Pirates Start Final Leg of Schedule with a Win

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Entering Tuesday the boy’s basketball team had just six games left on the regular season schedule, five of them at home, before they begin their quest for the South, Group 2 title on March 1.

The first of those six games, against Pennsauken Tech, saw the Pirates start the final leg of the schedule with a 69-35 victory to move to 14-6 overall.

“The most important thing is to stay focused at practice and then it carries over to the next game,” head coach Mike Fries said.

Cinnaminson will play a total of three games this week and three games next week as the team looks to iron some things out before postseason play starts.

“With a team like Pennsauken Tech, we beat them earlier pretty easily, but we know they’re not a team to come out and mess around with,” Pat McCarthy said. “We just came out hard and kept the lead going through. The guys off the bench played great.”

Three seniors led the Pirates in scoring Tuesday as Will Cabbler poured in 22, Devon Taylor added 13 and Rich Rickus contributed 12.

The Pirates led 34-17 at halftime and never looked back, outscoring Pennsauken Tech 25-10 in the third quarter to take a commanding, 59-27 lead into the fourth.

Cinnaminson got contributions from all 12 players who dressed for the game even if it didn’t show on the scoresheet.

“It gives them a chance to play at a varsity level, play against better competition than they’re used to, and to see the speed of the game so they know what’s coming,” Fries said.

Out of the 12 players who saw time on the court today, 10 scored for the Pirates in what was an all-around fundamentally sound game against Pennsauken Tech, whom the Pirates beat 67-47 on the road earlier in the season.

“They know that the minutes can come at anytime,” McCarthy said of the Pirates bench, which contributed 18 points in the win. “We are all working everyday in practice. They just gotta be ready like anybody else.”

The Pirates wanted Tuesday to be a fresh start after falling to Glassboro 72-50 on Sunday morning by getting back to playing four quarters of basketball.

“When we’re playing the games, they need to play all four quarters,” Fries said. “They can’t take the foot of the gas at any point during the game. That’s what happened on Sunday (Glassboro).”

“The fourth quarter, they put their heads down when they got down. They gotta know that if they make mistakes, forget about it and move on to the next possession.”

Cinnaminson hits the court Wednesday for a home game against Freedom rival Holy Cross at 6:15pm. The Pirates are 5-2 in the Freedom this year.

“We need to come out and play for 32 minutes and not give up anything,” Fries said of the Holy Cross game plan. “We need to play hard, man-to-man defense. If we do that, we will succeed tomorrow night.”

Check the Pirates Daily Preview tomorrow morning at 7am for a full preview of this divisional contest.

Pirates Scoring:
Will Cabbler – 22
Devon Taylor – 13
Rich Rickus – 12
Kyle Roberts-DeLoach – 6
Conor Bresnahan – 4
JP Rickus – 4
Tim Young – 2
PJ Dluoik – 2
Craig Turner – 2
Andrew Tate – 2