Souderton rolls past Lansdale Catholic to give Sackitey first victory

FRANCONIA >> The Souderton boys basketball team kept up the energy, keep feeding Aleks Smith down low and gave coach Okoteh Sackitey his first win Friday night.

Smith scored a game-high 22 points – seven coming during a 14-0 run in the second quarter that helped host Big Red take a Lansdale Catholic 27-15 lead into halftime of their Jim Church Classic matchup. The Indians never let the margin slip into the single digits after the break and rolled to a 61-46 victory.

“I like how much we played together” Sackitey said. “It’s really unselfish basketball, really disciplined basketball with a big focus on defense I think they had eight after the first quarter, they had 15 at half. So I respect the discipline and dedication to defense and that stood out to me.

“If we can play defense like that we’re going to be in a lot of basketball games.”

LC collected the opening basket of the second quarter to pull even 10-10 but the Crusaders did not score again until Souderton had surged out to a 24-10 lead. The visitors ripped off five straight points before a corner 3-pointer from Levi John put the Indians up a dozen going into the second half.

“We played with a lot of energy and a lot of passion,” Sackitey said. “That’s something you can expect more this year.”

An Evan Lojewski basket to start the third had LC down 10 but Souderton (1-0) never let the Crusaders get any closer. The Indians stretched their lead to 19 points in the third then extended it to as large as 21 in the fourth as they advanced to play Upper Dublin – a 53-49 winner over Dock Mennonite – in the tournament final 5 p.m. Saturday. LC takes on Dock in the consolation game at 1:30 p.m.

“It was definitely a big thing,” said Smith of giving Sackitey his first win. “Last year we didn’t have many wins and this year we knew we put in the work in the offseason, we knew good things were going to happy.”

John knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in finished with 11 points for Souderton, who went 2-14 in last season’s COVID-19 shortened season.

“Last year was tough,” Smith said. “We had one senior Evan Kutzler and he was great but that lack of experience and the COVID year not being able to prep really hurt us and then Coach (Sackitey) came in, he really brings a lot of energy and it’s something we love. You see it on the court, it shows in the court, we have a ton of energy – our bench is amazing. It’s great.”

A 6-foot-6 senior forward, Smith started his night working to get position near the left block and scoring Souderton’s first bucket. With LC lacking in size, Smith continued to find success inside the rest of the contest.

“When I get the ball near the basket, good things happen,” Smith said. “My teammates trust me with the ball so they kept giving it to me. It just worked out well.”

Jake Coonahan paced Lansdale Catholic (0-1) with 11 points – nine coming in the second half – while Lojewski and Liam McDonnell each registered 10 points.

“They took advantage down low and we didn’t adjust quick enough,” LC coach Joe Corbett said. “Credit to them, that was their game plan, we thought they would just shot a ton of threes and they went down low.

“We tried three-quartering but they got really good position. We tried to get better ball pressure on the initial pass and it just wasn’t there. It was too easy for them to make that pass and we let them get too dep and that’s a recipe for disaster.”

A McDonnell basket knotted things at 10 early in the second quarter but from there Smith and the Indians took control. A Smith two followed by a Jay Bonnet 3-pointer put Big Red up 18-10 while consecutive buckets from Smith extended the lead to 12.

“Aleks is an extremely-talented player and a hard worker,” Sackitey said. “And he’s capable of that. I’m not surprised by that, I’ve seen him do it, I know that’s what he’s capable of and he had a great night.”

Two inside from Paul Vince made it 24-10 before a Brandon Thomson three and basket from Coonahan had LC down nine. John’s trey had Souderton up 27-15 at intermission.

Lojewski’s bucket to open scoring the second half made it 27-17 but Souderton responded with a 13-4 run, going up 40-21 on a Chris Towsen three. The Indians led by 19 two more times in the third before taking a 45-28 advantage into the fourth.

“In the beginning we just sputtered a little bit – I didn’t mind some of the shots we were getting, they just weren’t falling,” Corbett said. “It was one of those games initially. They started hitting shots and we just never really got into that flow offensively. We preach work the ball and I think there was a couple possessions where we just settled for a one-pass shot.”

Souderton push its lead to 21 twice in the fourth, the last time at 53-32 after two Smith free throws with 3:38 left.