Kocak helps Pennsbury hold off North Penn for 5th straight win

TOWAMENCIN >> Ty Kocak kept the Pennsbury boys basketball team afloat early against host North Penn before the rest of the Falcons found a way to join in Tuesday night.

“I think that his poise in the first half allowed our young guys and the other guys to kind of get in the flow of the game,” Pennsbury coach Wes Emme said. “And then they stepped up.”

Kocak recorded 11 of the Falcons’ 13 first-quarter points and had scored 17 as the Suburban One League crossover contest went into half even at 33.

Better defense and a balanced attack allowed Pennsbury to take control with a 15-3 run in the third. But after going up a dozen in the fourth, the Falcons needed to stave off the late comeback charge by the Knights to secure a 66-61 victory.

“I think we’re just playing together honestly,” Kocak said. “We’re talking in the locker room, we’re just like ‘We got this game,’ This whole year it’s a big unknown with us, everybody didn’t think what we are right now and we’re on a roll, we kind of flipped that switch and I think that staying together, that’s what helped us.”

Kocak finished with a game-high 21 points while Teddy Mangan and Mike Roccograndi added 12 and 10 points, respectively, as the Falcons (7-3, 4-2 SOL Patriot) earned their fifth straight win.

“I thought Kocak was able to control the game,” North Penn coach John Conrad said. “He’s hard to stay in front of. I thought he got in the lane, made baskets when he needed to and then he was able to pitch it when we tried to double and get it out of his hands.

Ryan Deininger scored 15 of his team-best 19 points in the first half for the Knights (5-4, 3-3 SOL Colonial), who have dropped four of five since a 4-0 start. Norman Gee and Mario Sgro both had 12 points.

“We’ve run into a pretty good stretch of teams,” Conrad said. “I mean we went (Central Bucks) East, Perk Valley, Methacton, Pennsbury now we got Neshaminy so a lot of that has to do with the competition and right now the other guys are just making more plays than us.”

North Penn led for most of the first half – its advantage as large as nine at 20-11 in the opening quarter – but Pennsbury stayed close and took a 33-30  lead on Mike Roccograndi’s 3-pointer in the final seconds only for the Knights’ Deininger to hit a shot from midcourt at the buzzer.

“I thought we got some stops, we were able to run out but then offensively I thought we shared the ball well, made the extra pass,” Conrad said. “Second quarter, they upped their intensity and we kind of stopped moving and playing a lot of 1-on-1.”

A Teddy McAllister jumper to start scoring in the third put North Penn ahead 35-33 but that was the home side’s last lead of the night. Pennsbury proceeded to collect 12 of the game’s next 13 points to go up 45-36 after a Kocak basket. Danny Cohen’s three extended the lead to 10 at 48-38.

“I don’t think we were playing much defense at all giving up 33 in the first half but I think in the second half we did a much better job of settling in,” said Emme, in his first year coaching his alma mater after 11 seasons at Jenkintown. “You think about good teams like North Penn and it’s a lot of the times like a boxing match and they came out swinging early. And we took a bunch of punches, especially that first quarter but we responded and it’s more about how you respond to a team’s best shot.

“And I thought we were very resilient throughout the course of the game including at the end where we almost gave it back to ‘em.”

Pennsbury pushed its lead in the fourth to 12 twice, the last time at 59-47 before seven straight points from Gee – the junior guard hitting a three, scoring after stealing an inbounds then getting two more on a drive. A Deininger basket made it a 9-0 run and had North Penn down just 59-56 with 1:04 remaining.

“I think we played with a lot more urgency, took some gambles,” Conrad said. “I think that’s typical in high school basketball, sometimes you get up by a lot and the other team makes the run cause their back’s against the wall, but tried to impress in our kids that we need to play with that intensity all the time.”

Connor Taddei went to the free throw line with 30.9 seconds left and hit both ends of a 1-and-1 to put the Falcons up five. After the Knights turned the ball over, Taddei converted another 1-and-1 to make it 63-56 with 19.7 seconds to go.

Pennsbury next plays 7 p.m. Thursday hosting Pennridge while North Penn is on the road Friday for a 7 p.m. matchup against Neshaminy.

In the first quarter, a 6-0 run capped by a Ryan Zeltt jumper gave North Penn a 13-6 lead. A Kocak 3-point play had the Pennsbury down four at 2:27 but the Knights pushed the margin up to 20-11 after a Deininger trey. Kocak had a shot blocked on a drive but regained the ball and scored to make it 20-13 heading into the second quarter.

A Gee triple had the Knights leading 23-16, however Pennsbury ripped off six straight points – the last four from Kocak – to slice its deficit to just one at 23-22.

“I think it was my size, honestly,” Kocak said. “They just kept throwing different guys at me and they started with the two point guards. I know them – I’ve played against them for three years now and I think it was the size that had a big thing to do with it.”

The Falcons got within a point three more times before pulling level 30-30 on a Ryan Zuckerman basket. Roccograndi’s three gave Pennsbury its first lead since 2-0 but Deininger’s midcourt buzzer-beater had things knotted at 33 going into the second half.

A Taddei 3-pointer in the third quarter put the Falcons up 38-35. After a Sgro free throw at 3:47 made it 38-36, Pennsbury posted the next seven points – Mangan connecting on a three then baskets from Roccograndi and Kocak – for a 45-36 advantage.

Cohen’s triple made it 48-38 before a Sgro bucket had the Knights down eight entering the fourth.

Zeltt scored inside to get North Penn within 48-42 but baskets from Cohen then Kocak had the Falcons back up 10. Zeltt knocked down a 3-pointer but Roccograndi’s 3-point play at 5:23 followed by a Zuckerman bucket made it 57-45. Pennsbury was up 12 once more at 59-47 after two from Roccograndi.

Pennsbury 66, North Penn 61
Pennsbury 13 20 15 18- 66
North Penn 20 13 7 21 – 61
Pennsbury: Ty Kocak 9 3-5 21; Teddy Mangan 5 0-0 12; Mike Roccograndi 4 1-1 10; Connor Taddei 1 6-6 9; Danny Cohen 2 2-4 7; Ryan Zuckerman 2 0-0 4; Sam Callahan 1 1-2 3; Totals 24 13-18 66.
North Penn: Ryan Deininger 8 1-2 19; Norman Gee 4 2-2 12; Mario Sgro 4 3-5 12; Teddy McAllister 2 2-2 7; Ryan Zeltt 3 0-0 7;  Corey Meade 1 0-0 2; Robbie Sukaly 1 0-0 2; 23 8-11 61.
3-pointers: P-Mangan 2, Cohen, Roccograndi, Taddei; NP-Deininger 2, Gee 2, McAllister, Sgro, Zeltt.