The boy’s basketball team made a statement on Tuesday night with a 62-50 win over Burlington City at home to move to 2-1 on the young season.
“This is a statement win because of how talented that City team is and how well coached they are,” head coach Mike Fries said.
“They have most of their returning players from last year. To get that win the way we did, it’s a statement win for us this early in the year.”
Cinnaminson knew Burlington City would be a tough test coming into the game, especially since the teams split their two meetings last season by a total of three points.
Junior Craig Turner paced the Pirates with 21 points, both season and career highs, including four from beyond the arc.
“Our basketball IQ is very high, so we gel very quickly with each other,” Turner said. “When we’re at our best, we’re going to be hard to beat this season.”
Senior Conor Bresnahan poured in 12 points for Cinnaminson.
To come away with a 12-point victory was a statement win for the Pirates to say the least.
“It is a statement win,” Turner said. “This is a very talented and athletic Burlington City team. We got a really good win tonight at home.”
“It definitely helps our confidence. There’s a lot of things we need to work on to improve our game and helps us win games.”
Cinnaminson trailed 12-10 after the first quarter, but turned it on in the second stanza.
A 30-22 break at the half would only increase in the second half for the Pirates.
“We defended well and depended on each other,” Fries said. “Once we defended well, it created opportunities on offense.”
Cinnaminson put an exclamation point at the end of the first half when JP Rickus knocked down a three (8as the horn sounded.
The Pirates built a 15-point lead in the third quarter, but the Blue Devils did their best to keep it close.
A late run in the fourth by Burlington City saw the Pirates lead shrink to 10, but never back into single digits, as Turner connected on a three to extend the lead to 18 at one point.
“They never got it back to single digits, which was impressive for our guys and how young they are,” Fries said. “They made a run, hit a couple shots, and we just kept playing our game.”
The Blue Devils added a couple of late buckets to lessen the deficit to 12 at the final horn.
Cinnaminson visits Northern Burlington on Thursday at 5:30pm.
“They play man-to-man defense so we will work on our man sets and zone sets and talk about positioning,” Fries said of preparing for Northern Burlington.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Burlington City
|
12 | 10 | 10 | 18 | 50 |
|
Cinnaminson
|
10 | 20 | 15 | 17 | 62 |
Scoring:
Craig Turner – 21
Conor Bresnahan – 12
JP Rickus – 8
Chad Howard – 7
Justin Dever – 6
Gunner Peterson – 5
John Meekins – 3
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