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Irons, Reichwein lift C.B. West past Pennridge

12/16/2015, 1:00am EST
By Anthony Dabbundo

Anthony Dabbundo (@AnthonyDabbundo)
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Every time Pennridge looked to close the gap in the second half, Central Bucks West turned to their senior standouts Cal Reichwein and Luke Irons in the biggest moments down the stretch.

And they delivered.

Despite spending the majority of the game in foul trouble, the 6-foot-2 Reichwein scored 18 points, including two quick buckets right out of the half to help build a Bucks lead that they never looked back on, earning a 63-55 win over Pennridge.

Irons, a senior leader on this veteran Bucks team, scored 13 points himself but was also tasked with a very difficult challenge at the other end, guarding Pennridge star guard Dan Long. Even though Long scored 18 points, Irons proved to his teammates why he is the best defender on the team.

“We trust Luke, he’s our best defender, one of the leaders on this team, and we trusted him to do his best on Dan,” Reichwein said.

Facing a Pennridge team without 6-8 senior forward Max Wagner, who suffered a wrist injury in practice on Wednesday, C.B. West placed a lot of attention on Long, hoping to contain him as best they could.

After starting 4-5 from the field, Long missed his next three shots and only had two points in the second and third quarters, when C.B. West was able to take control of the game and establish their lead.

“You have to give credit to Dan Long, he’s a gamer.” Bucks head coach Adam Sherman said. “We felt that we defended him really well, I thought Luke played him as well as you possibly could.”

On the offensive end, the Bucks got off to another slow start, scoring just six points in the first quarter. Reichwein scored four of those six, but started just 2-6 from the field before picking up his second foul.

Long and the Rams capitalized on C.B. West’s slow start, grabbing a 12-6 lead at the end of the first quarter thanks to eight points from their 5-foot-11 senior guard.

“I thought we were playing too fast, and our shot selection wasn’t great, so I told them to just relax and be patient,” Sherman said.

The Bucks patience paid off, eventually leading to wave after wave of successful drives into the Pennridge defense. Not having Wagner, combined with West’s shooting ability, hampered head coach Dean Behrens' options to defend the high-powered offense.

“They put five guys on the floor that can shoot the three, so they are a team that is tough to contain,” Behrens said.

Pennridge allowed an early lead to slip away, as C.B. West took a one point lead into the half, and added onto it quickly once the second half commenced. Despite multiple attempts from the Rams to cut into the deficit, the Bucks seemed to always have an answer to stop the momentum.

Along with Irons, fellow senior guard Billy Power had 10 points, and stretch forward Erich Hohenleitner added 12, with nine coming in the second half to help seal the in-conference victory.

“The dribble penetration really killed us in the second half, we couldn’t let Power and Irons into the paint and we did and that hurt us,” Behrens said.

The Bucks lead was as low as four in the 4th quarter, and after Pennridge junior guard Luke Nuneviller hit a half court shot to end the third, it seemed as though the game was destined for a last second finish.

Down the stretch, the Bucks drew more fouls, grabbed more rebounds, and finished better around the rim, as Pennridge struggled to successfully generate open looks without their senior forward and with their standout senior receiving so much attention.

Outside of Long, only junior guard Ryan Cuthbert scored more than five points. He scored 14, but it was not enough as the Rams found it much more difficult to generate easy looks than their Suburban One counterparts.

“When they did miss their shots, we didn’t do a good job collecting those rebounds and we need to do a better job as a team of rebounding the basketball,” Behrens said.

After a loss to Archbishop Wood in their last game, it looked early on as though C.B. West was headed towards a second consecutive defeat. However, this time, the Suburban One favorites rebounded by turning to two of their senior leaders. If West is to fulfill their postseason aspirations, Irons and Reichwein have to be ready to carry the rest of this talented roster when the going gets tough.


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