TOWAMENCIN- In Cordell Lord’s first game back at his home court as head coach, he honored his North Penn teammate and 2014 alum Joe Richards.
Richards and Lord were the 1-2 punch for the 2014 Knights, and Richards went on to play at Wilmington University after graduating with a 4.0 GPA at North Penn. Unfortunately, after his junior year there, he was involved in a car accident that caused brain trauma that he still deals with today.
He has come a long way since then, due to a lot of therapy and hard work, and Lord wanted to recognize his story and efforts in front of a great home crowd on community night.
“It’s definitely emotional, to say the least. One of my best friends from childhood coming back. getting to see me coach my first game on the same floor we put our blood, sweat, and tears onto. It’s just super exciting to see that we had such a big turnout, that everybody was able to support us throughout good, bad, ups, downs,” said Lord.
After rallying late in the fourth quarter, North Penn cut the deficit to four points but was unable to push past Wissahickon, as the Trojans went on to a 45-38 win,
With two minutes left in the game and North Penn down 9, Lord called a timeout that would lead to a 7-2 run including an Aidan Atkinson chase-down block and a fight for a jump ball that ended up going to the Knights.
Lee Hammond scored 5 in the last 48 seconds, including another crowd-popping 3-pointer to bring the Knights within 4, but it wasn’t enough as Nico Vacchiano hit a free throw with 15 seconds left to pull the game away for Wissahickon and put a cherry on top with a dunk at the buzzer.
The Trojans came out of the gate ready to go, going on an 8-0 run in the first 6 minutes of the game, with all 8 being scored by Wissahickon’s top scorer, Vacchiano, who finished with 24. The Knights came out of a timeout and scored on a Shane Ward fadeaway with 2:14 left in the quarter to end the run and put their first points on the board.
Following a Ward 3-pointer at the buzzer, the Knights found themselves within three heading into the second quarter, with the score at 10-7.
The second quarter proved to be much of the same though, with the Trojans going on an 11-1 run, this time led by Ben Schwartz who had 7 in the run. North Penn tacked on 5 in the quarter on a trio of free throws and a Gabe Altemus layup. At the half, Wissahickon held a 23-12 lead over the Knights.
Coming out of halftime, North Penn switched to a zone defense, attempting to contain a red-hot Vacchiano while Wissahickon opted for a man defense they would quickly adjust to a zone in order to keep the Knights at bay.
The game was slow to get back up and running, with Wissahickon and North Penn only putting up 3 and 1 points, respectively. The Knights started heating up after an Atkinson layup followed by a Hammond 3-pointer that had the crowd up on their feet.
After a Gabe Altemus layup and free throw, North Penn had proved they weren’t going to just roll over, holding Wissahickon to 6 points in the quarter and bringing the score to 29-20.
The Knights were in some foul trouble in the late game, with Atkinson at 4 fouls in the 3rd quarter and Altemus quickly following with his fourth at the start of the 4th.
Wyatt Martin and North Penn were ready for the 4th quarter, with Martin hitting two free throws and a layup followed by a steal on an errant pass for a fast-break layup for Ahmaar Godhania.
Seeing an opportunity to apply pressure, the Knights moved into a press that would prove effective later, although allowing 7 points within the first 2 minutes of its usage.
The Knights gave a final push but it wasn’t enough, and in their fourth game in five nights, they fell just short to a fresh Wissahickon team.
“There’s some frustration in the locker room because this is another game we feel like we could’ve won, came up a little bit short, but four games in five nights, five games in seven nights, it’s not easy at all. It’s a difficult journey, but we’re going to use this weekend to reset and get ready in terms of making sure we get some rest and start to prepare for a couple tough games on Wednesday and Friday,” Lord said.
North Penn showed resilience through the whole game, staying with Wissahickon the whole game and it just wasn’t enough to overtake them.
“We’re going to turn this season around, this is nowhere near the end, we still have a lot of basketball yet to be played. [The players] are all confident in that and I am too, but it starts with me, I have to find ways to be better and get them more prepared and make sure that we continue to compete at the level we are because we’re playing hard, but we just have to find some ways to get some more easy shots,” Lord said. “Even though we’re tired, we find ways to dig deep and continue to fight. I love and respect every single one of these guys, and they gave me their all.”
North Penn (2-3, 0-0) will play Carver High School of Engineering & Science on Wednesday, 12/11, and Wissahickon (2-0, 0-0) will play Upper Moreland on Tuesday, 12/10.
North Penn (38): Hammond 11; Godhania 7; Altemus 7; Ward 5; Atkinson 4; Foust 4.
Wissahickon (45): Vacchiano 24; Schwartz 12; Stelzer 7; Lee 2.