TOWAMENCIN- The North Penn boys basketball squad showed off their downtown range in their home opener thanks to the hot hands of senior leaders and underclassmen which propelled the Knights over the Golden Hawks from Council Rock South.

12 three pointers and 17 forced turnovers aided the North Penn Knights (2-1) to a 56-39 win over Council Rock South (2-1) Tuesday night in the Knights home opener. The underclassman, specifically juniors, Kolby Barrow and Mike Chaffee, stepped up on the big stage and delivered 32 total points in the victory. Barrow would come off of the bench and hit three straight threes, collecting 9 of the first 14 points for North Penn as they built a 14-9 lead in the 1st quarter. Chaffee would impact the early parts of the game with a three from the corner for his first points of the night. However, Chaffee put his thumbprint on the game most prominently on the Knight’s end of the court as he would contribute to the 7 total steals throughout the ball game.

“It starts in the off-season, getting to know everyone and what works best and the defense opens up the shots we want with good defense. We stepped up tonight on the defensive effort and it showed tonight on the score,” stated Barrow.

The Knights would walk off the court at halftime leading 24-20, with 2 points from Tali McIver, Solomon Robinson, and Rob Carangi, 3 points from Chris Caputo and Chaffee, and 12 points from Barrow. The Knights didn’t trail once on the scoreboard and it was their team chemistry gathered from the off season and their games out in Hershey over the weekend that contributed to the Knights finding that mismatch, or open man. 

“As a whole we played really unselfish tonight, we made the extra pass which led to open looks from the arch and we were able to knock them down. We wanted to focus on establishing our defensive identity tonight and our stops on defense, picking up the rebound and transition was what worked well tonight,” explained Knight’s head coach, John Conrad.

The Knights would stay on the gas pedal throughout the third quarter, tallying up 16 more points before heading into the final quarter of play thanks to Caputo and Chaffee who would combine for 3 three’s.

“We just gotta have confidence in each other and show up to practice everyday and we will get to have fun like we did tonight. We just like to go out there and have fun and that’s what we did tonight, went out and had fun,” said Caputo.

Back to back threes from Caputo and McIver in the 4th quarter would put the finishing dagger in Council Rock South’s visit to the North Penn Navy Gym Tuesday night as they would be sent back to the buses with their first lost on the season after falling to the Knights 56-39.

“We pushed the tempo well tonight and led to a lot of good looks. We have a big game Thursday night so that will be a lot of fun, but it’s such a quick turn around so we will do our preparation tomorrow and see what happens Thursday,” stated coach Conrad.

With the North Penn basketball squad holding a home victory under their belt already, the Knights will look to improve to a 3-1 overall record Thursday night as they host Souderton at 8 pm in North Penn’s Navy Gym following a girls varsity game also against Souderton at 6:30.

“All I gotta say is Souderton’s funeral is Thursday night at 8 o’clock,” McIver said.