Fleet scores 27, West Chester Henderson tops Pennridge in District 1-6A first round
EAST ROCKHILL >> Connor Fleet was not worried about going scoreless in the opening eight minutes of Friday night’s District 1-6A first-round matchup with Pennridge.
“I was just trying to find my teammates first quarter,” the West Chester Henderson boys basketball junior said. “I don’t know if they watch film and knew what I’ve done throughout the season or not but I just want to get my teammates and let the game flow for me.”
Fleet quickly found his scoring touch in the second quarter, posting all 12 of the 17th-seeded Warriors’ points in the period as they went into halftime up three on the host No. 16 Rams.
And when Pennridge came out in the third with six straight points to grab a 29-26 advantage, Fleet and Nyle Ralph-Beyer provided an effective response for Henderson, the duo combining for an 11-0 run to flip the game in the visitors’ favor.
“We had two tough turnovers that equaled four points and then they hit a three in there somewhere,” Pennridge coach Den Behrens said. “And before you know it we’re calling time out, I’m like ‘We were just up three and now we’re down five.’”
Henderson pushed its lead to as much as 14 later in the third, extending it to 16 in the fourth then keeping the Rams at bay from there as the Warriors advanced with a 66-52 victory.
“I think it was our energy,” Fleet said. “We haven’t played in like 10 days, eight days, something like that so we just wanted to play. We had a lot of energy going into this, we just really wanted to come out and play, we haven’t played in forever.”
After his dozen points in the second quarter, Fleet added nine more in the third and finished with a game-high 27 points. Ralph-Beyer totaled 19 points – 15 of those after halftime – while K’mari Smith chipped in 14 points as the Warriors move on to visit top-seeded Spring-Ford in the second round Tuesday.
“It’s very, very important cause two years ago 2-10 my freshman year, 2-10 the playoffs was not even in the discussion,” said Fleet of earning a district win. “And then last year we lost in the second round so we’re really trying to make a run this year.”
Tommy Cramer had 16 points to pace Pennridge (15-9), which looked for its first postseason victory since 2020. Matt Campione collected 14 points with Xavier Peters scoring 13 points.
When I say that these guys gave me everything they had, I mean at every practice, every game,” Behrens said. “We didn’t start the season off great, we were 2-3, we weren’t sure where things were headed and I think we won nine out of 10 right after Christmas and this group earned 15 wins which I thought was a heck of a season for ‘em.”
Cramer made the second of two free throws 29 seconds in the third then knocked down a 3-pointer to give the Rams a 27-26 lead. Two more from Campione off a drive made it 29-26. But Ralph-Beyer answered with a three with his basket after a steal putting the Warriors back ahead 31-29.
Fleet followed with four straight points before Ralph-Beyer’s jumper had Henderson’s advantage at 37-29.
“They did come out hot,” Fleet said. “Finding Nyle, Number 2, that was a big part of our thing that coach said at halftime so finding him for the first two buckets of the 11-0 run that was key, getting him hot. And then after that, I think I had a few, maybe our big man had a layup so it was just everybody was flowing.”
A Campione bucket snapped the run but Fleet found Ralph-Beyer for a corner 3-pointer and a 40-31 lead. After the Rams pulled within seven again at 40-33 on Jake Buesing basket, Henderson proceeded to score the next seven – the last five of the burst coming from Fleet, with his 3-pointer making it 47-33.
“The fact that we made them call the first time out in the third quarter we felt really good about that, we just didn’t shoot as well as we had this year,” Behrens said. “And that’s a tough time to have your shooting go awry but that’s what happens in playoffs sometimes,
A Campione jumper had Pennridge trailing by 12 entering the fourth. Two Peters free throws 13 seconds into the fourth had the Rams within 10 but the Warriors responded with six straight, Ralph-Beyer’s jumper giving the visitors a 53-37 lead.
A 10-2 run capped by consecutive Caden Fisher baskets had the Rams down 55-47. A Ralph-Beyer three made it 58-47 before Peters drained a trey to get Pennridge back within eight but Henderson pulled away by going 8-of-9 from the foul line down the stretch, going up 66-50 after two Fleet free throws with 43.6 seconds left.
The Warriors had an early 14-9 lead after baskets from Smith and Ralph-Beyer before a Campione jumper made it 14-11 at the end of first quarter.
Fleet started his scoring with a three for a 17-11 Henderson advantage. Another Fleet trey put the Warriors up 26-18 but Peters posted the half’s final five points, pulling the Rams to within 26-23 at intermission.
West Chester Henderson 66, Pennridge 52
West Chester Henderson 14 12 21 19 — 66
Pennridge 11 12 12 17 — 52
West Chester Henderson: Connor Fleet 10 4-4 27; Nyle Ralph-Beyer 8 0-0 19; K’Mari Smith 5 4-5 14; Evan McFadden 2 0-0 4; Danny Suroweic 1 0-1 2; Totals 26 8-10 66.
Pennridge: Tommy Cramer 6 2-3 16; Matt Campione 6 1-1 14; Xavier Peters 4 0-0 12; Caden Fisher 4 0-0 8; Jake Buesing 1 0-0 2; Totals 21 3-4 52.
3-pointers: WCH-Fleet 3, Ralph-Beyer 3, P-Cramer 2, Peters 2, Campione.
