Fisher finishes with 26 points, Pennridge tops Souderton

FRANCONIA >> Trent Fisher made things easy for Pennridge boys basketball coach Dean Behrens Tuesday night.

“Giving him the ball, that’s a real tough thing to do, huh?” Behrens said.

The Rams’ 6-foot-7 senior collected the first six points against host Souderton and the Indians could not slow down Fisher in the post the rest of the SOL Continental contest. Fisher outscored Souderton 16 to 11 in the first half and went on to record a game-high 26 points as the Rams continued their dominance of their conference rival with a 53-38 victory.

“That’s a ton of points in high school, OK, so he’s had a couple monster games this year,” Behrens said. “The Quakertown game, the Truman game, this game. You know, getting the ball to Trent really makes us look good. I really feel like Trent’s one of the best players in the league. I said it to him all the time, I really do. He can change the game not only offensively but also defensively.”

After staking Pennridge to a 6-0 lead, Fisher finished with eight points in the opening quarter — the last two courtesy a Ryan Benscoter assist to cap a 13-1 Rams run to start the game.

“I definitely had the matchup advantage when I was figuring out that their big guy wasn’t going to be playing so having that advantage, just going at it early, just get it started, keep us rolling,”  Fisher said. “Having our good starts like we’ve been having all year. Just hit them early, put them away because we know they’ve been struggling, having a bit of a rough stretch right now so we knew going up early they might fold early we just keep that lead going to the third and fourth (quarters).”

Fisher flashed his offensive range as he added eight more points in the second quarter. He took the ball from midcourt then drove into the lane before banking in a one-handed runner to make it 23-6. After a jumper by Souderton’s Brian Reiner, Fisher responded with four straight points — putting a hook shot in off glass then hitting a short turnaround jumper and drawing a foul with 54.1 seconds left as the Rams (9-2, 4-0 SOL Continental) took their biggest lead of the half at 27-8.

“Over the offseason I was always just working on more of a like a point forward position, like having to dribble the ball more,” Fisher said. “Which if Christian (Guldin) or Luke (Yoder) they need help with they I can help them out just breaking the press or anything like that. And then with having that now and then just posting up and then not trying to rush myself, just catch the ball and see what can happen first before anything else happens.”

After trailing 27-11 at the break, the Indians (7-5, 2-3) finally got their offense to click a bit in the third. Big Red began the second half with an 11-3 run, pull to within 30-22 on a Sami Chouriaf basket off a steal. But Pennridge finished the third with sixth straight points — the first four by Fisher — while a Fisher bucket inside early in the fourth had the Rams up 38-22.

“He really did a number,” said Behrens of Fisher. “I know they’re shorthanded tonight, obviously (Andrew) Vince is out for the year which really stinks and a couple kids weren’t able to play tonight and I thought Trent could really have a field day and he did.”

Yoder chipped in seven points for the Rams, who bounced back from a nonleague home loss to Spring-Ford last Saturday to claim their 11th consecutive victory over Souderton.

Reiner scored nine points to pace the Indians, which have lost four straight and five of its last six since beginning the season 6-0.

Souderton finishes the week visiting Hatboro-Horsham 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Pennridge looks to stay perfect in Continental play Friday when it hosts Central Bucks East at 7 p.m. then takes on Liberty at the Lehigh Valley Roundball Jamboree 1:40 p.m. Sunday at Parkland.

“We have to everyday in practice be solid, we have to be efficient, we have to work hard,” Behrens said. “We have to get better every day cause we’re not going be able to relax. If you want to win the division, I don’t know, winning every game would be tough, going 12-0 would be tough but if you do that you automatically win the division.

“So someone’s going to be try to be nipping at us, I’ll you that. And when we’re not shooting the ball well, playing great defense makes up for that. So if we can be consistent defensively and rebound the ball, we can be in every single game.”

Souderton was struck on a single point until a Reiner corner 3-pointer made it 13-4. Fisher found Anthony Phillips for a layup and a 15-4 Rams lead after a quarter.

The Indians cracked double digits in the half’s final minute as Jack Towsen’s triple had Big Red down 27-11 at intermission.

In the third, a Dominic Natale jumper followed by two from Reiner off a drive made it 27-15. A Yoder three put the Rams back up 15 but Souderton answered with the next seven, trimming the margin to 30-22. Fisher, however, scored on a putback then collected two more inside off an inbounds, pushing the Pennridge lead to a dozen. Connor Pleibel tipped a rebound to Yoder for a layup and the Rams ended the third up 36-22.

In the fourth, Pennridge took its biggest lead of the night at 53-33 on a Benscoter putback.