Pocono Mountain West boys basketball coach Rich Williams came to Bethlehem on Thursday night battling a cold that had him trying to keep his distance from his players, assistant coaches, and everyone else.
For three quarters of the Panthers’ game against Liberty, what Williams saw didn’t make him feel any better.
West, a team that averaged 76.2 points per game in its first five wins, had just 15 points in the first half and trailed 29-24 entering the fourth quarter, and KJ Coles had 16 of the team’s 24 points through three periods. Down two starters from the starting five, the Panthers had on opening day at Notre Dame-Green Pond on Nov. 29, Williams needed some of his unsung players to step up.
And they did.
West put together a 13-0 run to turn a 33-29 deficit into a 42-33 lead and went on to post a 50-42 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference win that made Williams feel much better about his team’s effort in the Lehigh Valley than on Friday night when Parkland beat the Panthers’ 57-47.
While Coles, an all-area and all-league player, scored six points in the fourth-quarter rally, it was lesser-known players such as Aydin Smith and Ayden Aponte who delivered clutch shots. Smith scored 10 points and Aponte hit a pair of big 3s. Sophomore Teddy Stiehler scored just two points in the final period and had just six overall, but was a factor with nine rebounds.
A Smith 3-pointer off a Marvin Dienhouse pass gave West a 34-33 lead with 5:40 left, and the Panthers never looked back.
Liberty went more than four minutes without scoring before a Luke Heffernan basket with 2:05 left ended the drought, but Liberty was just 6-for-14 from the field in the final period and 0-for-3 from the foul line.
“Credit West because Rich does a great job and he does an incredible job,” said Hurricanes coach Nigel Long after his team fell to 5-3, 4-2 EPC. “I know Rich was under the weather and they had a couple of players under the weather, but they had guys who made really big plays at the end of the game. They made huge shots. We talked to our guys before the game about needing to play 32 minutes against a team like West. But we didn’t play for 32 minutes and we have to own that.”
Jake Pukszyn, who recently became a 1,000-point scorer, finished with 18 points but had to take 20 shots to get there.
Coles led all scorers with 22, a performance punctuated by an 11-for-11 performance at the foul line.
“We had guys come off the bench tonight like Donnie White, who’s a JV player, and Marv Dienhouse and Brody Williams … guys who came in and did what they’re supposed to do and held their own and gave the other guys a chance to rest,” Williams said. “Now that kind of contribution doesn’t show up on Instagram, but it was important. I am proud of those guys because they helped us win tonight.”
Aponte, a sophomore who scored 18 points earlier in the week against Pleasant Valley, did a good job defensively on Pukszyn.
“Jake’s a great player and I wouldn’t say he was neutralized but he made life difficult for Jake to score,” Williams said. “And you can’t forget what KJ did. He kept the ship steady until some of the other guys woke up. It felt like forever until they did, but he kept us in the game until then. Then those other guys stepped up like Ayden Smith, who normally comes off the bench for us but had to start tonight because we didn’t have Brady Behr. He made some big 3s, so it was a good road win for us when we were shorthanded.”
Pocono Mountain West improved to 6-1 overall, 4-1 in the EPC. The Panthers will play at Pocono Mountain East Saturday and will host Abington Heights Monday before the holiday break.
Liberty has an even shorter turnaround. The Hurricanes host city rival Freedom on Friday night.
“It’s great that we get to play again right away,” Long said. “It’ll be nice to get this one out of our system. For us, it’s got to be a collective effort. It’s frustrating but we say it’s not a loss, it’s a lesson. We’ve got to learn from these experiences.”
Pocono Mountain West 50, Liberty 42
Poc. Mt. West 6 – 9 – 9 – 26 — 50
Liberty 6 – 12 – 11 – 13 — 42
POCONO MT. WEST (50)
Nate Cruz 0-2 2-2 2, KJ Coles 5-11 11-11 22, Aydin Smith 5-9 0-0 12, Marvin Dienhouse 0-0 0-0 0, Brody Williams 0-1 0-0 0, Ayden Aponte 3-5 0-2 8, Donyeh White 0-0 0-0 0, Teddy Stiehler 3-8 0-2 6. Totals 16-36 13-17 50.
LIBERTY (42)
Willie Cruz 1-6 0-0 3, Luke Heffernan 1-5 0-0 2, Jake Pukszyn 7-20 2-6 18, Samir Brown 0-0 0-0 0, Jarrell Teague 1-4 1-2 4, Will Palmer 0-2 0-0 0, Dylan Bilger 1-2 2-2 5, Quin Lucas-Bishop 4-10 2-4 10, Brayden Kashner 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 15-51 7-14 42.
3-pointers: PM West (5-12) Smith 2, Aponte 2, Coles. Liberty (5-12) Pukszyn, Teague, Bilger, Cruz.
Rebounds: PM West 19 (Stiehler 9); Liberty 34 (Lucas-Bishop, Pukszyn 9 apiece).
Assists: PM West 7 (Smith, Dienhouse 2); Liberty 5 (Teague 2).
Turnovers: PM West 5; Liberty 12.
Other games
Allen 57, Whitehall 47: The Canaries made 12 3-pointers, including five by Cam Pearsall and four by Tiheed Wise Jr. and remained the only undefeated team in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. Allen outscored the host Zephyrs 18-9 in the third quarter and opened up a 40-30 lead. Wise finished with 17 points, and Pearsall added 15. The Zephyrs (2-6, 2-4) got 16 points from Seth Hoderewski and 14 from Jack Lloyd.
Easton 43, Pocono Mountain East 41: Leo Castillo scored 17 points, and Brandon Gomez added 10 as the Red Rovers improved to 2-4. The Cardinals (4-3, 4-1) got 17 points from Dominic McManus.
Nazareth 82, Pleasant Valley 51: Logan Hahn scored 19 points, and Blake Nagurney added 15 as the Blue Eagles (6-1) led 25-9 after one quarter and never looked back. Sebastian Sacci led the Bears (0-6) with 23 points.
East Stroudsburg North 61, Freedom 52: Wayne King and Brandon Bowen scored 16 and 15 points, respectively, as the Timbewolves improved to 3-4. Freedom fell to 0-8 overall, 0-5 EPC, despite 15 points by Brody Stellato.
Saturday’s games
There have been numerous time changes for Saturday’s EPC and Colonial League games.
Here’s the latest courtesy of longtime official Jack Keiter:
EPC: Bethlehem Catholic at Northampton (11:30); Easton at Nazareth (12); Pleasant Valley at Stroudsburg (1); Emmaus at Parkland (3); Whitehall at Allentown Central Catholic (3); Allen at Dieruff (3:15); Pocono Mountain West at Pocono Mountain East (5).
Colonial League: Palmerton at Northwestern Lehigh (12); Notre Dame-Green Pond at Saucon Valley (6:45); Wilson at Catasauqua (6:45).
