No one said it would be easy, but no one would’ve thought it would be that difficult either. The Pirates, despite struggling with their shooting, turned away Burlington City 44-43 in a Freedom Division game on Tuesday night to move to 7-0 overall.
The victory gives the Pirates a 2-0 mark in the division and makes Thursday’s showdown with Bordentown a battle of unbeaten teams. The Scotties are also 7-0 overall and 2-0 in the Freedom.
“This is the worst game I’ve ever seen the guys play, but they fought through it all,” head coach Mike Fries said. “They fought through the missed shots, the missed foul shots, the missed layups. They fought through it all to come back and get the win.”
The Blue Devils jumped out to a 5-0 lead and built it to 12-4 halfway through the opening quarter before the Pirates offense started to claw its way back into the game despite some costly turnovers.
“We turned it over a lot in this game,” Conor Bresnahan said. “We panicked. Bordentown plays a zone. We will work against a zone all week in practice and have to limit our turnovers Thursday.”
By the end of the first quarter, the Pirates cut the deficit to 16-13. The game stayed close in the second, with Cinnaminson cutting the lead to 23-22 late before half, but Burlington City drained a three right before the buzzer to take a 26-22 lead into the locker room.
The Pirates did not enjoy their first lead of the game until there was 1:40 left in the second quarter.
Bresnahan led the Pirates with 16 points, 13 in the first half.
“We fought through a lot of adversity in that win,” Bresnahan said. “We were down pretty much the whole game, but we gotta clean a lot of stuff up because we were really sloppy. We showed a lot of heart.”
The third quarter was a back-and-forth affair, with the Pirates holding a 37-36 lead late that was erased by another Burlington City three-pointer. The Blue Devils led 39-37 heading into the final quarter.
The fourth and final quarter was low-scoring, with just 11 points scored between the two teams, but was very entertaining.
The Blue Devils had fouls to give late, committing four in a row to send Cinnaminson to the line with a one-and-one situation.
Coach Fries knew this was City’s goal, so he had an in-bounds pass go to freshman JP Rickus. Rickus was fouled, sent to the line with 23 seconds left, and missed the front end of the one-and-one.
City grabbed the rebound, advanced the ball past midcourt, and called a timeout with 15 seconds left.
On the ensuing play, the Pirates tried to control a loose ball along the baseline, but a jump ball was called and possession was with the Blue Devils.
With one second left on the clock, the Blue Devils inbounded right underneath the net and missed a layup that would have won the game as the Pirates defense held tough.
Both teams struggled from the line as Cinnaminson shot 5-of-11 and Burlington City shot 1-of-5 in a game that saw the Pirates commit just eight fouls.
“We practice free throws everyday,” Fries said. “We condition for 15 minutes and then shoot free throws while we’re tired and it’s not carrying over to the games. They need to know mentally they can make them.”
Cinnaminson returns to the court with an away game against Bordentown on Thursday at 6:30pm.
“Bordentown’s 7-0. We’re 7-0. They’re 2-0 in the division. We’re 2-0 in the division,” Fries said about Thursday’s matchup. “Last year, we didn’t shoot well against them again from the free throw line. I’m glad we got this bad play out of the way tonight and we just move on.”
“The kids are pretty confident. They think they can go up there and steal a win. We need to contain their best player, take care of the basketball and finish around the rim and not give them second chance opportunities.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Burlington City | 16 | 10 | 13 | 4 | 43 |
| Cinnaminson | 13 | 9 | 15 | 7 | 44 |
Pirates Scoring:
Conor Bresnahan – 16
Devon Taylor – 9
Rich Rickus – 8
Pat McCarthy – 4
Kyle Roberts-DeLoach – 4
JP Rickus – 3
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