Patient North Penn rallies past Upper Moreland for Upper Moreland Tip-Off title

UPPER MORELAND >> Things weren’t going so well for North Penn’s boys basketball team midway through the second quarter of Saturday’s championship game at Upper Moreland’s tip-off tournament.

The Knights trailed host Upper Moreland by six points with just over three minutes to play in the second quarter, and they were being held scoreless for nearly the first five minutes of that period.

Then, all of a sudden, North Penn started an offensive flurry that completely turned the game around and carried the Knights to the tournament title.

Using the tandem of deadly long-range shooting from AJ Mitchell and tough play inside the paint from David Robinson, the Knights got it together and rolled to a 70-58 win.

“I think it was just a matter of us playing harder and playing for each other, instead of just playing for ourselves,” said Robinson, who finished with 20 points. “That’s what got us started.”

Upper Moreland (1-1) established its biggest lead of the night at 23-17 when Ryan Coyle, who led the Bears with his game-high 26 points, hit a pair of free throws.

The Knights (2-0) cut their deficit to 23-20 when Chris Coleman nailed a 3-pointer with just over three minutes to play in the first half. Those were North Penn’s initial points of the quarter, but there would be many more to follow.

Mitchell tied the score with 2:41 left when he drilled the first of three 3-pointers during what would eventually become a 20-5 run to end the quarter.

“Our mentality changed (during that run),” said Mitchell, one of only two returning starters for the Knights. “I think we were trying to hold the ball (early in the second quarter). But we’re out there to have fun; we’re out there to score and play defense.

“We realized that that’s what we had to do, and we executed.”

Mitchell had a hot hand from the outside all night. He led the Knights with 24 points. Fifteen of those points came on five 3-point bombs, including a couple from NBA range.

During the 20-5 North Penn run, Mitchell scored nine points, Robinson added six and Coleman contributed five.

“We just became a little more patient and made the extra pass,” North Penn coach John Conrad said. “We started to hit a couple of perimeter shots, and then we were able to get the ball inside to David.

“AJ shot it well today, and David is really unselfish. He’s willing to go down inside and play with his back to the basket, which obviously helped us today.”

Conrad said that despite some big positives in Saturday night’s win, North Penn has plenty of room for improvement. He cited the Knights’ relative difficulty in closing out the win. They couldn’t get their offense going in the fourth quarter, and Upper Moreland scored the first seven points of that period to reduce its deficit to 57-45.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Conrad said. “I like the way we competed. I think we’re still learning how to play with a lead. We extended it to 20 points and then let right back in it. We took some bad, quick, ill-advised shots, and then I think we stopped defending at some point.

“But, overall, I think the kids played hard and played together.”

Count Upper Moreland coach Sean Feeley as someone who was impressed with the Knights’ play.

“I found out that our guys are going to fight hard, and we’re not going to give up,” Feeley said. “We have a lot of work to do, both offensively and defensively, but I give credit to North Penn. They played well.

“Mitchell is a good player and he’s improved a lot. They just played better than us, so hats off to them.”

In addition to Coyle’s 26 points, the Golden Bears got 13 from Brett Brossman. Feeley was also pleased to see some of his younger players step up at the varsity level this weekend.

“Our captains are all playing well,” Feeley said. “But we’re asking a couple of sophomores to step up and play big varsity minutes, and they are. Guys like Beau Woollens and Tyler Ibbotson are stepping up and playing huge minutes. They’re playing well and I’m really proud of them.”

North Penn 70, Upper Moreland 58
North Penn (2-0)
AJ Mitchell 6 7-10 24; Joey Lindsay 1 2-2 5; AJ Catanzaro 0 0-0 0; David Robinson 7 6-7 20; Chris Coleman 5 0-0 12; Tali McIver 0 0-0 0; Nathan Hartman 3 2-2 9; Shawn Robinson 0 0-0 0. Totals: 22 17-21 70.
Upper Moreland (1-1)
Ryan Coyle 7 10-11 26; Brett Brossman 4 1-2 13; Jake Villanueva 3 1-3 7; Christian O’Donnell 3 2-2 8; Beau Woollens 1 0-0 2; Ryan Schernecke 1 0-0 2; Nick Donovan 0 0-0 0; Rylan Bradley 0 0-0 0; Tyler Ibbotson 0 0-0 0. Totals: 19 14-18 58.
North Penn 15 22 20 13-70
Upper Moreland 8 20 10 20-58
3-point goals: NP-Mitchell 5, Coleman 2, Lindsay, Hartman; UM-Brossman 4, Coyle 2.