Boys basketball: CR North edges CB East in triple OT

It looked like it was over.
But it wasn’t; not by a long shot.
It went to triple overtime before the visiting Council Rock North boys basketball team earned a hard-fought victory over Central Bucks East, 54-52, on Friday night in a Suburban One League crossover game.
As the clock ticked down to the end of regulation, CB East’s Brett Young hit what appeared to be a buzzer-beater to give the Patriots the win.
But CR North coach Jesse Krasna had called timeout before the clock ran out. The Indians got .4 seconds put back on the clock and were awarded a technical foul because the CB East fans, thinking the game was over, rushed the court.
Jack Blum went to the line for the Indians and hit both free throws to tie the game at 45-45 and force the overtime.
Neither team scored in the first overtime, and both picked up four points in the second overtime to set up the third extra frame.
CR North led by one point late in the period, when Ryan Burkett grabbed a rebound off a missed CB East shot, then went 1-for-2 at the free throw line with three seconds remaining to give the Indians a two-point lead. It was the only point Burkett scored but it proved to be the final point of the game.
“CB East is a great team,” said CR North senior Bernie Parent, who ended the night with 18 points including a 3-point goal. “We jumped out early, but we knew they were going to get right back in it and they did. They’re hard to blow out, so getting that big lead early was big for us.
“We just had to grind it out and stay mentally locked in the whole game. They went on a lot of runs. Their student section was going crazy but we had to stay focused and we did, especially when Jack hit those free throws at the end to tie it up. That was a crazy sequence.”
The Indians were coming off a heartbreaking 53-52 loss to Central Bucks South.
“We knew coming in that we play CB South, CB East and CB West, and we just finished playing Souderton, and we knew we really wanted to get a couple of wins out of those games, so this was huge for us,” Parent said. “Beating a good team like CB East is a big confidence boost for us. They’re a playoff team, and this was a playoff game.
“We worked on our conditioning and that came up huge in this game. We only played six guys and we weren’t tired in the heat of the moment. We’ll probably be tired and sore later, but right now it feels great.”
Parent is the grandson of National Hockey League Hall of Fame goaltender Bernie Parent.

“There’s always pressure because of that,” he said. “Their student section was chanting at me and before the game on social media there was some talk but to be honest, it fuels me. That competitive spirit just comes out. I think I play better when there’s trash talk.
“It was a clean game on the floor, though. It was just two really evenly matched teams going at it.”
For the Indians, Adam Mahtat had a game-high 23 points including a 3-point goal, while Blum had six points, Logan Saifer added two and Shane Anhalt had two.
CR North began the evening with an 11-0 lead, followed by a 9-0 CB East run that got the Patriots in the game.
“Coming into this game we had two rough losses,” CB East sophomore Jake Cummiskey said. “Coach (Erik Henrysen) gave us a motivational speech at practice. We changed the whole nature of everything at practice and we laid it all out on the floor. It was a rough start, but we bounced back the best we could.”
Cummiskey led the Patriots with 19 points, including four 3-pointers.
“I did what I could,” he said. “I finally started shooting that three, which is something I haven’t been doing a lot. I probably only hit four or five threes all season before this game. I did what the game asked me to do.
“It was a great game. We played hard. They played hard. They came out on top. Their 11-0 start, you could argue that’s the game. This game was really won and lost in the beginning. We were not taking bad shots. We were getting good shots, wide open threes, and they just weren’t falling. It wasn’t anything we were doing wrong. We were just unlucky.
“We played well. There’s so much potential with this team. I’m upset with myself for my foul shots (he went 1-for-3 at the line). I actually just went in the aux(illary) room and made 50 foul shots (after the game).
“I was so excited for this game. I wanted to prove everyone wrong. Everyone was saying we were lazy, we didn’t work hard, and I think we proved them wrong. This is not a setback at all. We’re heading in the right direction.”
Last year, the Patriots missed out on the District One title game on a buzzer-beater by Abington.
“There’s no pressure on us to repeat but we can 100 percent get right back there,” Cummiskey said. “We’ve got all the pieces.
“I love playing with this team, with my brother (Liam, a senior) and his friends. We’re starting to build a bond right now. I think we’re definitely going to be a late blooming team. We had a good start, but we had a couple of tough losses in a row, and now I only see us going up. I think we can do well at districts and go on to states.”
Aidan Weaver scored 13 points including a 3-pointer, Liam Cummiskey contributed six points on a pair of threes, Nick Rivera put up six points, Young had five points with one 3-pointer and Tyriq Toney-Bailey chipped in three points to account for the rest of CB East’s scoring.

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