City of Basketball Love

Dan Arkans (@danarkans)
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TOWAMENCIN — Junior Robbie Sukaly is a newcomer to the Dock Mennonite boys basketball community.

Last season, he was just a number at North Penn.

He got in some games.

Others he did not.

Sukaly is much more than a number for the Pioneers after coming through with a team-high 20 points, 18 in the second half, of a 53-44 Bicentennial Athletic League win over Phil-Mont Christian on Tuesday night.

The victory was the 650th victory for head coach Mike Fergus and also the 34th consecutive BAL win for Dock (5-2, 4-0).

“My first shadow day here I walked into the cafeteria and there were only 200-300 people,” Sukaly said. “I was like, ‘That’s it?’ At North Penn in my grade I had over 1,000. I got used to it.”

Sukaly can admit now he wasn’t too certain about leaving North Penn after his sophomore year. He talked to both former players and coaches, who urged him to seriously consider becoming a member of the Pioneers.

He did make the decision at the end of his sophomore year.

“It was kind of sad,” he said. “No one knew I was leaving, but then word got out.”

Sukaly admitted to culture shock when he first walked onto the campus of Dock. He is also noticing subtle differences between the two teams.

“This is more of a family team,” Sukaly said. “North Penn is a great team. I love those guys. This is more like we will do group dinners. North Penn was more divided with older and younger guys. This is a family.”

Sukaly is also getting used to the playing time. He only scored two points in a sluggish first half, but the Pioneers held an 18-10 on the Falcons (5-3, 3-2).
A half like that last year could have landed him on the bench.

“I was a swing (player) last year,” Sukaly said. “Some games I didn’t get in. Other games I played a lot. It was up and down. Here I like going to the game knowing I will play.”

Sukaly is thriving as a member of Dock now. While the Pioneers were struggling to get their offense going, their newest member went on his own personal 7-0 run in the third quarter. He turned a 20-12 lead quickly into a 29-14 advantage.

By the time he added a 3-pointer and a pretty reverse lay-in, Dock was up 36-21 and Sukaly had scored 14 points in the third quarter.

“I knew I had to do more than I was doing,” Sukaly said. “I came out a little slow. I had to get into my game and my groove.”

Sukaly opened the scoring in the fourth quarter, and the Pioneers took a 40-23 lead with seven minutes to go. However, Phil-Mont didn’t go quietly as 6-foot-5 forward Kendall Bratten got rolling in the final frame. 

Bratten, who finished with 27 points and seven rebounds, scored 11 points in the fourth quarter as the Falcons cut the deficit to 45-35 with 3:22 to play.

“Quite frankly, we are going to get everyone’s best effort,” Fergus said. “If you are that successful, everyone wants to take you down. Case in point: tonight. We did not play our ‘A’ game. They played probably better than they should have. That’s a credit to them. It’s just how it’s going to be. We have built a pretty good program here. We have to realize we’re going to get everyone’s ‘A’ game even when we play 5A and 6A schools. People know we are pretty good.”

Bratten was also pretty good with a variety of post moves, the last which closed the deficit to 47-42 with a minute to play. Dock was able to close the game out at the free-throw line, surviving 53-44 for the 650th victory for Fergus.

“None of the kids know,” Fergus said of the milestone. “It’s interesting. I have been coaching now for 47 years, this is my 42nd as a high school head coach. It’s a lot of games, 650 wins is, boy, that’s something.”

Dock improved to 5-2, but Fergus was so uninspired by their play he called a timeout four minutes into the contest with the Pioneers still scoreless.

“If we let down against anyone, we are in trouble,” Fergus said. “I kind of smelled this coming today. Hopefully they realize we have to play hard and fundamentally sound on both ends all the time. All it takes is one slip-up game, you are on the road, get some bad calls and boom.”

Dock survived on a day when Sukaly was the only scorer in double figures. Mostly, the Pioneers used their defense, led by point guard AJ Washington Jr. (four points, six assists, three steals), to find any offense in the first half.

Still, they have a long way to go to compare themselves to last year’s squad.

“To compare this year’s team to last year is like comparing apples to oranges,” Fergus said. “We are not that team. They were 27-3, made the elite eight of the state and had a good shot to win that game. We lost our all-time leading scorer (Nathan Lapp) and a three-year starting center (Hoyt Bultje) and another 6-5 kid (Lane Bergey).”

By Quarter

Phil-Mont: 8 | 2 | 13 | 21 || 44

Dock Mennonite: 10 | 8 | 18 | 17 || 53

Scoring

Phil-Mont: Torres 8; Giddens 0; Tyson 0; Waggoner 0; Bratten 27; Williams 7; Suggs 2.

Dock Mennonite: V. Martin 9; T. Martin 6; Washington 4; Sukaly 20; John 4; Panaia 3; Dorneman 5; Parr 2; Smith 0.