Pennridge Captures Program’s First SOL Tournament Title

Pennridge defeated Cheltenham to capture the program’s first SOL Tournament title. Photos provided courtesy of Jon Sklut.

PENNRIDGE 52, CHELTENHAM 50

Pennridge was clinging to a one-point lead when Christian Guldin stepped to the foul line with 48 seconds remaining. The Rams’ senior point guard calmly sank both ends of a one-and-one.

Colin Post hauled in the rebound of a Panther miss at the other end, and again, Guldin was fouled. Again, he made both, this time giving the Rams a 52-47 lead with 17 seconds remaining.

A win in Monday night’s SOL Tournament title game was all but assured. Only Rasheem Dearry’s three at the buzzer made the final score closer, and when the final horn sounded, the players could celebrate at last.

“It’s awesome – it’s the first time Pennridge has ever won this thing,” senior Christian Guldin said. “It’s indescribable.

“We know a win like this over a top three team – we can compete with any team in District One, and we made that mark tonight. We’re ready to make a push.”

Making the win even more impressive is the fact that the Rams won their first title the year after they lost the core of last year’s state runner-up squad, including all-everything guard Sean Yoder, who took his talents to the U.S. Naval Academy.

While some may have doubted the Rams chances of succeeding this season, Guldin was not in that number.

“We knew we had a good group of guys – we’ve been playing together since sixth grade, and after we won the division, I talked to some of the guys that swung and didn’t really play and was like, ‘Let’s do this next year’ because we (saw) how fun and rewarding it is for them,” Guldin said. “We wanted to make it our (goal) and play our hearts out every night.”

Guldin certainly did his part to make it happen. Midway through the fourth quarter with his team trailing by one, the senior point guard drove into the paint and connected on a floater over every would-be Panther defender in his path, giving the Rams a 46-45 led. The two teams exchanged possessions, and Guldin hit nothing but net on another floater in the paint, giving the Rams a 48-45 lead.  

“I’ve been working on it a lot,” Guldin said of a shot that was money in the paint. “A team like that – I’m not going to finish over them just because of how athletic they are. I have to finish quick and early because the deeper I get – they’re going to block it.”

Guldin’s foul shots down the stretch put the finishing touches on the big win.

“We’ve never won the Suburban One Challenge, but we’ve had five cracks at it,” Pennridge coach Dean Behrens said. “Last year we finally broke through when we got to the championship game and lost to Abington.

“Tonight we were able to play really good basketball. The second half we played outstanding.”

The Panthers – behind eight points from Jaelen McGlone and seven from Sean Emfinger – took a 33-25 lead into halftime. Saleem Payne’s three as time expired in the half gave the Panthers their eight-point margin.

“I was a little upset with the boys – I don’t think we got back on defense well at all,” Behrens said. “I think they had 14 or 16 points in transition. I said, ‘Fellows, we have to sprint back.’ Too many fellows were jogging back like a D-back. We needed to sprint back.

“That was the one adjustment we made. Everything else we kind of stayed pat. We told them – attack the basket. We couldn’t get set in our offense because of their pressure, and we set up in a 2-1-2 set. I told the boys – ‘Go to the basket, use your ball fakes and go strong.’”

The Panthers opened up a 37-25 lead when Brandon Scott scored a fast break basket less than a minute into the second half, and things didn’t look all that promising for the Rams.

“Coach said – ‘Just stay positive. We’re getting open shots, we’ll hit them in the second half,’” Guldin said. “They shot the ball really well in the first half.

“We just said – ‘They’re going to miss shots. We’re going to get our chance,’ and when we got our chance, we took advantage of it.”

Luke Yoder scored seven of his nine points in the third quarter, and his baseline trey gave the Rams a 42-41 lead. Payne found Scott for an easy basket at the buzzer, and the Panthers led by one heading into a final quarter that belonged to Guldin and the Rams.

Behrens had a message for those who suggest the postseason SOL Tournament doesn’t matter.

“First of all, when you play any type of basketball game, you play to win,” the Rams’ coach said. “I know people say, ‘Oh, you have playoffs coming. Something bad could happen.’

“It’s a basketball game, it’s not complicated. Let’s go try to win. We had an opportunity to play two really good basketball teams – Bensalem on Saturday and obviously, Cheltenham today.

“Cheltenham was (21-2). I felt they were the class of our league. They’re well coached. Pat (Fleury) is a good young coach, which is good to have in our league. Some of us, like myself, are getting a little long on the tooth. It’s good to see young guys come and coach. He’s got a good thing going there.”

Guldin’s 22 points – which included a pair of first-half 3s – led the Rams.

“Christian has been a leader for us all year,” Behrens said.

Also for the Rams, Yoder and Trent Fisher both had nine points, and Anthony Phillips added seven.

“I was pleased that when we got down 10 – against Cheltenham, what could happen easily, that could balloon to 20,” Behrens said. “You start losing focus, you’re turning the ball over.

“We didn’t. We cut it to five – it was 30-25, and last possession, they hit a three, but I kept saying to the boys – ‘Listen, if we can keep this game going into the fourth quarter one possession, they might tighten up a little bit. Maybe they won’t shoot quite as well. Get back better on defensive transition and maybe we’ll have a shot.’ We got fortunate, and that’s what happened.”

For the Panthers, Scott led the way with 11 points while Dearry, McGlone and Emfinger each added nine.

“We have to refocus and lock back into our postseason and goals,” Fleury said.

Game Summary brought to you by

Pennridge (18-6, 9-3 SOL) – the eighth seed in the District One 6A Tournament – is off until Tuesday, Feb. 18. The Rams will face a familiar foe when they host the winner of #24 North Penn at #9 Central Bucks West in a second round contest.

Cheltenham (21-3, 14-0 SOL) will host the winner of #19 Upper Darby at #14 Souderton in a second round game. Both teams have opening round byes.

Pennridge        12-13-17-10   52

Cheltenham     14-19-10-7   50

Pennridge (52) – Luke Yoder 4 0-1 9; Christian Guldin 8 4-4 22; Colin Poast 2 1-2 5; Anthony Phillips 3 0-0 7; Trent Fisher 3 3-4 9; Totals 20 8-11 52.

Cheltenham (50) – Rasheem Dearry 3 0-0 9; Travis Coleman 1 0-0 2; Brandon Scott 5 1-3 11; Justin moore 2 1-4 5; Saleem Payne 2 0-0 5; Jaelen McGlone 2 4-7 9; Sean Emfinger 3 2-2 9; Totals 18 8-16 50.

3-point goals: Cheltenham –  Rasheem Dearry 3, Saleem Payne, Jaelen McGlone, Sean Emfinger, Pennridge – Christian Guldin 2, Anthony Phillips, Luke Yoder.