City of Basketball Love

Dan Arkans (@danarkans)
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What a difference the summer made for Central Bucks East boys basketball senior Jacob Cummiskey.

He flirted during the summer with Philadelphia Catholic League power Archbishop Wood, which is currently led by University of Miami recruit Jalil Bethea. In fact, Cummiskey played on Wood’s summer league team in 2022.

But after recording 29 points, eight rebounds and four assists in a 79-73 victory over William Tennent in the first round of the Pennridge Memorial Tournament on Friday night, one thing became abundantly clear: East is Cummiskey’s squad now.

“It was more so what do I want for myself? It’s a great program,” Cummiskey said of Archbishop Wood. “It was a great opportunity. CB East is my home, and that’s where I have been my whole life. I decided my friends meant more to me than basketball.”

Despite the losses of Joey Giordano and Kyle Berndt from last year’s PIAA Class 6A tournament qualifying team, Cummiskey and the Patriots aren’t about to rest on their laurels this season. CB East would like nothing more than another shot at Wood after losing to it in states last season.

“I couldn’t be more happier (to stay with East),” Cummiskey said. “Maybe I would have gone further in states, but guess what, I have friends for life. I want to see them (Archbishop Wood) again. I think we have what it takes to beat them.”

Cummiskey is entering rarified air for CB East. The sixth man as a freshman, he is aiming to help the Patriots to their fourth consecutive Suburban One League Colonial title as a three-year starter.

“I know one thing, and that is this team is coming for a district championship,” Cummiskey said.

Cummiskey and CB East have a long way to go to meet those expectations, though. The Patriots’ captain was nervous heading into Friday night’s opener after the way the preseason went.

“We were coming off the Abington scrimmage where we got tossed around and scrimmaged Saturday. Archbishop Ryan and Cristo Rey really handed it to us,” Cummiskey said. “That was picking at us. We came out and said, ‘We need five dogs at all times.’” 

It wasn’t only The Cummiskey Show on Friday night, though. CB East got points from six different players even with 6-foot-6 center Miles Demby missing due to an injury.

Still, it looked like it would all go to waste with the way William Tennent senior Kirby Mooney was putting on a show of his own. Mooney scored 25 of his game-high 31 points in the first three quarters in a one-on-one battle with Cummiskey, his 17U Penn Warriors teammate.

“We play AAU all summer together,” Cummiskey said. “I am good friends with him, but on the court he ain’t my friend. I had to lay it to him. I gave him some buckets, but he gave me some buckets. Respect to him. We know what he can do. He led the SOL in scoring.”

East didn’t seem to have an answer for Mooney through the first three quarters as he scored from every way imaginable, including pull-up jumpers, dunks and 3-pointers. He scored 17 points in the first half as Tennent clung to a 37-34 advantage.

Mooney added seven more in the third quarter to give the Panthers a 54-52 lead before the fourth quarter.

“That was all of the focus,” CB East head coach Erik Henreysen said of stopping Mooney in the fourth quarter. “We were trying to not let other guys go off, too. (Chris) D’Ambra kind of did. We wanted to crowd him (Mooney), but he still made plays.”

D’Ambra finished with 26 points, including nine in the fourth quarter. Mooney cooled off as East went to a zone at times.

“We got two really good practices in which we were preaching about playing at the speed we did last year,” Cummiskey said. “We had Joey Giordano last year, who brought tempo to the offense. We put that on display tonight and were luckily able to come out with more points than Tennent. Respect to them, they have some good players. They showed up, but so did we.” 

Mooney started off the scoring in the final frame with a putback, but Bryce Lolas hit a 3-pointer with 6:39 remaining to give CB East a 57-56 lead it didn’t relinquish.

Cummiskey’s floater in the lane with 4:19 remaining gave the Patriots a 64-60 lead, but six different players scored in a fourth quarter, which saw East shoot 14-of-16 from the free-throw line.

“When you have a great player, everyone wants him,” Henreysen said. “He decided we were the place for him, and we are really happy about that.”

CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 79, WILLIAM TENNENT 73

CB East 17-17-18-27-79

Tennent 13-24-17-19-73

CBE: Cummiskey 29, Mukund 7, Lolas 11, Dandrea 11, DiRoberto 12, Behm 9.

T: Mooney 31, D’Ambra 26, Pople 3, Abunima 10, Torok 3.