City of Basketball Love

By David Comer
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DOYLESTOWN - Central Bucks School District had one high school until 1969, when CB East opened in Buckingham and the district’s original high school, Central Bucks High School in Doylestown, became known as CB West.

Since then, CB East and CB West have built a rivalry like few others in the area. Its intensity was on display Friday night, as the Patriots completed a season sweep of the Bucks with a 39-33 victory before an energetic crowd featuring boisterous student sections from both schools.

CB East improved to 14-7 overall and 5-4 in the Suburban One Colonial Division, while CB West fell to 10-10, 4-5. 

“It means a lot for our guys for sure,” said Patriots coach Erik Henrysen. “You know, they circle these two games on the schedule. They live for it.”

For CB East sophomore forward Keegan Marascio, who has been going to CB East-CB West basketball games at both schools since he was a little kid, the win is extra special. 

“All my friends and I would always go,” he said. “I knew it was very big to everyone in the community.”

So, it meant even more to Marascio to score a team-high 15 points, including 11 in the second half, on Friday night against his team’s biggest rival.

“I was a little slow in the first half, so it felt good to come out and get some buckets in the second half,” said the 6-foot-3 Marascio.

Last season, as a freshman, Marascio began the year playing both varsity and JV before becoming a varsity starter by the end of the season.

“We started him last year, and I thought he had a nice year,” Henrysen said. “I think he’s taken another step this year. He’s doing a great job, but I think he’s going to take another leap or two as he grows. He’s only a 10th grader, and we’re asking a lot of him, and he’s coming through for us in big moments.”

A year ago, Marascio said, he felt the pressure of starting as a freshman. But that experience, he added, only helped.

“It got me ready,” he said.

On Friday night, both schools’ student sections were ready well before the start of the game. They filled the stands behind each basket - with CB East’s fans dressed in suits, and CB West’s fans dressed in all black - during a back-and-forth JV game that CB East won, 54-52, when sophomore Cooper Planck hit a three-pointer at the buzzer.

When the teams met earlier this season in December, the Patriots raced to a 13-0 lead at the end of the first quarter on their way to a 58-51 victory. On Friday night, CB East got off to another quick start, taking a 7-2 lead less than five minutes into the game, but CB West, which honored its seniors before the game on senior night, closed to within 9-7 at the end of the first quarter.

By halftime, the game was tied at 18 in a contest that will have District 1 Class 6A playoff implications for both teams. Entering the night, CB East was seeded 13th, while CB West was seeded 19th. The top 24 teams earn berths in the District 1 Class 6A tournament.

Marascio made a pair of foul shots one minute into the third quarter to put CB East ahead, 20-18, and the Patriots would not trail the rest of the game. Marascio and senior guard Henry Bartchak, who finished with 14 points, combined for 19 of CB East’s 21 second-half points.

The Bucks, who were led by eight points each from sophomore guard Melo Aylmer and sophomore forward John Vrettos, closed to within three points twice in the final four minutes of regulation but could not get any closer. Bartchak helped seal the win by making 5-of-6 from the foul line in the last two minutes.

“He's one of our captains,” Henrysen said. “He's one of our coaches on the floor, and, you know, coaches on the floor, they make free throws.”

Henrysen, whose team has had two separate five-game winning streaks this season but entered Friday night having lost six of eight games, said that his team is starting to get healthy.

“Right now,” he said, “we’re focused on getting back on track.”

The focus for Marascio, even since he started playing the sport in fourth grade, has been basketball.

“It brings peace to me - I’m not going to lie,” he said. “It’s a little calm.”

He said that he shoots on his driveway “all the time” to give him that calmness so on nights in a hostile environment - like Friday night - he can succeed. Marascio is aggressive taking the ball to the basket and is an excellent finisher around the rim.

“He’s a relentless worker,” Henrysen said. “He's always in the gym, and he loves the game. He's like one of our gym rats. He’s really worked on his game - taking the ball to the basket, his pull up, the three ball - so he could do a little bit of everything.”

Marascio said that his parents didn’t play basketball and that his father, Daniel, is 5-foot-1, so basketball may not have necessarily been in his plans when he was young. But, Marascio said, his paternal grandfather is 6-foot-3, and by the time he was in third grade,  “I towered over my dad a little bit, so we knew I was going to grow a little bit.”

He continued to grow and work on his game, and now, as a sophomore, he is playing and starring in the CB East-CB West rivalry games that he grew up attending as a kid.

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By Quarter
CB East (14-7 overall, 5-4 SOL Colonial Division):    9  |  9   |   8  |  13  ||  39
CB Wast (10-10 overall, 4-5 SOL Colonial Division): 7  |  11  |  6  |  9   ||  33

Scoring
CB East: Keegan Marascio 15, Henry Bartchak 14, Quinn Slack 4, Brady Colbert 3, Connor Mekanik 3.

CB West: Melo Aylmer 8, John Vrettos 8, Dan Pellegrini 5, Gavin Reichner 5, Connor Chuo 3, Isaiah Rubenstein 2, Eli Wolf 2.