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Pennsbury silences Methacton, advances to D1 semis

02/24/2015, 3:45pm EST
By Tom Reifsnyder
Cameron Jones

Pennsbury senior guard Cameron Jones (above) led all scorers with 25 points on Monday night. (Photo: Tom Reifsnyder)

Tom Reifsnyder (@tom_reifsnyder)

Time after time, they fell; four times to be exact.

There’s no telling exactly what Pennsbury’s Cameron Jones was seeing out there on the court in the first quarter of the Falcons’ quarterfinal matchup with Methacton, but one could surmise that the hoop looked about as big as an Olympic-sized pool for the senior guard.

“In warmups, I was feeling it,” Jones said with a wide grin on his face. “My shot felt good and after I made that first shot, I had good rhythm and kept going after that; just being aggressive.”

Jones knocked down four nothing-but-net threes and added a free throw in the first frame for 13 of his game-high 25 points as Pennsbury took care of business in front of a packed Methacton gym on Monday night, downing the Warriors by a score of 68-58.

The win catapults the Falcons into the District 1 AAAA semifinals for the second straight season, where they will face the sixth-seeded Abington Galloping Ghosts at Temple University’s Liacouras Center on Wednesday night.

Despite Jones’ early exploits, the first quarter turned out to be the most tightly-contested eight minutes of the game, leaving Methacton trailing by just one point heading into the second quarter.

Methacton senior forward Chris McCarthy started the game, like Jones, on a roll, scoring his team’s first eight points and holding his own against Pennsbury’s Derrick Woods, a 6-foot-8 St. Bonaventure commit; McCarthy would finish with a team-high 15 points.

“Chris is a solid five-man,” Methacton head coach Jeff Derstine said. “He’s 6-6, he’s strong, he battles, and we knew he was up for the challenge of playing against Woods; he knew he was really good but I thought he battled, made him take some tough shots.”

While Jones went silent in the second quarter, likely catching his breath from his early outburst, Woods and senior guard Mekhi Bryant picked up the slack for Pennsbury, scoring six and seven respectively to give the Falcons a 37-29 halftime advantage.

Woods finished with 18 points and dominated the glass while Bryant added 14, torching the Methacton defense with his quickness and playing the distributor role quite comfortably.

The third quarter would be somewhat of a draw as Methacton senior guard Sean Mann knocked down a trio of triples for nine of his 13 points to keep Pennsbury’s lead within reach, leaving the Warriors trailing by 10 heading into the final quarter.

“I was proud of how our kids kept fighting for the whole game; they played 32 minutes, they battled,” Derstine said. “You really just have to take your hat off to Pennsbury, I thought they played a really good game.

“Woods is tough inside and they have a nice inside-outside game, but our kids fought and we had some opportunities.”

As the first three of minutes of the final frame ran off the clock, it appeared that Pennsbury’s clear-cut advantage in the physicality category was catching up to Methacton. The Falcons jumped out to an 8-2 run behind the strong play of Woods, who gave his team a 16-point advantage with just 4:31 to play.

With time running out for Methacton, the Warriors looked to the three-point line for some saving grace.

Seniors T.J. Tornetta and Tom Dyer combined to pour in three triples in less than a minute, cutting Pennsbury’s lead down to 11 points with a minute to go.

And that’s when things got ugly.

To the great dismay of Pennsbury head coach Bill Coleman, his team fouled a three-point shooter on back-to-back possessions, giving way to five made free throws for Methacton.

“There was a lot of flopping, but we shouldn’t be in that position anyway,” Coleman said. “We always want to contest shots but you have to understand what we call a cushion.

“But we gathered ourselves, and I guarantee we won’t do that on Wednesday.”

If not for the hot hand of Jones, who knocked down seven of his eight free throw attempts in the final quarter, the Falcons may have had a much closer game with Methacton (23-4) than they had bargained for down the stretch.

“Whoever gets [Jones] next year is getting a steal,” Coleman said. “The kid can flat-out play, the kid can flat-out shoot.

“Out of all our guys, he has sacrificed the most in terms of point production and all that because he’s got to run point. At this time last year, Cam had about 90 threes; he’s got half that now.”

Despite the sloppy finish, Pennsbury advanced to the semifinals for the second straight year. The Falcons (23-5) will have their hands full with Abington, which has defeated Coleman’s squad in all three previous meetings this season.

When asked about the task of defending Abington’s dynamic duo of Amir Hinton and Matt Penecale, Coleman seemed content with throwing strategy out the window.

“I’m not worried about that right now,” Coleman said. “We’ll man up against them and make plays; it’s going to come down to the team that makes plays across the board, all five.

“The last time we played them, their five made plays where our three made plays so we’re going to need contributions from everybody.


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