City of Basketball Love

By Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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DOYLESTOWN — It looked over. It was as if the beaming 2.1 seconds hanging on the clock in the raucous Central Bucks West gym on Friday night was staring down the Central Bucks South team daring them to do it, challenging Tyler Meinel to save the Titans.

It doesn’t happen often in high school basketball when a length-of-the-court pass in the waning seconds of a taut game ends in anything good for the team inbounding the ball.

But that’s what happened Friday night.

Trailing by two, CB South’s Meinel was grabbed a few feet from the basket trying to retrieve the court-length pass. Staring right into the zany CB West cheering section of elves, reindeer and assorted other Christmas characters, Meinel hit two free throws to tie it with 1.4 second left and put the hammer down in overtime to win it for the Titans, 57-48.

It marked the first victory this season for CB South and its new head coach, Louie Ditri.

The 6-foot-4 Meinel finished with a game-high 20 points—10 coming in overtime. Julian Phillips and Matt Engle led the Bucks with 13 points each.

By the packed gym, it was hard to imagine this game featured two winless teams with a combined record of 0-10 entering the game.

“Getting this first win was the toughest,” said Meinel, who is getting attention from Division II schools. “I was getting double-teamed a lot, and they did a good job of denying me the ball early on, but I have to thank my teammates for spreading out the floor for me and getting shots off.

“I really want the ball at the end of the game. I want to put the loss on me or put the win on me. I was never in a situation like that though tonight. In AAU, I was on the foul line in the last seconds and missed. That was a first for me, being on the line, facing a hostile crowd. I focused on the front of the rim and tried to get the ball into the basket.”

Meinel not only tied the game under immense pressure—he did it exuding a steely calm, like nothing would affect him.

“That’s Tyler,” Ditri said. “We did make this tougher than it should have been, and Tyler has been doing every game for us. He enjoys the pressure. He’s willing to do whatever it takes. He’s used to doing that for us. CB West does a great job with their crowd.

“Tyler welcomed that pressure. Our assistant coach, Mike Razler, drew that (inbounds) play specifically for Tyler. This was tough getting this first win, and the kids wanted to do this for me, which means a lot. The kids wanted it for me, and I wanted it for the kids.”  

CB West (0-6) led twice, 3-2 in the first quarter and 42-40 with 2.1 seconds left after Engle nailed a couple of crucial free throws. Phillips’ two threes got the Bucks within striking distance.

In between the two CB West leads, CB South controlled the game. The Titans were up by 38-29 with 4:55 left to play. Then CB West began scratching back. Engle’s free throws in regulation looked like the winning difference.

“We’re making a lot of mistakes and we’re not playing up to our potential,” CB West coach Adam Sherman said. “We have to figure things out, and hopefully we will soon. We were playing too fast in the first quarter and when we started to slow down, things came around.

“The kids are playing too fast. Our biggest thing is finding our rhythm on the court. We need to see things a little slower.”

One player that was not disappointing was Phillips. The 6-2 junior was a bright spot early, and an impact player later when the Bucks made their fourth-quarter run. His second three-pointer of the quarter drew CB West to within 40-38 with 2:45 to play.

“This is really tough,” he said. “We think way too much when we get on the court. We had this. We need to listen more to our coaches and follow the scouting reports. We don’t follow the scouting reports at all, we have to stop letting that happen.

“We’re getting coached well. We’re not executing well at all.”

In the end, Meinel wanted to do this for Ditri.

“We really wanted to get this for coach Ditri,” he said. “We got the first one and now we can start moving forward.”

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By Quarter

Central Bucks South (1-5):  15   |  11  |  4  | 12 | 15 ||  57

Central Bucks West (0-6):  5   |  16  |  7  |  14 |  6  ||  48

Scoring
CB South (1-5): Tyler Meinel 20, Dalton VanZanten 8, Dylan Valentine 7, Flynn Carroll 7, Owen Wheeler 6, Kyle Klein 4, Sean Rieber 3, Kyler Moyer 2.

CB West (0-6): Julian Phillips 13, Matt Engle 13, Michael Fountain 7, Jackson Wisniowski 6, Bowen Gugger 4, Trey Reed 3, Charlie Cashman 2.

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Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.