TOWAMENCIN – With the ball headed out of bounds and under 3 seconds left in overtime, Gabe Altemus made a save near the edge of the court and a North Penn player called timeout; the only problem was, the Knights had no timeouts left to call.
The error led to two made technical free throws for Central Bucks East that would pull the game away, and another free throw with 2.5 seconds left would seal the game, 57-54.
The senior night loss was consistently back and forth, with six lead changes and ten ties as the Knights trailed most of the game but weren’t out of it until the buzzer.
“We are a resilient team to say the least, we do not give up. There’s been times where we kind of cave in and let something get the best of us, but the one thing about this group is they’re resilient and they fight until there’s triple zeros on the clock,” head coach Cordell Lord said. “That’s all I ask, I’m not asking them to go out and be Superman, I just want them to enjoy the game we play so hard for, appreciate the moments, and play so you have no regrets.”
As what’d become common towards the end of the North Penn season, the Knights started slow but picked it up as the first quarter came to a close. CB East went on a 6-0 run to start the game, but North Penn matched it through the last four minutes of the quarter, scoring 12 compared to another East 6 to leave the quarter tied at 12.
After a deep 3-pointer from the wing and a jumper from East’s Shane O’Hara-Jamison and Nolan Behm respectively, North Penn sophomore Shane Ward started to get the hot hand. His long three brought the Knights within two, and then a steal into a layup for Ahmaar Godhania tied it up. Ward followed with another steal, then dished the rock to Wyatt Martin to give North Penn their first lead.
“He [Shane Ward] is the definition of hard-working and resilient. There’s a lot of adversity that came his way this year and when he was hurt, when he was playing, when he wasn’t playing, he just stayed really positive and energetic; he’s a fun kid to be around,” Lord said. “His last two games especially we saw the corner that we thought he was going to turn but unfortunately we’re not going to witness more of it for his sophomore year but I’m expecting big things for his junior year.
The lead wouldn’t last as East’s O’Hara-Jamison would hit two more of his 11 free throws and back-to-back corner threes to put the Patriots back ahead by 7. East would go on to shoot 94% from the line compared to North Penn’s 64%.
“We’ve shot decent from the line throughout the year, and we’ve had some games where it’s gotten us a win. You never know what’s going to happen each night, and we missed some that literally went in and out of the rim. We just have to live with those and find a way to get a stop on the other end and another opportunity,” Lord said.
CB East kept rolling out of the half, powered by O’Hara-Jamison’s 7 points within the first 2 minutes, and found themselves up 11. Nolen Foust quickly picked up his fourth foul a minute into the third quarter and would come out of the game with 30 seconds left in overtime.
The third quarter saw 15 free throws from 4 different players from both sides as the game drudged along, and when the fourth quarter finally started, East held a five-point lead.
The Knights almost edged out East in the fourth quarter, scoring 12 headed by Godhania and Lee Hammond’s crowd-popping three, but the Patriot’s 7 points was enough to keep the game tied. The Knights had an opportunity to clinch the game with 4.6 seconds left but Godhania’s stepback three at the buzzer clanked off the front of the rim and took the game into overtime.
Aiden Atkinson saw some shots fall in the extra time, but the Knight’s 6 points weren’t enough to match East’s onslaught of free throws as the game, and the Knight’s season, wrapped up with the Patriots ahead, 57-54.
I love my four seniors. They’ll forever be my favorite four seniors because they were my first four, it’s gonna be a tough one [to swallow], I’ve known a lot of those guys since they were 8 years old. I’m so proud of them for the way they came up through the system and the way they played this year. They left it all on this floor, blood, sweat, tears and it was a blast. I’m super proud of them and I’m sorry for them that we couldn’t get that last game we talked about,” Lord concluded.
Central Bucks East (57): O’Hara-Jamison 26; Behm 14; Molnar 12; Mekanik 5.
North Penn (54): Godhania 20; Ward 12; Hammond 11; Atkinson 8; Martin 2; Altemus 1.
