Rinda’s red-hot start sparks Pottsgrove; Pottstown drops opener in Ivory’s debut
LOWER POTTSGROVE >> When his first couple shots fell, Gabe Rinda and his teammates knew they were likely to keep falling.
In his first varsity start, Rinda, a sophomore on the Pottsgrove boys basketball team, poured in 15 in a row during a first-quarter stretch.
The hot start propelled the Falcons to a 64-37 win over Daniel Boone on Friday night to open their season in the Pottsgrove Tip-Off Tournament.
“My teammates just found me,” Rinda said. “I think we have a great group of guys who know when someone’s hot they’re going to stay hot and they just found me.”
Gabe Rinda and Manny Allen guided Pottsgrove to an opening night win over Daniel Boone on Friday. pic.twitter.com/o1rsvX91wB
— Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) December 11, 2021
Rinda paced the Falcons with 22 points and senior Manny Allen joined him in double figures with 16, while Brandon Gaines led the Blazers with 17.
“I was just really motivated this year to go out here, my last year, and play basketball with my family,” Allen said. “I thought it was time to step up this year. I played hard today, but my teammates had my back the entire game.”
A dominant first quarter set the tone for the Falcons on Friday. They jumped out to a 9-2 lead before Rinda rattled off his personal 15-0 run to make it 24-2.
He hit three 3-point shots, added a pair of twos and two free throws during the stretch.
“I loved that,” Allen said. “I encourage him, and every time he’s hot I encourage everyone to find him. He’s a really good player in my opinion.”
“Gabe’s kind of fresh on the scene, but we’re expecting big things out of him,” Falcons coach Scott Palladino said. “The way he shot the ball tonight, if we get that from him all season that would be good.”
Pottsgrove led 26-5 after one and built the lead to as many as 28 points in the second quarter, leading 42-16 at halftime and 55-19 at the end of the third quarter.
Jonathan Trego added eight for the Blazers, who are coming off a 2-15 campaign (1-10 Berks II) in 2020-21.
Senior Jeremy Thompson chipped in seven and seniors Dylan Penot and Marlon Glaze added another six apiece for the Falcons, who hope Friday night’s performance is sign of things turning around this season following a 2-13 showing in the Pioneer Athletic Conference last year.
“I think what’s big is we’ve been trying to change the culture around here. … Everyone’s really excited for the season,” Rinda said.
Pottsgrove hosts Springfield-Delco on Saturday, while Pottstown plays Daniel Boone on Day 2 of the Pottsgrove Tip-Off Tournament.
Mixed Returns
Friday night marked the return home for Palladino, a Pottsgrove alum who coached at Pottsgrove from 2006-16 before spending the past three seasons at Pottstown.
“This is home for me,” Palladino said. “I appreciate the opportunity that Pottstown gave me over there. It kind of filled in the gap for me. … It was a hard decision to make, to leave on short notice, but I couldn’t pass this up.”
Palladino’s replacement at Pottstown made his debut in the early game on Friday night.
Trojans’ first-year coach Ken Ivory previously served as the team’s interim head coach in 2016-17 before taking over the head coaching gig full-time this offseason.
Ivory’s return to the Pottstown sidelines didn’t go as well as Palladino’s return as the Trojans fell 45-25 to Springfield-Delco, but he is excited about what his young group has in store in 2020-21.
“I’m just glad I get to take the journey with them,” Ivory said. “I’m hype about that part of it, but you can’t teach experience. … It’s not for lack of effort, so I’m not worried about it. We’ll bounce back.”
Mike O’Donnell (13), Mike Hoey (11) and Jake Adams (8) led Springfield-Delco, which took control in second and third quarters when it turned an 11-9 first quarter lead into a 36-20 advantage heading to the fourth.
Junior Gage Sibley had eight, junior Terryce Phillips and senior Amar Graves both had six and junior Rashean Bostic added five for the Trojans in the loss.
“I thought we were prepared,” Ivory said. “Maybe our inexperience showed a little bit. I think the speed of the game affected some of our guys. We’re fast, we’re very athletic, but we didn’t show it tonight. I think we were thinking too much. I’m still excited, still positive and my class is always half full anyway.”
