City of Basketball Love

Ryan Coyle (@RyanCoyle35)
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LANSDALE — Heading into the fourth quarter of Tuesday night’s District 1 6A Round of 16 matchup against No. 11 Coatesville, sixth-seeded North Penn was only 3-of-10 from the free throw line.

During the fourth and final frame, the Knights stepped up to the charity stripe when it mattered most, going 9-for-9 in the quarter, including the winning pair by senior guard Mario Sgro with under 30 seconds to go in a 64-60 North Penn win.

“That was a crazy game to be a part of, but it felt good to come out on top and move on and qualify for states,” Sgro said. “I just stepped up there like it was any other free throw. We practice them all the time, so I was confident up there.”

Coatesville guard Jeremiah Marshall converted a tough floater to put the Raiders up 58-57 with 37.6 seconds to go. Sgro was fouled in the halfcourt on the ensuing possession. That’s when Sgro stepped up into the line in a one-and-one situation, calmly knocking down two freebies, including the first one that hit the front rim and fell in on a friendly bounce.

“I’m just standing by halfcourt looking at the scoreboard and the time and I am just like, ‘Man he’s gotta make these shots,’” North Penn guard Norman Gee said with a chuckle. “I was confident in him up there, but it felt good to see them fall.”

Sgro, who scored 11 points in the thrilling victory for North Penn was a perfect 6-for-6 on the night from the free throw line, with all the makes coming in the fourth quarter.

After the pair of free throws by Sgro put the Knights ahead 58-57, Coatesville had the chance to regain the lead. The Raiders elected to go to a dribble-weave play that gave the chance Marshall a chance at a one-on-one maneuver at the top of the key; he blew by his original defender, but was met at the rim by North Penn senior Ryan Zeltt who blocked Marshall’s go-ahead bucket attempt, which led to a run out for the Knights.

“You try to have all your key guys as fresh as they can be and in the game down the stretch,” North Penn head coach John Conrad said. “Norm, Sgro, (Ryan) Deininger, Zeltt, those guys aren’t afraid of the moment and they all stepped up for us down the stretch.”

Deininger corralled the Zeltt rejection and got it out of his hands quickly to Sgro, who outletted a pass to the streaking Corey Meade who made a nifty move in transition and drew contact en route to a three-point play that nearly blew the roof off the gym with only 11.1 seconds to go, giving the Knights a 62-58 lead. 

Coatesville junior point guard Zuri Harris answered on the other end with a long pull-up two pointer to cut the lead to 62-60, with five seconds left. After a North Penn timeout, the Knights were able to inbound the ball to Gee, who had the chance to seal the game at the line with a little under five seconds to go. 

“I really just tried to focus on the rim and not pay attention to the atmosphere, the situation, or any of that,” Gee said. “I knew if I hit both it would have given us a huge chance to pull this out. I just locked in on that rim and kept my poise while I was up there.”

Gee knocked down both free throws to give the Knights a 64-60 lead and Marshall missed a heave from halfcourt as time expired to push the Knights to the quarterfinal round, where they will face No. 3 seed Plymouth-Whitemarsh, both teams having qualified for the state playoffs. Coatesville will be headed to the playback round, where they still will have a chance to qualify for the 6A State Tournament as well.

“We got the ball into the guys hands that we wanted with Mario and Norm,” Conrad said. “Norm is up there shooting in the 80% range this season and Mario isn’t too far behind him. I am proud of the way they stepped up and knocked them down when it mattered.”

The Knights got off to a hot start in the first quarter, shooting 7-of-12 from the field and were aided by six points from Deininger early. NP also held the visiting Raiders to only 4-of-14 shooting in the first quarter, which allowed the home team to take a 16-8 lead.

After Harris scored 12 points to help trim the lead to 29-28 going into the half, North Penn needed to make some defensive adjustments.

“He (Harris) was giving us some trouble and getting to the rim on us,” Gee said. “But, we all talked in the locker room and said, ‘Alright he is doing most of his damage inside and not really looking to shoot it from outside, so we went to the zone and that kept them out of the lane.”

The adjustment to the 2-3 zone worked, as Harris (17 points) was held to only 5 points in the second half and North Penn held Coatesville to just 1-of-14 from three-point range on the night.

Coatesville took its first lead of the evening on a bucket from Marshall to put them up 36-34 with 4:11 left in the third quarter, but North Penn quickly answered on the other end with a bucket to tie it back at 36-36. While Harris’ strong second quarter gave Coatesville some momentum to comeback from their early deficit, their pressure defense caused the Knights some fits in the second half. 

“Their length and speed was so hard to deal with,” Conrad said. “We tried to simulate it in practice, we had eight guys out there trapping us at times this week, but credit to them you just can’t simulate what facing that will be like in a real game. Their pressure got to us and wore us out a little bit I think.”

Coatesville caused twelve turnovers in the game, with eight of them coming after the halftime break. While that number isn’t overwhelmingly huge, the Knights’ passes were deflected time and time again really ruining any flow on offense they had in the halfcourt. Junior guard Teddy McCallister was able to show off his shot creating ability though to help the Knights stalling offense, when he had seven of his 15 points in the third quarter. McCallister showed the ability to score at all levels, knocking down a three-pointer, a two, and a pair of free throws.

North Penn took a 48-43 lead to the fourth quarter. Entering the game, the Knights were 11-1 on the season when they scored 60 or more points in a game, with that lone loss coming in a 66-61 defeat to Pennsbury back in early January. The substitution patterns of Conrad allow the Knights to play at their high-tempo pace for 32 minutes.

“I try to rotate the guys throughout the game a lot,” Conrad said. “This is a quick and athletic group that likes to run and when you play like we do, you have to be fresh for the end. We like to get up and down and transition and think that is where we are at our best.”

With the victory, North Penn moved to three wins away from potentially capturing their first district title in program history, while also checking off a couple of key goals.

“Coming into the year some of our goals included hosting a home playoff game, winning it, and qualifying for states,” Conrad noted. “We did that tonight and now get the chance to play PW on Friday and see where we go from there.”

By Quarter
NP: 4  |  16  |  15  |  16  ||  60
CV:  8  |  20  |  15  |  17  ||  64

Shooting
NP: 22-44 FG (8-19 3PT) 12-19 FT
CV: 23-53 FG (1-14 3PT), 12-20 FT 

Scoring
NP: McCallister 15, Sgro 11, Gee 10, Deininger 10, Meade 8, Hoffman 4, Hammond 3, Zeltt 3

CV: Harris 17, Marshall 14, Peoples 9, Fowlkes 8, Brown 6, Kennedy 4, Proctor 2