City of Basketball Love

Anthony Dabbundo (@AnthonyDabbundo)
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While Spring-Ford trailed by 15 just nine minutes into its district tournament opener against Penncrest, it seemed as though the Rams were headed for an early exit just three days after winning the PAC-10 championship.

Rams’ head coach Chris Talley went to his bench, bringing in junior Ryan Fitzpatrick, a guard who spent the majority of the season playing in JV games.

Fitzpatrick, along with Rams’ senior wing Nigel Cooke, saved the season.

The duo scored 17 of Spring-Ford’s 27 first half points, and enabled the Rams to recover from a deep early hole to pull out a 69-60 win over Penncrest in the first round of the District 1 AAAA playoffs.

“I just tried to come in off the bench and contribute, and fortunately I was able to help the team stay in it,” Fitzpatrick said. He scored eight points in the first half, including a 5-0 run of his own to cut the Lions’ lead from seven to two points with just two minutes before halftime.

“He kept us in the game,” Talley said of his junior guard. “Without his first-half performance, I don’t know what would have happened.”

In addition to Fitzpatrick, Cooke scored seven of his team-high 19 points in the second quarter, helping the Rams cut the Lions’ lead to 32-27 before the break.

For Cooke, whose uncle passed away earlier this week, this game had a little extra on it.

“From my family and my teammates, they told me to just keep my head in the game and get the win for my uncle,” the Rams’ senior wing said.

Through the first ten minutes, it did not appear that Cooke and the Rams were going to get that win.

Penncrest jumped on Spring-Ford early, as sophomore guard Tyler Norwood scored 13 points in the first half on 5-of-8 shooting from the field.

“Our number one key was to get off to a good start, and we didn't do that at all,” Talley said. “We had no sense of urgency whatsoever.”

As the second quarter started, Spring-Ford went on a 11-2 run, with threes by Cooke and junior guard Charles Drummond finally waking the team up after a 2-of-14 start from the field in the opening quarter.

“Our energy was better,” Cooke said. “Feeding off of Ryan’s really got us going in the second quarter.”

Even after the Rams managed to cut down the lead, the Lions continued their hot shooting, shooting 13-of-20 in the first half, with sophomore Chris Mills scoring all nine of his points in the opening half.

Spring-Ford, through Cooke and timely three point shooting from Drummond, battled back, eventually retaking the lead on a three by Cooke with 45 seconds left in the third quarter.

“Once we got settled in and we started sharing the ball on offense everything started clicking,” Fitzpatrick said.

Spring-Ford was able to hold off the Lions for the fourth quarter, as senior center Cameron Reid overcame a 3-of-10 night from the field to shoot 6-of-6 from the line in the fourth quarter to seal off the victory.

On a night when usual leading scorer Matt Gnias scored just 11 points, and just two in the opening half, it was his supporting cast of Drummond, Cooke, and Fitzpatrick who helped carried the load for Spring-Ford.

“If Matt [Gnias] or Cam [Reid] is having a bad night, our other guys have to step up and work to get them back into the game, and step up into a bigger role,” Cooke said.

With the win, the Rams will now travel to play at Pennridge on Tuesday night. After Pennridge ended their season last year with a blowout win in round one of districts, Spring-Ford is ready to get revenge and clinch their second state playoff berth in three seasons under Talley.

In a matchup of two teams not known for their size that like to get out and run and shoot threes, the Pennridge-Spring-Ford matchup highlights an excellent slate of second round playoff games.

“They are a team very similar to us and the way we want to play,” Talley said. “They have a left-handed big man [Max Wagner] who can play inside and out just like Cam [Reid], and they have one of the premier players in District 1, Danny Long.”

And against a talented, deep, Pennridge team, Spring-Ford can not afford to get to off to a slow start. They may have survived tonight, but against Pennridge they have to be ready to bring the energy all 32 minutes.

“We finally had a sense of urgency, and we’ll need that against Pennridge,” Talley said. “These guys don’t want this to be their last game.”

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More CoBL District 1 AAAA First-Round Coverage
-- Lower Merion 68, Penn Wood 66 (OT)
-- Perkiomen Valley 49, Cheltenham 45
-- Academy Park 53, Upper Merion 51

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