City of Basketball Love

Rob Rose (@RobRoseSports)
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FAIRLESS HILLS -- For most of the season, Evan McNeely and Aidan McCormack have been near the top of the scoring leaders list in the Suburban One League, but they haven’t been able to enjoy it.

The Pennsbury pair have had a lot of success scoring, but it hasn’t translated into league wins. Headed into Tuesday’s game against Neshaminy, Pennsbury sat at fourth in the SOL Patriot division with a 6-4 conference record.

Those four league losses were by a combined 20 points and included a 10-point defeat vs. Central Bucks South. Late-game execution has cost the scorers the chance to celebrate their success in the stat sheet, but a rematch against their rivals offered a chance to get revenge with a win and score a lot of points doing it.

Neshaminy beat Pennsbury by three in triple overtime in December, so naturally the teams were tied after four quarters again. McCormack and McNeely had filled their roles as leading scorers, but it was a defensive play by the pair that decided this game in overtime.

After Neshaminy dribbled away the final minute of the game, Sean Curley tried to cross up McCormack, but the Falcons’ defender poked the ball out and into the arms of McNeely.

He wasted no time getting to the rim and drew a foul. McNeely drilled both free throws and sealed a 57-55 victory for Pennsbury on a night when the duo dropped a combined 40 points.

“It's very difficult when we score 15-20 points a game but if we lose like it doesn't matter at all,” McCormack said. “We need to figure out how to move the (opposing) team with the ball as a team so everyone gets open shots and no one gets stopped.”

The Falcons couldn’t be stopped in the first quarter, but watched as Neshaminy narrowed the gap until it tied the game going into the fourth quarter. Neshaminy’s top scorer Curley and sophomore guard Emeer Coombs ran the offense while Evan Esposito led the team with 18 points.

McNeely noticed a similar trend from himself and his teammates from the other four league losses where they had early leads, but couldn’t close out the win.

“I think in the third quarter, our energy went down. Energy goes down, defense goes down,” McNeely said. “They started getting buckets and we weren't scoring on our end so we just had to pick it back up and energy is what determines the game for us.”

Pennsbury nearly watched as another win slipped away from it late in the game as Neshaminy opened overtime with four points in the first two minutes of the period. McNeely tied the game thirty seconds later before he finished the game at the foul line.

The Falcons will need to ride the momentum from this rivalry win to have enough of that elusive energy to make a run toward the end of the season. When Pennsbury gets back on the floor Thursday vs. Council Rock South, that starts a five-game sprint to finish the season with five games in eight days.

Pennsbury is ranked No. 10 in the PIAA District 1 6-A rankings, but is still fourth in the SOL Patriot division behind Bensalem, Council Rock and Neshaminy. To get back into the championship race the pair of prolific Pennsbury scorers will need to stay locked in one the defensive end of the floor as well to keep the wins going and get a chance to enjoy their special seasons.

“It shows when we're ready, whenever we have energy and whenever we're playing defense we win,” McNeely said. “Today was proof that whenever we're ready and wherever we're playing hard we will win. So I think it showed that that's what we need to do.”

By Quarter
Pennsbury: 20 | 17 | 3 | 11 | 6 | 57
Neshaminy: 13 | 18 | 9 | 11 | 4 | 55

Scoring
Pennsbury: Aidan McCormack 22, Evan McNeely 18, Ty Kocak 8, Teddy Mangan 4, Connor Taddei 3, Justin Hedges 2.

Neshaminy: Evan Esposito 18, Emeer Coombs 9, Nate Townsend 9, Sean Curley 8, Kade Benjamin 6, Joey Zack 5.