Norristown falls to Neshaminy
WEST NORRITON >> Norristown had a pair of opportunities in the final 10 seconds to change the outcome of Monday night’s 58-56 loss to Neshaminy at Norristown Area High School.
A layup attempt to tie the game with five second left was blocked and the rebound went out of bounds off of Neshaminy. The Eagles had one last chance at the buzzer, but the corner three-pointer bounced off the rim.
“Poor execution across the board,” Norristown coach Rick Bell said. “We have to get better at it. We’ll keep working on it and hopefully we’ll get some buy-in to the stuff we’re attempting to do and we’ll execute a little better down the stretch.”
“It was great defense by them,” Norristown’s Myon Kirlew said. “We just have to execute the play better.”
Norristown faced its largest deficit of the game early in the third quarter, trailing by eight, 36-28. The Eagles (2-3) responded with a 20-8 run to take a 48-44 lead early in the fourth. Roddy Gaymon scored six points in the third quarter while Jaden Wise had four to get them within 43-42 going into the fourth. Jayden Byrd turned a steal into a layup to put Norristown ahead 44-43 and, after a Neshaminy free throw, Kevin Bonds made back-to-back layups to give the Eagles a 48-44 lead with 6:28 left in the game.
“Executing,” Bell said went right for Norristown during the 20-8 run. “Good hard cuts got good looks at the basket. We’ll do that one trip, get a real good look at the basket and make or miss, it’s a make or miss game, and then we’ll come down and just play for ourselves as opposed to for us. That kills us every time. Guys become ball-stoppers and when the ball’s not moving, bodies aren’t moving and that’s not good for us.”
“We brought the energy level up in the second half,” Kirlew said. “We need to do that all four quarters, though.”
The Skins (3-1) called for timeout and responded with a 6-0 run. Nate Townsend made the first two baskets to tie the game at 48 and Sean Curley gave Neshaminy a two-point lead with 4:30 remaining.
“We have to be more disciplined on defense and box out more,” Kirlew said. “That’s what I really think happened there.”
The game was tied at 50 and 52 before Neshaminy pulled ahead for good. Townsend completed a three-point play to make it 55-52 with 2:50 to go. Townsend finished with a game-high 25 points.
“We let him walk in the paint,” Bell said. “We weren’t communicating on him. We talk about keeping people out of the paint because that’s where all the power is in basketball on both ends of the floor. We just couldn’t keep him out of the paint. He marched in the paint whenever he wanted. There was no help defense, stuff that we practice and talk about all the time. We’ll keep working and once they realize that they have to buy in to these principles and these concepts I think we’ll be much better.”
A Jonathan Brooks dunk got Norristown within 57-56 with 25 seconds left and Neshaminy split a pair of free throws to make it a two-point game. Neshaminy’s Joey Zack blocked the game-tying layup attempt and Townsend forced an off-balance three-pointer at the buzzer.
Townsend hit a pair of threes and scored 10 of his 25 points in the first quarter, helping the Skins build a 14-12 lead. Curley knocked down three threes and scored 11 of his 19 points in the second quarter to make it a 32-28 game at the half.
Norristown had a balanced offensive attack with all seven scorers posting between six and 11 points. Kirlew led the way with 11 while Byrd added nine, Brooks and Wise eight, Bonds and Gaymon seven and Andre Gordon six.
“We have a lot of different players that can score easily,” Kirlew said. “We just have good team chemistry right now.”
Neshaminy 58, Norristown 56
Neshaminy 14 18 11 15 – 58
Norristown 12 16 14 14 – 56
NESH: Sean Curley 6 3-7 19, Boima Gobah 0 0-0 0, Ashton Lovelace 1 0-0 2, Joey Zack 1 3-4 5, Emeer Coombs 1 2-2 5, Guy Horton 0 2-2 2, Ryan Meehan 0 0-0 0, Nate Townsend 10 2-4 25. Total 19 12-19 58.
NOR: Kevin Bonds 3 0-0 7, Jonathan Brooks 4 0-0 8, Jayden Byrd 3 2-5 9, Roddy Gaymon 3 1-4 7, Andre Gordon 2 0-0 6, Myon Kirlew 3 4-4 11, Jaden Wise 4 0-2 8. Total 22 7-15 56.
3-point goals: NESH: Sean Curley 4, Nate Townsend 3, Emeer Coombs. NOR: Andre Gordon 2, Myon Kirlew, Kevin Bonds, Jayden Byrd.
