City of Basketball Love

Will Slover (@WillSlover31)

--

After suffering a heartbreaking one-point loss to The Haverford School in the first day of the Athletes Helping Athletes event hosted at Council Rock North High School, the Patriots of Central Bucks East knew that defense was going to be a focal point for them going forward.

Defending is exactly what they did in their next contest, as they stomped league foe and host squad Council Rock North on day two of the event by a score of 46-23 on Thursday night.

After a strong first half in which they held their opponent to just nine points, it looked like CB East was going to fall apart defensively after allowing CR North to score five points early on in the third frame.

That is, until a 15-0 CB East run to close out the quarter shot their lead from just seven points to 22 points, 36-15, and put the host Indians away for good.

“We just wanted to stay composed,” senior guard Elijah Seger said. “We knew they were going to make some shots we just had to come down and match that and continue to play good ‘D’ throughout the whole game.”

Defensively, the Patriots held Council Rock North to just 10-of-42 (.238) shooting from the field, and didn’t allow the Indians to make a single three-pointer, as they the contest 0-of-11. Another strong point of CB East’s defense was never allowing their opponent to score double digit points in a quarter, as the most the host Indians could manage was nine in the final frame.

“We’ve been harping on putting together four quarters,” Central Bucks East head coach Erik Henrysen said. “We’ve done it for three quarters, we’ve done it for portions of games but we obviously wanted to get through an entire game. I think we put that together, especially on the defensive end.”

While defense had been a focal point for the Patriots as of late, Henrysen knew his team was in good standing on the offensive end.

“I haven't really been all that worried about us on the offensive end,” Henrysen said. “We share the ball, we look for the best shot. It doesn't necessarily mean that it has to come from anyone in particular. Offensively, I think we’re starting to come to trust one another and play to our strengths.”

On the offensive end, his veteran players did a great job of sharing the ball and not settling until they had the best shot possible.

Seger and fellow seniors Matt Pattyson and Cooper Fink scored 10, nine, and eight,  respectively, while junior guard Collin Stein led the way with 15, nine of which came from beyond the arc.

“We were just all contributing and swinging the ball around nicely,” Seger said. “We were finding wide open guys. People were doing what they were good at, Stein was hitting three’s, everyone was doing their job.”

Council Rock North was led on the offensive end by Noah Ehlin, who finished with nine points while also reeling in a team-high of seven rebounds.

For Henrysen’s Patriots, this was a much needed win as his squad is coming off of the one-point loss to The Haverford School on Wednesday night and a four-point loss to rival Central Bucks West just six days prior.

“Last night was disappointing for us,” Henrysen said. “We felt like we battled back against a very good Haverford School team and we felt like we almost did enough to get the win. We’ve been involved in a couple of close ones and we didn’t get over the hump so we were happy to get back on the court.”

CB East, who is now 4-4 on the season, hadn’t tasted victory since they beat Pennridge back on December 20th, so a victory with the heart of their league schedule lying ahead was something the Patriots needed to experience.

“It feels good to finally get a win,” Seger said. “We had a tough one yesterday but we came out today and executed.”
---
Haverford fights off CB South comeback effort to stay perfect

In the first of the two games on day two of the Athletes Helping Athletes event hosted at Council Rock North High School, it looked like the Haverford School was going to coast to its eighth win of the season.

After leading by 14 points at the end of the first quarter, the Fords were already in victory formation and just trying to use lengthy possessions to shorten the game and leave the gymnasium with another win under their belt.

Central Bucks South had other ideas.

After Haverford’s lead grew to as large as 21 in the second quarter, the Titans of CB South battled back relentlessly, eventually cutting the Haverford lead to just three with 18.4 seconds remaining.

Their effort proved to be not enough though, as Haverford hung on to top CB South by a score of 63-58 on Thursday night.

After knocking down five of their six three-point attempts in the first quarter, Haverford wasn’t allowed to connect on another trey, which was a huge reason for CB South’s monumental comeback effort.

Haverford got all but one of their points from their starters, as Jameer Nelson (17), Kharon Randolph (14), Christian Ray (14), Gavin Burke (9) and Asim Richards (9) carried the load for the 8-0 Fords.

For CB South, it was guards Alex Karras and Nate Robinson that led the way, as the duo finished with 16 points a piece.

Up next for Haverford is Girard College, who they will face on January 3rd before they open up Inter-Ac play on January 6th with Germantown Academy.

CB South will head to Bensalem to take on the Fighting Owls on January 3rd as their Suburban One portion of the conference will also be getting underway.

Will Slover (@WillSlover31)

--

After suffering a heartbreaking one-point loss to The Haverford School in the first day of the Athletes Helping Athletes event hosted at Council Rock North High School, the Patriots of Central Bucks East knew that defense was going to be a focal point for them going forward.

Defending is exactly what they did in their next contest, as they stomped league foe and host squad Council Rock North on day two of the event by a score of 46-23 on Thursday night.

After a strong first half in which they held their opponent to just nine points, it looked like CB East was going to fall apart defensively after allowing CR North to score five points early on in the third frame.

That is, until a 15-0 CB East run to close out the quarter shot their lead from just seven points to 22 points, 36-15, and put the host Indians away for good.

“We just wanted to stay composed,” senior guard Elijah Seger said. “We knew they were going to make some shots we just had to come down and match that and continue to play good ‘D’ throughout the whole game.”

Defensively, the Patriots held Council Rock North to just 10-of-42 (.238) shooting from the field, and didn’t allow the Indians to make a single three-pointer, as they the contest 0-of-11. Another strong point of CB East’s defense was never allowing their opponent to score double digit points in a quarter, as the most the host Indians could manage was nine in the final frame.

“We’ve been harping on putting together four quarters,” Central Bucks East head coach Erik Henrysen said. “We’ve done it for three quarters, we’ve done it for portions of games but we obviously wanted to get through an entire game. I think we put that together, especially on the defensive end.”

While defense had been a focal point for the Patriots as of late, Henrysen knew his team was in good standing on the offensive end.

“I haven't really been all that worried about us on the offensive end,” Henrysen said. “We share the ball, we look for the best shot. It doesn't necessarily mean that it has to come from anyone in particular. Offensively, I think we’re starting to come to trust one another and play to our strengths.”

On the offensive end, his veteran players did a great job of sharing the ball and not settling until they had the best shot possible.

Seger and fellow seniors Matt Pattyson and Cooper Fink scored 10, nine, and eight,  respectively, while junior guard Collin Stein led the way with 15, nine of which came from beyond the arc.

“We were just all contributing and swinging the ball around nicely,” Seger said. “We were finding wide open guys. People were doing what they were good at, Stein was hitting three’s, everyone was doing their job.”

Council Rock North was led on the offensive end by Noah Ehlin, who finished with nine points while also reeling in a team-high of seven rebounds.

For Henrysen’s Patriots, this was a much needed win as his squad is coming off of the one-point loss to The Haverford School on Wednesday night and a four-point loss to rival Central Bucks West just six days prior.

“Last night was disappointing for us,” Henrysen said. “We felt like we battled back against a very good Haverford School team and we felt like we almost did enough to get the win. We’ve been involved in a couple of close ones and we didn’t get over the hump so we were happy to get back on the court.”

CB East, who is now 4-4 on the season, hadn’t tasted victory since they beat Pennridge back on December 20th, so a victory with the heart of their league schedule lying ahead was something the Patriots needed to experience.

“It feels good to finally get a win,” Seger said. “We had a tough one yesterday but we came out today and executed.”

---

Haverford fights off late surge from CB South to stay perfect