![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/NP-vs-Bensalem-Final-Edits-3-300x200.jpeg\")
JC Wood shoots in front of the home student section. (photos.by_marcos)<\/p>\nTOWAMENCIN \u2013 \u201cWinning is fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you couldn\u2019t tell by the sprint into the locker room after the game, if you couldn\u2019t tell by the ear to ear smiles in the final minute of the game, if you couldn\u2019t tell by the student section loving every bit of every three pointer, North Penn head coach Cordell Lord said it just like that.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201c[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,\u201d Lord said. \u201cA 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, \u2018this is fun.\u2019 Winning is fun. We\u2019re just trying to take it one game at a time and we\u2019re hungry for more.\u201d<\/p>\n
JC Wood shoots in front of the home student section. (photos.by_marcos)<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel good, man. We\u2019re on a run right now. [The] only way is up from here,\u201d senior JC Wood added.<\/p>\n
The peanut gallery of Nolen Foust and Chris Kingkiner added \u201cgreat, three in a row, baby,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m feeling good. I\u2019m feeling good. I\u2019m feeling great,\u201d respectively.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen 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\u2019s important to stay focused on the little things and don\u2019t take anyone lightly just because they may not have the best record, they\u2019re still a varsity basketball team,\u201d Lord said. \u201cWe have to respect everybody as such. It\u2019s really hard especially when you make a really big upset, and people call it an upset, but we\u2019re calling it expectation.\u201d<\/p>\n
North Penn scored exclusively via the three in the second quarter, coming from Foust, Wood, and Kingkiner, each with one. Bensalem\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
[Playing from behind] is never going to be a comfortable feeling,\u201d Lord said. \u201cWe\u2019ve actually been doing a pretty decent job in terms of making sure that we stay the course, whether we\u2019re up at certain points, we\u2019re doing a good job of really just taking our time.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s doing most of the damage, with Kingkiner knocking down back to back before subsequently getting a technical foul for a celebration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wood went on to score the quarter\u2019s 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\u2019s 8 points in the quarter came from the line, leaving the Knights ahead 30-29.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust confidence and having fun,\u201d Wood said of the success of his shot. \u201cNot putting too much pressure on myself. I\u2019m just making sure that I trust in my preparation and having fun. That\u2019s all I can do out here.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/NP-vs-Bensalem-Final-Edits-300x200.jpeg\")
Nolen Foust\u2019s leadership has been a key factor to the Knight\u2019s recent success.<\/p>\n
\u201cNolen 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\u2019s had as a player, as a leader, and he\u2019s a competitor. A lot of people probably looked over him and I think that was the wrong thing for them to do,\u201d Lord said. \u201cHe\u2019s one heck of a competitor. He loves winning. He loves his teammates. He loves the program. He\u2019s honored to put on a jersey and represent himself to the school, his family, and I\u2019m proud of him for everything he\u2019s been doing and he knows there\u2019s more work to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNol anchors all of us together. He\u2019s our point guard. He makes sure that we all get where we need to be, get where we\u2019re going, and he finds me a lot. I know that for sure,\u201d Wood added with a laugh.<\/p>\n
Foust\u2019s 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\u2019s young North Penn head coaching career.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know how good we are as a basketball team. We know we\u2019re extremely confident in what we can do,\u201d Lord said. \u201cThroughout the last couple of games, I think we\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
North Penn (49): Wood 19, Foust 15, Kingkiner 11, Martin 4.<\/p>\n
Bensalem (40): Ellzy 17, Eberhardt 10, Bourelly 6, Per 3, Parmar 2, Lugo 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOWAMENCIN \u2013 \u201cWinning is fun.\u201d If you couldn\u2019t tell by the sprint into the locker room after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[191,193,192,194],"class_list":["post-82466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bensalem","tag-bensalem","tag-bensalem-headlines","tag-bensalem-news","tag-bensalem-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}