Pennsbury boys basketball bests Neshaminy for coach’s 100th win (VIDEO)
FAIRLESS HILLS – It may have taken longer than he expected but Pennsbury head coach Bill Coleman recorded his 100th coaching win Thursday night (Jan. 28) against visiting Neshaminy.
The Falcons entered the battle with the 2-13 Redskins coming off three straight losses – all at the hand of Suburban One League (SOL) rivals. Add in a 1-point loss to Council Rock South and another sustained Jan. 8 at defending PIAA Class A champ Constitution and Pennsbury had been mired in something the team hasn’t experienced in years – a slump.
With help from some accurate 3-point shooting by senior Rob Daly, the Falcons cruised past Neshaminy for the second time this season to raise their record to 7-4 in the SOL National Conference, a game behind second place CR North.
Ahead 23-14 at the half, Pennsbury outscored the Skins 16-2 in the third period to run away to a 46-28 triumph. Afterward, even Coleman seemed to have mixed emotions about the win. The coach had no problem with his team’s effort, however.
“It could have been better,” Coleman said. “There were a lot of things that we missed today – a couple of rotations.
“But our guys played with a lot of energy and that’s all I can ask.
“Control the things you can control – your attitude and your effort. If you come with the right mindset, everything else will take care of itself.”
Some of those things the Falcons missed were shots. Pennsbury started off shooting just 3-for-13 in the first period and was just 31 percent from the floor, for the game. At least seven of the shots the Falcons missed in the initial frame were layups.
Leading 10-8 after one quarter, Pennsbury received a significant spark from Daly, who hit eight of his team’s 13 points in the second period.
Daly opened the second quarter with his first trey but Neshaminy responded with layups by junior Zach Tredway (5 pts.) and senior Matt McGinty (11) to narrow the Skins’ deficit to two points.
That’s when the Falcons turned up the heat on defense, forcing the visitors into turning the ball over on five of their last six possessions entering the halftime break.
That allowed Pennsbury to finish off the first half with a 9-2 scoring run, a scoring spurt highlighted by a putback basket by junior Mark Flagg (9 pts.) a trey and a jumper off the glass by Daly that put the Falcons on top, 23-14, heading into the locker room.
The only points registered by the Skins in that stretch was a jumper by senior Shammond Thomas.
“We went through a couple stretches in the second period, third quarter where we only combined for six points,” said McGinty, who hit three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. “To play this kind of team, that’s that good, you can’t go through those kind of stretches.”
“Their lead stretched from six, to nine, to 12, all the way up to 20. That’s just us missing shots and them hitting shots.”
Neshaminy actually shot 60 percent from the floor (3-for-5) in the second quarter. Problem was the Skins got off only five shots. Turnovers – many of which were forced by the Falcon defense – were to blame for Neshaminy’s woes.
“We didn’t play strong with the ball tonight,” added McGinty. “We did stuff that we usually don’t do and that’s not like us. We usually get teams out of their presses early by being strong with the ball and breaking in and getting easy layups.
“Tonight, we were just weak with the ball and turning the ball over and they were the ones getting the easy buckets.”
Pennsbury opened the third quarter with a 5-2 spurt with Flagg jamming a ball in over Skins’ 6-6 forward Billy Warren and Daly hitting his third 3-pointer in the game. After a layup by Neshaminy senior Francis Robles, the Falcons finished the period with 11 straight points, a run highlighted by a putback by senior Mike Alley, Daly’s fourth trey and a 3-pointer by junior Tyler Sessa-Reeves (7 pts.).
Pennsbury forced eight more turnovers in the third period, helping itself to a 13-point edge heading into the final frame.
“It all starts with our defense,” said Daly. “When we pick up the defensive intensity, we’re a real solid team.
“We showed that in the beginning of the year but we kind of went away from that during that little rough stretch that we had.
“Now, we’re trying to get back into that mentality.”
With four games remaining, the Falcons, at 10-6, don’t have much choice. League duels against Council Rock South, William Tennent and Truman and a weekend battle against Ches-Mont rival Downingtown East are the only games left on the docket.
Last season, Pennsbury earned a berth in the District 1 semifinals and advanced all the way to the PIAA Class AAAA quarterfinals. The year before, the Falcons made an appearance in the District 1 championship and had eventual champ Chester on the ropes in the third quarter before it all unraveled in the final frame.
With that said, the Pennsbury faithful, over the past few years, has become used to its hoops teams making it to states. Playing his final days in a Falcon uniform, Daly would certainly like to see that happen. Both he and Alley, who, as quarterback, led the football team to a D-1 title in 2014 as a high school junior.
“We want to make a nice playoff run to close out our senior year,” said Daly. “Who knows how far this team can take us. We have a lot of talent; if we can keep things going defensively, I think we can make a real deep run.”
Neshaminy has three games left – at home against Truman, at CR South then finishing the season off at BAL rival Holy Ghost Prep. After going winless in the SOL National division under former coach Jerry Devine, the Skins have emerged victorious twice in the conference since interim skipper John Mason has taken over.
“We’ve been coming together as a group – much better than in the beginning of the season,” said McGinty.
Neshaminy’s first league win came Jan. 8 at Truman. Trailing the Tigers 10-9 after one period, the Skins outscored Truman in each of the last three quarters to win 61-48.
“We turned them over a bunch in the second quarter and got a lot of easy buckets,” said McGinty, of the win over the Tigers. “The third quarter is where we really started hitting shots – we knocked down a bunch of shots in a row and spread the lead to about 20 (points).”
Three Neshaminy players registered double digits in the Truman game including McGinty (12), Warren (12) and Thomas (11).
Contact the author at ssherman@21st-Centurymedia.com, or @BucksLocalSport on Twitter
Pennsbury 46, Neshaminy 28
(Jan. 28 at Pennsbury)
Pennsbury 10 13 16 7 – 46
Neshaminy 8 6 2 12 – 28
NESHAMINY — Billy Warren 2, Zach Tredway 5, Shammond Thomas 2, Fran Robles 4, Matt McGinty 11, Charles Dominick 1, Anthony Papeo 3; TOTALS — 10 3-8 28.
PENNSBURY — Tyler Sessa-Reeves 7, Joey Monaghan 2, Ray Law 1, Addison Howard 5, Gary Francis 2, Mark Flagg 9, Rob Daly 14, Isaiah Carpenter 4, Mike Alley 2; TOTALS — 15 10-19 46.
3-POINT GOALS: N — McGinty 3, Papeo, Tredway; P — Daly 4, Sessa-Reeves, Howard.
