Home Winter Boy's Basketball Pirates Take Down RV to End Regular Season

Pirates Take Down RV to End Regular Season

February 25, 2016

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Boy’s basketball welcomed Group 4 Rancocas Valley to town for the final game of the regular season on Thursday night and it was a good one.

The Pirates took down RV 69-66 to finish the regular season with an 18-7 record. Cinnaminson is the five-seed in the South, Group 2 Tournament, which begins on Tuesday. The Pirates will host Cedar Creek.

“This week we had three tough games against teams that we wanted to prepare for the tournament,” head coach Mike Fries said. “This makes a statement for us to know that we have the confidence to go in and beat anybody.”

The game with RV was the second versus a Group 4 school this week. The Pirates took down Montgomery 52-51 at the buzzer on Monday.

“This gives us tremendous confidence,” senior Devon Taylor (24 points) said. “Our seniors are finishing off our high school career great right now. We have a lot of momentum going into the playoffs.”

Tonight’s game was the 11th of the season at home for the Pirates, who won all 11 this year; a big plus heading into Tuesday’s first-round home game. Overall, the Pirates are 13-0 at home dating back to last season.

“It’s been a phenomenal season going undefeated at home,” Fries said. “We know that whoever comes in here, they’re not going to win.”

Per the norm, the Pirate faithful were out in force and loud, making it difficult for RV players to hear their coach from the sidelines.

“The crowd has been crazy this year,” junior Conor Bresnahan (16 points) said. “We really just want to get a win for the fans. We know it’s hard for teams to come in here and get wins this year. It gives us so much confidence playing at home.”

The Pirates jumped out to an 18-6 lead after one and built it to 32-23 at the break. Cinnaminson won three of four quarters, with the fourth seeing RV overcome a 10-point deficit to take a brief lead at 61-59 with just 2:13 remaining in the game.

“They took the lead with like two minutes to go and we didn’t panic,” Fries said. “We kept control. We kept attacking the basket. We finished. We took care of the ball at the end of the game.”

Cinnaminson did not falter, tying the game at 61 on a bucket that started a 6-0 run that saw the Pirates take a 65-61 lead with just under one minute left.

“The senior leadership, they were just men out there tonight,” Fries said. “They were ripping the ball away from them (Red Devils). They wanted it more than they did tonight.”

After trading buckets, the game came down to free throws as the Pirates held a 67-66 lead. Senior Pat McCarthy hit two from the charity stripe with five seconds left in a one-and-one situation to give Cinnaminson a 69-66 lead that would wind up being the final score.

“We definitely moved the ball and played great defense against their best players,” Taylor said. “I think we did a really good job playing defense.”

Rancocas Valley heaved a prayer at the buzzer, but it did not fall as the Pirates held on for the impressive victory. The Red Devils finish the regular season 15-11.

The Pirates have four days off until their playoff opener on Tuesday, March 1 when they host 12-seed Cedar Creek in the first round of the South, Group 2 Tournament.

“We’ve seen Cedar Creek twice,” Fries said. “They’re athletic. They were 8-8 at the cut. They play tough man-to-man defense.”

At practice prior to the playoffs the Pirates will focus on free throws among other things.

“We need to work on keeping our composure, making free throws and executing at the end of games,” Bresnahan said.

“We’re gonna work on some free throws,” Taylor added. “We gotta work on free throws.”

Cinn City Sports will have coverage of boy’s basketball vs Cedar Creek at 7pm on Tuesday night. That will follow coverage of girl’s basketball vs Buena at 5pm. Follow us on Twitter for live updates from both playoff openers.

Follow Cinn City Sports on Twitter for news, scores and live updates from games throughout each season. Like Cinn City Sports on Facebook. Sign-up for our daily newsletter, which arrives daily at 8am with the previous day’s stories, on the homepage.