City of Basketball Love

Anthony Dabbundo (@AnthonyDabbundo)
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Needing just two points to break the all-time record for points in a Pennridge uniform, Danny Long had just one thing on his mind entering a huge clash with Central Bucks West. Winning.

“He’s a winner, he doesn’t care about stats, he just wants to win,” head coach Dean Behrens said.

As Long admits, it is impossible not to be thrilled to break the record, but he has bigger aspirations than just a record statistic.

“It’s been exciting,” Long acknowledged, “but our ultimate goal is to win the rest of our games and take home a league title.”

The Rams senior guard, who is committed to play baseball at Monmouth University next year, broke the school record of 1,151 points previously held by Tim Abruzzo, who graduated in 2012.

Long is the ultimate leader and competitor on the floor. Fighting for every loose ball and motivating his teammates, Long scored 23 points in his team’s 63-60 win over CB West.

“I have been blessed to have some great teammates in my career and I wouldn’t have the record without them,” the Rams’ captain said.

After a lackluster first-half performance that saw them down as many as six and down one heading into the break, the Pennridge guard pulled his team aside to help try to light a fire under them. The Rams were missing open shots on offense while being out-rebounded 23-14.

“I told them we need to keep each other accountable for working hard and giving everything we have on the floor,” Long said.

His message resonated with the team, as they came out with a huge third quarter, shutting down CB West and extending their lead to as large as 12 before eventually holding on for a tight victory to leave them tied for first in the Continental division of the Suburban One League.

The 5-foot-11 guard and baseball shortstop has earned the respect of all of his teammates and coaches, and other coaches from across the league for representing everything that a high school athlete should be. Obviously a gifted athlete, the two-sport star demonstrates great sportsmanship and work ethic in everything he does.

“I’ve been playing with Dan since I was in eighth grade, and even from then I knew he was a natural scorer and leader,” classmate Devon Balmer said.

Balmer scored 14 points of his own, including seven free throws in the fourth quarter to fend off a comeback attempt from the Bucks.

“It was just a will to win that motivated us, we didn’t give it our all in the first half,” Balmer said. “But coach said if we wanted to make a late run this year we had to play with more intensity.”

After trailing by one at the half, the Rams responded to their captain’s halftime message and went on a 13-4 run in the third, with Long’s seven third quarter points and a huge dunk by forward Max Wagner paving the way. Once Wagner slammed down the two handed breakaway dunk, it electrified the crowd and slammed the door on the visiting Bucks.

Once the shots from Long, Balmer, and Wagner started to fall, CB West could not keep pace with their in-conference rival.

Despite CB West cutting the Pennridge lead down to five with under a minute to play, and scoring 27 points in the fourth quarter, it was not enough thanks to key free throw shooting from the Rams. Balmer and Long were a combined 10-12 from the charity stripe.

Playing without senior wing Cal Reichwein due to a knee injury, CB West struggled to generate offense once Pennridge locked down defensively. The Lafayette commit scored 18 points in an earlier meeting between these two teams, when the Bucks won 63-55 on their home floor.

Cal’s sophomore brother Jake Reichwein was given a big opportunity to start, and took advantage, scoring 10 points. The Bucks’ senior backcourt duo of Luke Irons and Billy Power anchored CB West with 13 and 11 points, respectively. Unlike their last meeting, the Rams defense was able to keep the Bucks guards from consistently getting to the rim at will.

When the two teams met in December, Pennridge was without Wagner, so the teams have yet to face one another at full strength.

“I’d like to see both teams be healthy, and have them go at it, but there are some things you just can’t control,” Behrens said.

Pennridge may have gotten sweet revenge on CB West, and their star player may have broken the all-time points record, but the Rams have not accomplished their goals yet.

As the long time Pennridge coach admits, with Danny Long at the helm, the sky's the limit for this Rams team come playoff time.

“Dan’s presence on this team the last few years has meant a lot of wins,” Behrens said.  “Hopefully that continues through the rest of the season.”