Charlie Albano is pretty much the only recognizable player for the New Hope-Solebury boys basketball team.
Graduation hit the Lions hard, with Albano, a senior guard, the only key returnee from a team that reached the District One Class 4A final in 2021.
But things are starting to come together for the Lions. On Tuesday they posted their first Suburban One League victory of the season, a 35-24 triumph over host Hatboro-Horsham in a divisional crossover game.
“I’m basically like a coach on the floor for the young guys,” Albano said. “Our program’s got a bright future with guys like Miles (Demby) and Liam (Ross). They’re good. This is just the best experience for them.
“I think this is absolutely a turning point for our team. We have a lot of talented young players who are starting to get experience at the varsity level and it’s only going to go up from here.”
New Hope (1-7 SOL, 2-12 overall) jumped out to an early lead, ending the first period ahead, 9-6. The Hatters tied it up, 11-11, but by halftime the Lions were up, 14-11.
One minute into the third quarter, the Hatters took the lead for the first time, going up 15-14. But with three minutes remaining in the frame, a 3-pointer by Miles Demby gave the Lions a 21-19 lead, which they never relinquished.
“That’s something we’ve struggled with all year,” Albano said. “When they get ahead, we don’t know how to respond, we don’t know how to rebound from it, but in this game we did. They went on a run and we answered and that’s how it went all night.”
The Hatters also have their woes, falling to 1-7, 1-12.
“They’re struggling in their division and we’ve been struggling in ours so we knew coming in that this was a must-win game for us,” Albano said. “We talked about it all week. This was the one we had to get. It felt good to finally capitalize on our chances.”
The victory was made even sweeter by the fact that former New Hope coach Rick Fedele is now at Hatboro-Horsham.
“We beat a big school tonight for our first conference win and it’s really exciting,” said Demby, a sophomore center. “Whenever we lose, we tend to put our heads down but now we have to just keep working. Hopefully, this will get us going in the right direction. It’s amazing to get our first league win against Coach Fedele.”
New Hope is a PIAA Class 4A team, playing in the SOL Freedom Division with just one other 4A program, Springfield (M). Upper Moreland and Lower Moreland are Class 5A, while Cheltenham and William Tennent are both 6A. All six of the SOL Liberty programs (Upper Dublin, Abington, Plymouth Whitemarsh, Quakertown, Wissahickon and Hatboro-Horsham) are Class 6A.
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