City of Basketball Love

Josh Naso (@JoshNaso)
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For Pennridge basketball, it’s all about community. That notion was on full display Friday night as the Rams hosted rival Souderton on senior night.

“I like coaching guys, like I’m not going out recruiting, I want the guys that we get at Pennridge that stick it out and it’s fun to coach kids that have been growing up together,” Rams head coach Dean Behrens said. “That’s what community basketball and playing for Pennridge is about.”

Behrens trotted out his five seniors, who each have been in his program for four years, in the starting lineup Friday night in an important Suburban One League Continental Division clash as Pennridge tries to zero in on a division title. The Rams started out winning their first seven in SOL Continental play before losing two of its last three.

“We’ve been struggling…last week at this time, we’re three up in the division, now we’re up one,” Behrens said. “That evaporated quickly.”

Pennridge responded, both to the recent bump in the road and the emotion of senior night, with a 48-40 win over Souderton that reflected the competitiveness of the Continental division.

By halftime, it looked as though Pennridge  (14-5, 8-2) would cruise as the Rams matched their point total from the first quarter in the first minute and half of the period, ultimately doubled that production, and pitched a shutout for the whole eight minutes. When the dust settled, Pennridge carried a 21-4 lead into the break and appeared on the way to an early celebration.

Souderton (12-7, 6-5) wasn’t prepared to go down without a fight and worked hard to spoil the party. Emerging from the break with a 1-2-2 press, it disrupted the Pennridge offense while finally finding a way to put the ball through the hoop. Junior Jason Price, who finished with a game-high 18 points, started to show off his pretty stroke and Pennridge saw its lead cut to four heading into the final frame.

From Behrens perspective, his Rams got away from their offensive identity. 

“I thought we became one-on-one,” he said. “That’s not the type of team that we are. We move the basketball.”

Behrens knew they had to make a change, and he got a boost from an unlikely source. Junior Colin Monahan checked in and chipped in four points to go along with strong defense, helping the Rams to steady themselves.

The Rams responded with a 7-0 run to restore some order and kept Souderton at arms-length the rest of the way. 

“ I thought (Monahan) did a heck of a job,” Behrens said. “A guy who’s been playing JV all year, he’s been impressing us in practice and I think our guys had confidence in him and I think he ended up with four points tonight, that was a nice night for him. He did a good job defensively.”

Senior forward Trent Fisher, who was big for Pennridge on Friday with a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds, agreed with his coach’s assessment that the Rams got away from what they like to do in the third quarter. Of the 7-0 run which restored control for Pennridge, Fisher said “we settled down, just playing our game…staying good on defense, rebound the ball, push the ball, get wide open layups.”

Behrens was pleased with the way his team responded to the adversity. “I loved the response. I mean the kids are resilient, they keep playing hard.”

For the Rams, it all comes back to that community, and the continuity that comes with it. Those five seniors: Fisher, Paul Croyle, Christian Guldin, Anthony Phillips, and Connor Pleibel were all along for the Rams’ improbable run to the 6A State Championship game last year that ended with a double-overtime loss to powerhouse Kennedy Catholic and All-American and current West Virginia Musketeer Oscar Tshiebwe.

“The continuity that we have, obviously Trent played a ton last year, and (junior) Luke (Yoder), but a lot of these guys didn’t get to play a lot of varsity last year but they were on JV and they were at every single game, they were at practice every day, they got to see that run, and I think they want it,” Behrens said.

“Learning from last year the run that we went on, with me and Luke, Sean (Yoder, now at Navy) last year when we struggled would slow the game down, make sure nothing was going crazy especially when coach was freaking out, just make sure to slow the game down and just find ourselves and bring ourselves right back to where we should be,” Fisher added.

Now, carrying the lessons learned last year and wielding the power of chemistry, this year’s Rams are working to write their own story, one that could start with a division title. Pennridge will have an opportunity to wrap up the SOL Continental crown on Tuesday when they travel to take on Central Bucks East, who currently sits 1.5 games behind Pennridge in second place.

“I really wanna see this senior group win a division title, you know, and I don’t think a lot of people thought that could happen. Now, it may not, but we gotta chance,” Behrens said.