Poor Shooting and Sloppy Play Betray Eagles In District Loss

WESTTOWN – Aaron Webb was ready to go. Too bad his Norristown teammates clearly were not. Poor shooting and turnovers buried Webb and the Eagles early and their comeback bid faltered late in a 57-50 defeat to West Chester’s Bayard Rustin in a PIAA Class AAAA District One boys' basketball playback game on Tuesday.

Anthony Nash scored a game-high 19 points, and 1,000-point scorer Cory Blake celebrated his birthday with a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds to pace the Golden Knights (24-4), who rebounded with the win after having their 19-game winning streak snapped last Friday.

Webb and Richard Bouknight led Norristown with 10 points apiece. Webb added five rebounds and five steals, while Tyreese White added seven rebounds.

The Eagles (20-5) have already earned a state tournament berth and will play host to Bensalem Saturday for the district’s seventh seed. The Owls (19-7) dropped a tough 45-44 decision to Lower Merion last night.

Though comforted knowing that a place at states is secure for his team, Norristown head coach Mike Evans is left feeling uneasy after Tuesday’s loss followed a 56-55 setback in overtime to Council Rock North last Friday in the district quarterfinals, giving Norristown back-to-back losses for the first time this season.

“We’ve just got to come out, work harder and pick up those things that we didn’t do tonight,” he said.

“Those things” included committing turnovers for seven of the first 11 times the Eagles held the ball, shooting a woeful 27 percent for the game (15-of-56) and digging themselves too big a hole to crawl out from.

“We came out flat,” Evans added. “We didn’t come ready to play tonight.”

Webb looked primed after ripping off his jacket with still eight minutes left in pre-game warm-ups, the only player from both teams to do so. But it was the Golden Knights who came out prepared, utilizing a full-court press to grab the 13-4 lead after the first quarter. More than three minutes went by before the Eagles even scored their first points, on a pair of free throws by Webb with 4:48 left in the period.

“We just came out with no heart, no fire,” Webb said. “We came out flat and looked like we didn’t know what we were playing for.”

The teams played even through halftime where Bayard Rustin held a 22-11 lead. But the Eagles’ stagnant play carried through to the third quarter, where the Golden Knights extended the deficit to 19 points at 39-20. Several of their points came off easy steals in the open court which ended in thunderous dunks by Nash and Blake.

With the hosts continually double-teaming and trapping, the Eagles showed their frustrations in haphazard and hurried passes, and off-balance and ill-timed shots.

“We were prepared for everything they threw at us,” Webb said. “We knew they were going to come out and press. We just didn’t execute our half-court offense throughout the game. We did it in spurts, but we didn’t do it the whole game.”

Despite their sloppy performance, the Eagles' desperate play actually brought them back as they applied their own pressure defense to force Rustin into nine fourth-quarter turnovers.

After the teams exchanged a pair of baskets, the Eagles clamped on the defense for a 6-0 run before a free throw and a 3-pointer by Bouknight pulled them back within 10 points at 47-37 with just over three minutes to play.

But a mistake by the officials on a foul gave Rustin an extra possession after a missed free throw by Blake, and senior Zach Butcher capitalized with a devastating 3-pointer to push the lead back to 13 a minute later.

The Eagles eventually scratched the deficit back to seven points, but that was as close as they would get.

“They got a 3-pointer out of that, and if we get the rebound (after the missed free throw) it could have worked in our favor,” Evans said. “But we can’t blame (the loss) on one play. We just didn’t come ready to play tonight.”

Bayard Rustin 57, Norristown 50
NORRISTOWN (50) -- Webb 3-11 4-8 10; White 1-6 0-0 3; Johnson 2-7 1-4 5; Williams 2-7 1-2 5; Jahquan Hargrove 2-8 4-4 9; Bey 1-5 4-6 6; Bouknight 3-8 3-4 10; Bush 1-1 0-0 2; Bryant 0-1 0-0 0; Jahbri Hargrove 0-2 0-2 0. Totals: 15-56 17-30 50.
RUSTIN (57)— Butcher 3-7 0-0 8; Taylor 3-5 2-4 8; Shelton 0-0 1-2 1; Blake 8-11 0-2 16; Nash 6-13 7-9 19; Myers 2-2 1-3 5; Ridgeway 0-1 0-0 0; Roberson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 22-40 11-19 57.
Norristown 4 7 11 28 -- 50
Bayard Rustin 13 9 17 18-- 57
3-point goals: White, Jahquan Hargrove, Bouknight, Butcher (2).