Mishock chipped in with 18 points. The trio combined to hit on seven three-balls on the night and holloway hauled in 11 rebounds also.

Devon Prep (1-0, PCL, 8-2 overall) opened the game up by outscoring the Eagles 25-11 in the second period to take a 38-29 lead at halftime. The Tide opened the second period on a 9-0 run fueled by a long three-ball by Orchard and two inside buckets from Holloway.

Also, the Devon Prep defense forced 19 Eagles turnover and scored 16 points off of those miscues.

“I don’t think I personally played all that well tonight defensively,” Holloway said. “They were getting too many offensive rebounds so that is something I have to work on. But to have the experience of playing with Ty and Lucas really helps. I have played with Ty since the third grade and Lucas from the eighth grade and to have that feeling of knowing where they will be on the court really is a big plus.”

With a nine point lead at halftime the Tide got rolling early in the third period when Orchard drained a corner three-ball. After an Eagles miss, Holloway took a pretty feed from Mishock to score inside to make it a 43-29 tide advantage early in the third period.

Conwell-Egan shot just five for 14 in the third period and the Tide outscored the Eagles 17-12 in the third period to take a 14 point lead heading into the fourth period.

“I thought we made some mistakes and we are still work in progress,” Devon Prep coach Jason Fisher said. “We seemed to bother them a little bit when we started changing up our zone defenses.”

The Eagles would no quit however. Aidan Mondragon started the fourth period by draining a three-ball and then after a Tide miss, Ben Wilkins hit on a tree and suddenly it was a 55-47 Tide lead. But Reece Craft drained a long three-ball for Devon Prep and after an Eagles turnover, Orchard fed Holloway inside for an easy basket and it was a 61-47 Tide lead.

Devon Prep forced the Eagles into dismal four for 18 shooting night in the fourth period even though the Eagles more than held their own on the offensive glass. The Tide shot 23 for 51 from the floor for the night and when orchard rolled to the basket to score it was a 66-51 Tide lead with 2:55 to play in the fourth period and Devon Prep had a hard fought league win.

“Egan played really well and they played very hard,” Fisher said. “We are going to work on some things and we will get better that we were tonight.”

Devon Prep 72, Conwell-Egan 56.

CONWELL-EGAN (56) Corbin 3 1-1 8, Geroger 4 4-5 12, Mondragon 3 2-2 10, Jeter 2 0-0 4, Harper 7 0-0 14, Wilkins 2 0-0 6, Lynch 1 0-0 2. Totals 22 7-8 56.

DEVON PREP (72) Holloway 10 4-7 26, Mishock 4 7-8 18, Craft 1 0-0 3, Orchard 7 7-8 23, Scarpulla 1 0-0 2, Conlon 0 0-0 0, Harrer 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 18-23 72.

Conwell-Egan 18 11 12 15-56
Devon Prep     13 25 17 17-72
3-point goals: Corbin, Mondragon 2, Wilkins 2, Craft, Holloway 2, Mishock 3, Orchard 2.