In a matchup that pitted two very similar teams, the Collingswood Holiday Tournament title game saw the Pirates take down New Foundations Charter (PA) 68-55 to secure the crown.
Cinnaminson got to the title game by beating Salem 48-45 in the opening round on Tuesday.
“That team was a mirror image of us. Great competition coming from Philly,” head coach Mike Fries said. “The boys played well in the first half, but really stepped up in the second half.”
The 13-point victory is not indicative of how evenly matched the game was in the first half, which featured a 33-30 lead for the Pirates at the break.
“They’re not a real good shooting team,” senior Rich Rickus (10 points) said. “They like to drive so we made sure to pack it in and make them pull back into a jump shot.”
The first half was very entertaining as both teams traded big baskets, with both sides showing off their three-point shooting capabilities.
“It feels good. It does,” senior Kyle Roberts-DeLoach (12 points) said of the win. “We went over what we practiced and just came out and performed well.”
Boy’s basketball finished the first half on a 14-9 run to take the three-point lead into the locker room. The Pirates shot 7-of-10 from the charity stripe in the first half en route to 11-of-18 shooting for the game.
“We made adjustments at halftime and it was also a feeling-out process in the first half,” Fries said. “The kids shared the basketball today. It was pretty even scoring today.”
Cinnaminson exploded to start the third, going on an 8-0 run that opened their lead to 41-30. They upped the lead to 15, 55-40, to end the third quarter that saw them outscore New Foundations 22-10.
“We came down here (locker room) and we had confidence,” Rickus said. “We were watching them warmup out of the break and felt good. We were winning by three and we got kept our momentum going.”
The Pirates forced New Foundations to take plenty of jump shots throughout the game, with very few of them falling in the second half. Cinnaminson’s defense also forced multiple turnovers in the third quarter that helped build the lead.
“Kyle (Roberts-DeLoach) played the best game out of the four games so far this year,” Fries said. “His defensive energy was amazing. The kids fed off of it. The steals, him talking out there, getting loose balls; he didn’t want to come off the floor.”
The Pirates lead grew as large as 17 in the fourth quarter before New Foundations pulled the final score to within 13 points.
Cinnaminson is now 4-0 to start the season.
“Everyone getting their touches has helped us go 4-0,” Rickus said. “The one thing about this team is, we all hangout outside of school. We’re all like brothers. The passing today won us the game, not the turnovers.”
The Pirates return to the court on Tuesday, December 5 with a 3:45pm contest against Pennsauken Tech on the road.
“We’ve made big strides. They are getting comfortable with each other,” Fries said. “I see great things coming up in the future for these guys and it really hasn’t even clicked fully yet.”
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| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| New Foundations | 15 | 15 | 10 | 15 | 55 |
| Cinnaminson | 14 | 19 | 22 | 13 | 68 |
Scoring:
Conor Bresnahan – 13
Devon Taylor – 13
Kyle Roberts-DeLoach – 12
Rich Rickus – 10
Pat McCarthy – 9
JP Rickus – 9
Sean Christian – 2
