Several late runs push Unionville past Avon Grove
LONDON GROVE >> For many years under head coach Chris Cowles, the back of the Unionville warmups say: ‘MAXOUT.’ And on Tuesday in a Ches-Mont boys’ basketball crossover against Avon Grove, the Longhorns put the slogan into action.
Despite a shaky start, and a second half comeback by the pesky Red Devils, Unionville put it together late in the third quarter right through to the finish to wrap up a 73-62 triumph.
“It just means maxing-out our abilities and being unselfish,” said sixth-man Robbie Logan.
“I think early on we weren’t playing with the right intention,” Cowles added. “So it was karma that we weren’t hitting shots. We weren’t playing with maximum effort.
“‘MAXOUT’ is the mantra, and you do that by executing our principles.”
The ’Horns improve to 9-1 overall and have won seven straight. Avon Grove falls to 3-6 after dropping its fifth in a row.
“(Unionville) can shoot the lights out, and we knew that coming in,” said Devils’ head coach Ikeem Mays. “We tried to limit their runs, but they ended up making one more run than we did.”
Midway through the third, Avon Grove scored nine straight to take a 35-32 lead. But Unionville stiffened defensively, ended the quarter with a 14-3 surge, and never trailed again. Junior forward Nick Diehl notched six points on the inside, and senior guard Kevin Carson added a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
“We finally started getting (defensive) stops,” explained Logan, a senior guard.
“You could tell that our guys were digging deep a bit,” Cowles added. “And when we get stops on defensive end, it helps at the other end. I thought Nick (Diehl) was making a lot of good decisions and he took it hard to the basket.”
The Devils made one last gasp by cutting the lead to six with 3:30 to go, but once again the Longhorns responded with eight points in a row, which included a 3-point play by junior Charlie Kammeier.
“We just didn’t execute properly in those stretches,” Mays said. “Unfortunately, we made our mistakes and (Unionville) took advantage of it.
“Right now we are in a slump, but this team is never going to quit. We aren’t going to lay down in any game. We just haven’t been executing to the level we did earlier in the season.”
The Longhorns got off to a terrible start and did not make a shot from the floor until the 3:05 mark of the opening quarter. But a quick 10-0 rally in the second helped Unionville take a 29-26 lead into halftime.
“We have had slow starts, but we trust our teammates and our coaches and eventually get ourselves back into the game,” said Logan, who finished with 16 points.
“We are good enough and we have confidence so that if we start out slow, we can turn it around.”
Junior guard Ryan Brown scored 14 of his game-high 18 in the second half for the ’Horns, while Diehl and J.T. Anderson chipped in 13 and 10 points, respectively. That meant that two of the team’s top three scorers were non-starters.
“I think we have good players and they play well off of each other, and when we commit on both ends, it’s just a lot of guys who are capable,” Cowles pointed out.
“You could make an argument that Robbie (Logan) and Nick (Diehl) are the two best players on our team, and they haven’t started all season. And neither has even brought it up – they just go in and do their jobs. It’s indicative of their character and commitment to the program, and they are having individual success because of it.”
Guards Josh Cox (15), Kyle Anthony (14) and Michael Britton (12) led the way offensively for Avon Grove. Junior forward Brock Bernstein chipped in 10.
Unionville 73, Avon Grove 62
Avon Grove 13 13 14 22 — 62
Unionville 8 21 23 21 — 73
AVON GROVE – Anthony 5 0-0 14; Britton 4 4-6 12; Cox 5 2-2 15; Ziegler 3 1-2 8; Bell 1 0-0 3; Bernstein 3 4-5 10. Totals 21 11-15 62.
UNIONVILLE – Anderson 3 3-5 10; Logan 6 2-4 16; Napolitano 1 0-0 3; Brown 4 8-9 18; Carson 1 0-0 3; Kammeier 4 2-3 10; Diehl 5 3-4 13. Totals 24 18-25 73.
Three-pointers: Anthony 4, Cox, Ziegler, Bell, Anderson, Napolitano, Brown 2, Carson.
