Knights upset Bucks with lockdown defense

Rob+Carangi+goes+up+for+his+first+half+dunk.

Prasham Jobanputra

Rob Carangi goes up for his first half dunk.

TOWAMENCIN- The Bucks came in to this game with a strong record and beat North Penn 43-42 last time out, so West came in as heavy favorites.  But, they ended up taking a quiet bus ride home after the game as the Knights celebrated on their home court.

The North Penn Knights (8-12) upset the CB West Bucks (13-7) 48-43 in Friday night’s game in front of a packed gymnasium of fans.

“Defensively we really played well and I thought our big guys, Matt Swanson, Josh Jones, and Rob Carangi really played well, rebounded well [and] scoring in the post,” Head Coach John Conrad said.

Jack Neri got the night started offensively as he drove to the rim and got a layup for the first points of the game.  With 5:50 left in the first quarter, Mike Chaffee hit a three to give North Penn a 3-2 lead.  Then North Penn went a big run as the Knights had an 8-2 run in the first 3:32 of the game.  By the end of the quarter, the Knights led 15-7.

A big play in the first quarter came with about 29 seconds left in the first quarter, as Mika Munari had all open court in front of him, but Josh Jones came from behind to stuff the ball between the right side of the rim and backboard.  With 4:22 in the second quarter, Matt Swanson got a steal off a West inbound and passed it to Rob Carangi, who dunked it in.  The Knights extended their lead to double digits in the second quarter after Kolby Barrow found Jones for a three.  They took a 26-18 lead into halftime.

Prasham Jobanputra
Josh Jones’s chase down block.

The Knights continued to hold off the Bucks by an arm’s length for the remainder of the game, but it did get close at the end.  Owen Haney came up with two big threes to bring and keep the Bucks within one possession.  Then with 2:07 left in the game, Carangi had the play of the night and season as he drove to the basket hard and went up for a dunk and posterized Neri, who fell to the ground, and the Knights went up 43-37.

“The defense was over pressuring because it was pretty late in the game and they were trailing, and so my defender was a little bit over than he should have been and I was able to get by him and I saw an open lane so I just went for it,” Carangi said on his monster dunk.

The Knights will next play on Tuesday night against the CB South Titans.  The Knights beat the Titans last time, 69-48.  It will also be senior night for the team.

“Those guys, they’re experienced, they’re competitors, they know we’re going to enjoy tonight, but we still got a long way to go and it starts tomorrow morning in practice,” Coach Conrad said.

CB West: Slaymaker 1 pt, Monahan 1 pt, Fountain 2 pts, Neri 4 pts, Miller 4 pts, Spratti 7, Haney 12 pts, Munari 12 pts

North Penn: Larkins 4 pts, Chaffee 5 pts, Swanson 10 pts, Carangi 13 pts, Jones 16 pts