Delran and Cinnaminson hooked up for the second time this season and the Pirates came away with yet another win, this time in dominating fashion, 62-46 to move to 10-2 overall and 4-1 in the Freedom Division.
Delran falls to 8-4 overall and 1-4 in the Freedom.
“I’m very exciting about our intensity tonight,” head coach Mike Fries said. “They jumped and doubled and helped each other out. And the crowd helped their intensity a lot.”
The first time these two teams met, the Pirates escaped Delran with a 55-52 win as Devon Taylor scored 22 points. That game, and eight others, were played without Will Cabbler.
Cabbler transferred back to Cinnaminson from Paul VI this year, causing him to sit out the first nine games of the season.
His presence on the court showed why the final score the second time around was such a large margin. The Pirates made it difficult enough on their opponents with six different players scoring in double figures at least once this season without Cabbler.
Now, add Cabbler into the mix, and the Pirates have become an incredibly potent team offensively. Cabbler dropped 12 in his season debut against Maple Shade to become the seventh player to score in double figures at least once. He then added 21 in a rout against Holy Cross and led all scorers tonight with 24.
“We wanted to get out and run and make them get back,” Cabbler said of tonight’s game plan. We knew we were a real fast team, so we just wanted to get out and score easy buckets and that’s what we did tonight.”
Taylor added 19 points tonight and Rich Rickus had nine as six Pirates scored at least two points.
Cinnaminson was off and running from the opening tip, taking a 16-10 lead after one quarter of play that they would never relinquish.
“Our defense really brought life to the game,” Cabbler said. “I really liked how we played defense and got after it. We got a lot of steals and points in transition. We played great on the defensive end.”
The game was pretty much out of reach at the break with the Pirates leading 35-16.
“I told them, don’t take your foot off the gas,” Fries said. “I told them to keep building upon it. It was 19 at halftime.”
After three, the Pirates were up 56-33 on the Bears. Delran did not surpass 20 points for the game until there was 4:34 left on the clock in the third.
“Our defense created our offense,” Fries said. “I was so proud of the guys the way they played defense tonight. They were in their face, getting all the loose balls. It won us the game tonight.”
Delran outscored the Pirates in the fourth quarter to pull the final score to 62-46 and the packed gym let the Bears know it in case they hadn’t seen the scoreboard all game.
“The fans are the best,” Rickus said. “Of my four years here, this is the best I’ve seen them. It gives us energy on the court.”
Cinnaminson dominated all three facets of the game; offense (9 threes), defense and free-throw shooting (7-of-11).
“The talking and the help ‘D,’ we have been working on it,” Rickus said. “We’ve been working on charges in practices and communicating now that Will’s back in the lineup.”
The Pirates hit the road, but don’t go too far, on Thursday night when they travel to face Palmyra at 5:15pm.
Fries touched on what he told the team following tonight’s win when it comes to intensity on Thursday against the Panthers.
“They have to have that same intensity the rest of the season. Thursday night against Palmyra, the way you start the game, you have to finish the game exactly like you started.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Delran | 10 | 6 | 17 | 13 | 46 |
| Cinnaminson | 16 | 19 | 21 | 6 | 62 |
Pirates Scoring:
Will Cabbler – 24 (6 threes)
Devon Taylor – 19
Rich Rickus – 9 (3 threes)
Conor Bresnahan – 4
Pat McCarthy – 4
Kyle Roberts-DeLoach – 2
