City of Basketball Love

By Zak Wolf (@ZakWolf22)
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Joey Giordano never hit a buzzer-beater in his life. That changed on Thursday. 

Giordano’s shot with time running out was the difference for CB East (14-1), which scraped by Pennsbury, 52-51.

With the Patriots (14-1) trailing the Falcons (9-4) by one and 3.8 seconds on the clock the senior point guard needed to come up with a play. Having the hot hand throughout the game, scoring whenever his team needed him, the ball was put in his hands. 

Justin Diroberto was the inbounder with Jake Cummiskey and Giordano flashing to the ball. Cummiskey went to the back court, while Giordano darted the other way. With Mike Roccograndi on his hip, the senior caught the ball along the sideline, accelerating right away to get by him. Making his way into the lane, two defenders collapsed on Giordano as he got closer to the rim. Time almost stood still as he left his feet. Mid air Giordano switched hands, somehow avoiding the outstretched arms of the defenders and finishing with his left as the buzzer sounded. 

“It was either me or Jake getting the ball and I decided, if I get it then I’m going to the rim no matter what.” Giordano explained. “I knew I had like three guys behind me so I had to go up and under. I’m a small guy, so I needed to do that to get to the other side of the rim for the layup.”

Giordano didn’t even see the ball go in the hoop, but he knew by his teammates' reaction that they won the game. Giordano scored a game-high 21 points, including eight in the fourth quarter to give his team the win. 

Despite not being tall (5-9), Giordano doesn’t shy away from contact. Other than one 3-pointer in the first quarter, he did most of his damage in the paint, playing off two feet. 

Playing one-on-one basketball with his older brother Anthony helped Joey be physical in his games. Anthony, a CB East graduate, plays football at Catholic University. Unlike Joey, Anthony is big standing at 6-2, 205 pounds. Because of the size difference, Joey learned a thing or two from his brother during their battles. 

“It was more of a lesson for me,” Giordano said. “He's bigger than me, but I realized he’s going to get me ready for the future.”

His experience getting roughed up by his brother came in handy on Thursday. In a physical game, Giordano lived in the paint, finishing over bigger players all game, including his buzzer-beater. 

“That was Joey being Joey,” CB East coach Erik Henrysen said about the buzzer-beater. “He’s a coach's dream. He does everything you ask. He's a leader, he’ll run through a wall for you and he makes big plays.”

“He plays six inches bigger than he is,” Henrysen said. “He's tough as nails, I'm just cherishing every minute I have with him in his senior year.”

Giordano came off the bench last season, but has played an increased role for CB East. Other than Cummiskey, Kyle Berndt and Giordano, the Patriots didn’t have a lot of experienced players from the previous year. This season, the point guard has stepped up to play a bigger role, helping East to a 14-1 start. 

“He embraces whatever we're asking him to do.” Henreysen said. “This year his role has expanded a great deal, but he's just embracing it and he's going with it and we're just super happy to have him.”

The senior feels CB East plays good “team ball” and that it’s their “secret weapon”. The team knows that on any given night someone can have a breakout game and Thursday was his chance. 

Cummiskey didn’t have his strongest outing, but scored five of his 11 points in the fourth quarter. He hit two free throws down the stretch to put CB East up one with 15 seconds left before Ty Kocak responded with a floater in the lead to put Pennsbury back on top. With five seconds left, the Falcons gave away their last foul, not leaving much time on the clock before Giordano’s heroics. 

Kocak provided a spark for Pennsbury, scoring a team-high 20 points, eight coming in the fourth quarter. His scoring helped the Falcons go up five in the first half, leading by four at halftime. CB East came storming out of the gates in the third, outsourcing Pennsbury 14-4. The Patriots led 43-35 with 4:48 left, but the Falcons used an 11-3 run to get back on top. 

Teddy Mangan played a part in Pennsbury's run, banking in a three to put them up one with 2:27 left in the game. Magnan finished with 13 points, going 4-6 from the field and 2-for-3 from 3-point range. 

“Championship teams can't take plays off,” Pennsbury coach Wes Emme said. “We took one extra play off and it wasn't the last play. It was a play here and a play there throughout the game. They just got one more on us and credit to them.”

Emme also said the game had a “playoff atmosphere and intensity to it”. 

With the win, CB East is 9-0 in Suburban One League play and their only defeat was a two point loss to Central Catholic (OH). In the second half of the season, the Patriots know they’re going to get every team's best shot.

“We know that every game we have left on our schedule will be a battle and we're just taking it game by game. We have Neshaminy coming up, so that’s our focus now.”

By Quarter 

CB East:     10 | 11 | 14 | 17 || 52 

Pennsbury: 15 | 10 |  4 | 22 || 51

Scoring 

CB East: Giordano 21, Cummiskey 11, Dandrea 7, Berndt 7, Mukund 4, Jacob 2 

Pennsbury: Kocak 20, Mangan 13, Cohen 7, Roccograndi 5, Zuckerman 4, Taddei 2