TOWAMENCIN – “Winning is fun.”

If you couldn’t tell by the sprint into the locker room after the game, if you couldn’t tell by the ear to ear smiles in the final minute of the game, if you couldn’t tell by the student section loving every bit of every three pointer, North Penn head coach Cordell Lord said it just like that.

In a Suburban One league crossover matchup against the visiting Bensalem Owls (5-8,1-4) North Penn (6-7, 2-3) found themselves on the winning side of the scoreboard for the third time in a row, 49-40.

“[The win streak] means everything that I said from the very beginning of a year: we have a very competitive, exciting, lighthearted, fun team that stuck through adversity, stayed the course, and is now learning how to win basketball games,” Lord said. “A lot of our guys who have not had a lot of experience are really starting to turn a corner. I think a lot of the guys are just saying it over and over, ‘this is fun.’ Winning is fun. We’re just trying to take it one game at a time and we’re hungry for more.”

JC Wood shoots in front of the home student section. (photos.by_marcos)

“I feel good, man. We’re on a run right now. [The] only way is up from here,” senior JC Wood added.

The peanut gallery of Nolen Foust and Chris Kingkiner added “great, three in a row, baby,” and “I’m feeling good. I’m feeling good. I’m feeling great,” respectively.

For as much fun as everyone was having at the end of the game, the first quarter was the opposite. The Knights only found the basket twice the whole quarter, a Wyatt Martin lay and a Foust three. Bensalem had it worse, not scoring until 1:43 left in the quarter, and going into the second quarter with the score a measly 5-3. 

“When you go from having such a big win on Tuesday [over then conference leading CB East] to coming in a quick turnaround and only one day to prepare, it’s important to stay focused on the little things and don’t take anyone lightly just because they may not have the best record, they’re still a varsity basketball team,” Lord said. “We have to respect everybody as such. It’s really hard especially when you make a really big upset, and people call it an upset, but we’re calling it expectation.”

North Penn scored exclusively via the three in the second quarter, coming from Foust, Wood, and Kingkiner, each with one. Bensalem’s Michael Ellzy drilled three of his own from beyond the arc to match the Knights, and the Owls tacked on to enter the locker rooms with the score 18-14, Bensalem ahead.

[Playing from behind] is never going to be a comfortable feeling,” Lord said. “We’ve actually been doing a pretty decent job in terms of making sure that we stay the course, whether we’re up at certain points, we’re doing a good job of really just taking our time.”

The unforgiving rims of the first half let up in the second, and the Knights would go on to score double their halftime total in the second half. Again, it was the three’s doing most of the damage, with Kingkiner knocking down back to back before subsequently getting a technical foul for a celebration. 

Wood went on to score the quarter’s final 8 points, 6 of which came from treys assisted by Kingkiner, before his fast break layup gave North Penn a lead they would not relinquish. 6 of Bensalem’s 8 points in the quarter came from the line, leaving the Knights ahead 30-29.

“Just confidence and having fun,” Wood said of the success of his shot. “Not putting too much pressure on myself. I’m just making sure that I trust in my preparation and having fun. That’s all I can do out here. 

A trio of threes from Kingkiner and Wood to open the fourth set the tone, and from that point on it was almost exclusively the Nolen Foust show. Foust would knock down 9 from the line over the last five minutes of the game to pull away, with the only other North Penn scoring being a Wood layup.

Nolen Foust’s leadership has been a key factor to the Knight’s recent success.

“Nolen has come an extremely long way. Being able to work with him these last four years has been nothing shorter of an honor. We love the progress and the growth that he’s had as a player, as a leader, and he’s a competitor. A lot of people probably looked over him and I think that was the wrong thing for them to do,” Lord said. “He’s one heck of a competitor. He loves winning. He loves his teammates. He loves the program. He’s honored to put on a jersey and represent himself to the school, his family, and I’m proud of him for everything he’s been doing and he knows there’s more work to be done.”

“Nol anchors all of us together. He’s our point guard. He makes sure that we all get where we need to be, get where we’re going, and he finds me a lot. I know that for sure,” Wood added with a laugh.

Foust’s last free throw with 5.3 seconds left the final score 49-40, as the Knights won three games in a row for the first time in Cordell Lord’s young North Penn head coaching career.

“We know how good we are as a basketball team. We know we’re extremely confident in what we can do,” Lord said. “Throughout the last couple of games, I think we’ve done a really good job of just staying poised and finding who we are as a group, and turning the corner in terms of executing and doing a lot of the right things.”

Both teams will travel for their next game; North Penn play Pennsbury on January 10th at 12:30 and Bensalem to Upper Dublin on January 13th at 7.

 

North Penn (49): Wood 19, Foust 15, Kingkiner 11, Martin 4.

Bensalem (40): Ellzy 17, Eberhardt 10, Bourelly 6, Per 3, Parmar 2, Lugo 2.