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Knights shut down Mounties to begin District 4 tournament

Knights shut down Mounties to begin District 4 tournament

By JON GERARDI

jgerardi@sungazette.com

Kevin Anderson no doubt can score when he’s on the court. He’s always one of the best players offensively as he’s averaging 20 points per game. But don’t take that to mean Anderson can’t distribute the ball to his teammates, because he does it with ease when he’s on the court.

The Delaware-bound player enjoys dishing the ball out and seeing his teammates score and be happy. It’s the type of selfless play that has helped the Golden Knights go undefeated this year.

Sure, there were times Ander­son could have kept scoring against North Penn-Liberty — he only took four total shots — but instead, he kept dishing it out to teammates, and more times than not on Tuesday night, his teammates executed with their shots.

Anderson ended with 12 assists — nearly 10 of which came by halftime — as the Golden Knights rolled past Liberty, 63-19, in the first round of the District 4 Class A playoffs.

“I just love passing it to my teammates, seeing them happy, seeing them score the ball, because I want people to know it’s not all about me,” Anderson said.

“He revels in it, he loves it. That’s how he plays,” St. John Neumann coach Mike Kirby said. “He gets some points, but he makes sure everyone else gets theirs and that really makes us a better team, and he knows that.”

St. John Neumann (23-0) wasted little time getting to work against the Mounties (6-16). The Golden Knights built up a quick 7-0 lead just three minutes into the game before Liberty scored. The Mounties only scored twice in the first quarter, to cut it down to a 5-point deficit (7-2) and eight (12-4). But that would be the closest Liberty came to staying in the game.

Neumann closed out the first quarter with a 15-0 run to build up a 27-4 lead. In that first quarter, Anderson had nine of his assists.

Liberty scored nine in the second quarter, but most came against Neumann’s backups, who came into the game very early in the second quarter with the team already ahead by 23 points.

But regardless of which players were on the court — starters or off the bench — Neumann played solid defensively from start to finish, never allowing Liberty many easy looks or chances. No Liberty player ended in double digits and the Mounties’ leading scorer was Gunnar Rice who scored seven, including hitting both of the team’s 3-pointers.

“Anytime you’re in a playoff game, it’s time to take care of business. We had a good start, which makes everything else kind of easy,” Kirby said.

The Golden Knights forced Liberty to turn the ball over 12 times in each half and came away with nine steals, four from Anderson.

“That’s what we pride ourself in: defense, defense. We’re not really worried about our offense, because we know we got people to score,” Anderson said.

“We’re pretty proud of our defense. We’ve held almost half the teams we’ve played to under 40 this year, and we take pride in it,” Kirby added. “It doesn’t matter if you’re favored or not favored, or who you’re playing, you need to come and play at defensive end. We’ve won games because of our defense, not our offense, and they know that.”

In addition to his 12 assists and four steals, Anderson also grabbed seven rebounds and scored four points. Jaiden Lynch led the Golden Knights offensively with 16 points and Andrew Fish added 11. Jaiden Cioffi scored nine for Neumann.

Of the 15 players that got into the game for the Golden Knights, all but two scored.

Neumann kept its foot on the pedal in the second half, continuing to increase its lead as the Golden Knights scored 11 in the third to lead, 56-18, headed into the fourth quarter. Neumann’s starters were all out of the game for good with 3:21 to play in the third quarter.

Liberty managed just five points in the third and only one point in the fourth quarter, as Neumann didn’t allow a Liberty field goal for the final 13:58 of the game.

Neumann made it a 30-point lead in the third quarter thanks to a layup by Lynch and then led by 40 off a putback by Adam Helminiak with 6:37 to play in the game.

Up next for the Golden Knights on their quest for another District 4 championship is Sullivan County, a 37-32 winner over Meadowbrook Christian.

“Going into next round we’re just expecting competition. Teams will play hard against us, we know every game we play we’re going to get the team’s best game, so we just have to keep playing,” Anderson said.

NPL (19)

Luke Aldinger 0 0-0 0; Colin Schmouder 0 0-0 0; Drake Schmouder 1 2-2 5; Garrett Bickhart 2 0-0 4; Devin Harer 0 0-0 0; Tyler Repard 0 0-0 0; Logan Horsley 0 0-0 0; Luke Yoder 0 0-0 0; Tyler Boyer 2 0-0 4; Gunnar Rice 2 1-2 7; Durcan Zeafle 0 0-0 0; Randy Martin 0 0-0 0. Totals 7 3-4 19.

Neumann (63)

Kevin Anderson 2 0-0 4; Andrew Fish 4 0-0 11; Dalton Gough 3 0-0 6; Kyle Ferguson 0 1-2 1; Foreman Stewart 1 0-0 3; Noah Persun 1 1-1 3; Anthony Marrazzo 1 0-0 2; Rivers Parrish 0 0-0 0; Adam Helminiak 1 0-0 2; Reid Parrish 1 0-2 2; Jaiden Cioffi 4 1-5 9; Malaki Parlante 0 0-0 0; Jaiden Lynch 8 0-0 16; Josiah Reid 1 0-0 2; Thomas Haftle 1 0-0 2. Totals 28 3-10 63.

NPL 4 9 5 1 — 19

Neumann 27 18 11 7 — 63

3-point goals: Liberty 2 (Rice 2), Neumann 4 (Fish 3, Stewart 1).

Records: St. John Neumann (23-0), N.P.-Liberty (6-16).

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