Healthy James Ashford making his mark for Bensalem

By Todd Thorpe

After battling a hip injury as a sophomore, the junior guard is the leading scorer for the first-place Owls.

FAIRLESS HILLS — A year ago, James Ashford was looking forward to a breakout sophomore season with the Bensalem Owls.

It never happened. He played a few games, battled through pain, but in the end the season was KO’d by a nagging hip injury.

Games like Thursday night at Pennsbury are the reason why Ashford spent nearly that entire year working hard to get back to full strength for his junior season. Ashford scored 20 of his game-high 26 points as first-place Bensalem, trailing for most of the game, rallied to edge the host Falcons 60-57 in a Suburban One League National Conference game.

“I told my parents, it’s either now or nothing,” he said. “They told me, ‘If you’re not working hard you’re not going to do nothing. You can get better.’