skip navigation

Berndt's big buckets boost CB East to OT win over CB South

01/28/2023, 12:00am EST
By Ryan Coyle

Ryan Coyle (@ryancoyle35)
__

Central Bucks East senior wing, Kyle Berndt came out on Friday night with a little extra chip on his shoulder against crosstown rival Central Bucks South.

In a game against childhood friends and longtime AAU teammates, Berndt and his Patriot teammates had a little extra motivation to knock off the visiting Titans. Berndt led CB East to a 61-57 overtime victory with 22 points in a playoff-type of atmosphere.

“It was awesome to get that win tonight,” Berndt said. “You always want to beat a team like CB South. I know a lot of guys on that team, and have been playing AAU with some of them forever. It means a lot to beat up on your friends. They played a great game though, Tyler Meinel and Chris Granito are my guys, so it was good to get that win over them.”


CB East senior Kyle Berndt scored 22 points in an OT win over CB South on Friday. (Photo: Jack Verdeur/CoBL File)

The two Central Bucks schools played a great back and forth battle, with either team refusing to back down, similar to a game in the driveway between two friends for bragging rights, but this one with a little extra meaning. 

The Patriots were able to hold off a Titans strong second half and come away with the victory in overtime to improve their record to 17-2 on the year and 12-1 in the SOL Colonial, moving a game closer to locking up the league title for the third consecutive year in the process. 

With the loss, the Titans fell to 9-10 and 9-4 in the SOL Colonial, seeing their slim remaining chance at the title slip away.

“Those are the types of games we have been pulling out all year, which I think helped us pull out this win tonight as well,” Berndt said. “I think as a team it is great to know that when we face some adversity and they fight back, we don’t back down and we fight back too. Going through these types of moments will help us in the long run. We stuck together and were able to win it in overtime.”

Berndt started off hot, knocking down two 3-pointers in the first quarter that saw the Patriots knock down five shots from beyond the arc en route to a 17-13 first quarter victory. Jacob Cummiskey, Dhruv Mukund, and Justin DiRoberto all knocked down a trey ball in the first frame as well. 

The Titans did a good job on defense throughout the entire contest, clogging the lane and making it difficult for the dribble-drive combination of Joey Giordano and Cummiskey to get much action going at the rim. The attention to the ball handlers and guarding the rim opened up some outside looks for the Patriots though and they were able to convert early. 

“Shooting the three ball is a strength of ours,” East head coach Erik Henrysen said. “When the defense collapses and clogs the lane, that opens up space for our shooters to get some clean looks. Giordano and Cummiskey were able to get in the lane and when they collapsed on them, they found our shooters and we hit some shots tonight.

CB South, who entered the game on a five game winning streak was led by senior forward Tyler Meinel on Friday night with 19 points, including ten of them coming in the first half, scoring in a variety of ways. 

For a majority of the night, both teams traded buckets and would go back and forth with each other, periodically one team would go on a bit of a run, but neither program was able to convincingly pull away at any point on the night creating an entertaining atmosphere in Doylestown on Friday night. The game was a potential look ahead for both teams, if South is able to qualify, of what a playoff game could look like.

“Tonight was a great game, a great atmosphere, and we are starting to gain that experience for the playoffs for some of our guys that haven’t played there yet,” Henrysen said.

After a slower paced second quarter, CB East took a 27-22 lead to the halftime break, led by Berdnt’s nine points, including a trio of three-pointers.

At the 3:09 mark in the third quarter, there was a timeout called on the floor and East was leading 36-31. The Titans came out of the timeout and finished the quarter on a 9-3 run after a Meinel three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Titans their first lead of the night heading into the fourth quarter, 40-39.

South’s guards’ Kyle Klein and Flynn Carroll hit huge three-pointers during the frame, helping shift the momentum towards the Titans side. 

The fourth quarter was back-and-forth battle, just as it was all night, between a Patriots squad that entered the night ranked 3rd in the District 1 6A power rankings and were jockeying for seeding at the top and a Titans team that entered the night ranked 23rd, the second to last team in the playoff field. 

After a bucket by Giordano for CB East to put the Patriots in the lead at 41-40, Carroll answered on the other end with an and one, putting the Titans back up 43-41 as the gym began to buzz. 

CB South held a 46-43 lead with just over two minutes to play in regulation. That is when Bendt hit the biggest shot of the night, a three-pointer from the left side of the floor to tie it up at 46 all.

“It felt really good to be able to hit that three,” Bendt said. “I hit three in the first half, so I was confident in myself. I felt good right off the jump tonight and when you feel like that it helps you in those moments at the end of the game.”

After Bendt tied it up, Henrysen immediately called a timeout. A few back and forth possessions resulted in no baskets on either side and CB South had the ball with just over a minute to go and opted not to hold for the last shot when Owen Wheeler missed a three to take the lead with about 40 seconds to go. 

Bendt answered on the other end with two free throws to put East up 48-46 and CB South followed the next possession unable to convert again. Giordano hit the front end of the one and one,making it 49-46, but rimmed out the second shot giving CB South one more chance to tie it up. 

Meinel tried to take his man to the basket, but when the defense quickly collapsed on him, he was able to find Carroll at the top of the key for a three-pointer to knot it up at 49-49. Cummiskey milked the clock down to about seven seconds on the ensuing possession and attacked the hoop, but saw a bevy of Titans defenders come his way and forced him to throw an errant pass, turning it over and giving CB South a chance to win it.

Carroll, who just tied the game seconds earlier had a three-quarter court shot that nearly fell. 

“Yea that worried me a little bit,” Berndt, who added nine rebounds, said of the hail mary shot. “When he first threw it up I was like no way, but then it hit the rim and I was just like ‘wow that was close’, but thankfully it didn't fall and allowed us to go to overtime.”

In the overtime period, CB East struck first with DiRoberto hitting an early three-pointer to give the Patriots the lead for good. East led 58-57 with 25.6 seconds to go and were able to hit four straight free throws to help propel them to a win in a thrilling game.

The victory helped the Patriots come within one game of one of their major goals on the season. 

“It means a lot that we are one step closer now to winning the league,” Berndt said. “That is the first major goal we have to check off our list and accomplish before we do anything else. Year in and year out we want to win this league. This is a team that wants to do some special things down the stretch and winning the league is the first thing we need to accomplish, so winning tonight is just another step in the right direction.”

In a game that felt like it was a playoff appetizer, it was the back-to-back SOL Colonial champions that were able to come out on top and knock off their crosstown rival for the second time this season. As CB East is safely in the playoff field, they are playing for seeding and are one win away from their third straight title with games against Pennridge, Souderton, and North Penn still looming.

The Titans, who entered the night on the proverbial playoff bubble still have a chance at the playoffs with games coming up against CB West, North Penn, and Pennridge on their schedule. 

As the Patriots inched closer to their first major goal of the season, there are still goals to accomplish and damage to be done. The confidence in the locker room though is high as can be.

“If we keep playing together and playing with energy, we feel like we can play with anybody.” Berndt added. 

By Quarter
CB East:  17  |  10  |  12   |  10   |  12  ||  61
CB South:13  |  9  |  18  |   9  | 8  ||  57

Shooting
CB East: 20-39 FG (9-22 3PT), 12-19 FT
CB South: 21-51 FG (7-20 3PT), 9-12 FT 

Scoring
CB East: Berndt 22, Giordano 11, Cummiskey 9, DiRoberto 8, Mukund 7, Dandrea 4

CB South: Meinel 19, Carroll 13, Granito 11, Van Zanten 6, Valentine 3, Klein 3, Rieber 2


D-I Coverage:

Small-College News:

Tag(s): Home  Contributors  Ryan Coyle  High School  Boys HS  Suburban One (B)  SOL Colonial (B)  Central Bucks East  Central Bucks South