Dominic’s 37 points lead Pennridge past North Penn

EAST ROCKHILL >> His 18-point performance in a win over Souderton a week ago was merely a warmup.

This time, Pennridge’s John Dominic scored 17 — in the first half alone — and went on to pour in a game-high 37 to lead the Rams to an impressive 77-51 win over rival North Penn in a Suburban One League Continental Conference game Tuesday night.

“Everyone has their hot game, right?” said Dominic, who buried eight 3-pointers for surging Pennridge. “I think my teammates really found me well and they helped me get to where I got tonight.”

Dominic, in turn, is a pretty good help to his teammates.

Said coach Dean Behrens: “I always tell the kids, ‘if you forget something, ask John Dominic.’”

The senior guard brushed up against the single-game school record (39 points, 2012), held by Tim Abruzzo (Navy). Dominic’s 37 are the second-most in Pennridge history.

“And,” Behrens pointed out, “I think he did one heck of a job defensively on (North Penn’s Tali) McIver. That was my biggest concern: could we withstand and contain the ball on (A.J.) Mitchell (seven points) and McIver (three points)? And John did a great job. Hats off to him.”

The victory was Pennridge’s ninth in a row and it raised the Rams’ overall record to 13-2 and its conference mark to 5-1.

“The team’s been awesome,” Dominic said. “And because we’ve been playing so well, it makes it even better. It’s hard not to have fun.”

Fellow guard Sean Yoder had a strong game, finishing with 18 points, and reserve Nick Dunn added seven. The Rams blew open the game in the second quarter to pull away from NP (8-6, 3-3 conference).

Dominic scored the Rams’ first 11 points of the contest, including a pair of threes.

Yoder capped off a fast break and later hit a soft jumper to stretch the Pennridge advantage to 15-9.

With everyone getting involved, Jon Post backed his way in underneath and scored to push the margin to 10.

Soon after, Yoder snapped a pass to Dunn, who connected from along the base line, providing the Rams a 21-11 lead at the end of the first quarter.

“The kids did a great job moving the ball, finding the open man, and they hit shots,” Behrens said.

Pennridge really began to roll in the second.

Dominic hit a pair of threes, his third and fourth of the contest, to keep the run going, and additional threes by Yoder and Trent Fisher had the Rams up by 22.

Dominic had 17 points in the first half, Yoder eight and Dunn seven. The Pennridge bench — keyed by Dunn, Pat Gillespie and Fisher — outscored North Penn’s 14-3.

Five different players hit threes for the Knights in the first half, including Mitchell, who led the way with seven first-half points, but Pennridge took a 41-19 lead into the break.

Dominic hit a trio of threes in the third quarter to help put the game out of reach.

North Penn was met with some misfortune in the opening seconds of the game, when starter Solomon Robinson injured his ankle and did not return. Michael Chaffee led the Knights with 12 points and Kolby Barrow added 11 off the bench.

The Knights are at Souderton Thursday and the Rams are at Quakertown Jan. 22.