TOWAMENCIN – The North Penn Knights tried to beat Pennridge with a buzzer beater last night, but instead treated their fans to a little free basketball in their quest to remain unbeaten in the Continental Conference. Trailing or tied the entire game, in the end the Knights (10-3; 5-0) beat the Pennridge Rams (6-7; 2-4) in overtime once again making their name as the comeback kids. After going head to head all game the Knights were able to extend the lead in the last few minutes of overtime winning 56-50.

Starting the first quarter strong, North Penn’s senior David Giuliani made the first basket getting fouled causing an additional foul shot. The first quarter had good defense coming from both teams making it a low scoring quarter and by the end Rams led 8-6.

“The team came out with a lot of intensity on the defensive and offensive end on the floor, and we pretty much played steady the entire game,” said Giuliani.

The Rams tried to secure the lead, but the Knights did not back down. Senior Ricky Johns had multiple rebounds, but struggled to get the ball into the net. As the quarter went on, the Rams’ speed and spacing helped them separate, but toward the end Johns, Giuliani and junior Chris Coleman heated up and Pennridge clung to a 19-18 halftime lead.

“Pennridge was awesome tonight and our kids just had to be mentally tough, and they were,” said head coach John Conrad.

In the 3rd quarter the Rams came out strong, attempting many 3-point shots and winning much of the rebound game. The Knights did the same, but could not keep up with the score due to tight defense played by Pennridge’s Tyrese Eutsey. Senior Lance Ford helped close the gap sinking in a 3-point shot. Trailing behind by only three points, Johns headed to the basket scoring and getting fouled causing another additional foul shot to tie up the game 29-29. Both teams went back and forth scoring again, the 3^rd quarter ending in a tie 31-31.

Beginning the 4th quarter Ford made a 3-point shot to start the Knights with a lead. The game was still a nail-biter with both the Rams and Knights scoring back and forth. On offense the Knights were passing around under pressure with the Rams playing solid man to man defense. With one minute left the game was tied 44-44 and the Knights controlled the clock, taking the last shot at the buzzer, but it clanked off the rim sending the conference matchup into overtime.

“The points to go into overtime were huge; we played really good going into it and then in overtime we really came together down on defense and we all made an impact on the defensive end,” said Giuliani.

With the toughness that the Knights brought into overtime, the Rams had a harder time keeping up with the score. Both teams started out going point by point, but after senior Reece Udinski made a 3-point shot to get the Knights ahead, only foul shots were keeping the Rams in the game. Trying to play tight defense, Ford fouled out of the game with 1:36 left of overtime. With 30 seconds to go a personal foul made by the Rams gave the Knights possession, and junior AJ Catanzaro lunged the ball down the court to Giuliani who made a basket and took a foul. The end result of the play was a  54-50 Knights lead. With backcourt pressing the Rams were not able to score again and Johns added two more points to the total.

“We played a lot of boys down the stretch. We were down 4 with a minute to go and were able to get a couple of shots to tie it up. I we executed well in overtime. Giuliani was phenomenal, Johns was great down the stretch and I think Udinski played pretty tough down the stretch also. We talked with our guys that we have a nice record, we’re undefeated in the league, so now we are going to have a target on our backs,” said Coach John Conrad.

The Knights travel to C.B. East on Friday night where they will try to stretch their unbeaten conference record against the 3-2 Patriots.

Scoring

NORTH PENN: Giuliani; 18, Johns; 15, Udinski: 11, Ford; 6, Coleman; 4, Kwortnik; 2