Canaries work the paint to rally for win
Ellis, Ozuna and teammates outscore Huskies 45-20 in second half of home game.
Allen scored just five points and didn’t have a field goal in the second quarter of Saturday afternoon’s Eastern Pennsylvania Conference game against Dieruff.
So, did Canaries coach Doug Snyder come up with one of his best halftime speeches to inspire his team?
“Nothing special except that we wanted to get the ball inside a little more and take advantage of our size over their size,” Snyder said. “I told them it doesn’t matter what the score is at halftime. It only matters what it is at the end of the game.”
The score at the end of the game was: Allen 71, Dieruff 47.
The Canaries outscored the Huskies 45-20 after intermission to get back above the .500 mark at 4-3 overall, 2-2 in the EPC.
Following Snyder’s instructions to get the ball inside in the second half was the young guard tandem of freshman Nate Ellis and sophomore Emmanuel Ozuna.
Ozuna scored 10 of his 14 points in the second half and Ellis tallied seven of his 12 in the fourth quarter.
They joined Daquan Smith in combining for six assists as Allen went on an 8-1 run to open the third quarter and never looked back.
Quinton Stewart and Xavier Jones combined for 11 apiece for the Canaries, who struggled to get in sync in the second quarter when they had more turnovers (6) than points.
“The key was to play with energy and concentrate on their shooters on defense,” Ellis said. “If we play with energy, we can be a pretty good team.”
Huskies were barking
Dieruff was in the game in the first half thanks to Honor Huff, who scored 13 points in the first quarter.
But Huff was held to just four points over the final three periods.
“I scouted Dieruff against Roberto Clemente the other night and we knew that Honor was going to score points,” Snyder said. “I was worried he could go for 30, but we did hold him down after the first quarter.”
John Jordan scored six points in the second quarter, but none in the second half.
The Huskies got into quick foul trouble after intermission and offered little resistance on the boards where Allen held a 40-22 advantage led by A’Quele Adderley’s 14 rebounds and Stewart’s 10.
“They killed us on the boards,” Dieruff coach Joe Jarjous said. “We put on the board that we needed to rebound, get the loose balls and take charges and we weren’t able to do those things well enough. We held them to zero field goals in the second quarter and then had trouble stopping them in the second half.”
Both teams are young with freshmen and sophomores in the starting lineup and growing pains will be a theme during the course of the season. Dieruff doesn’t have a senior on its roster.
“We haven’t been able to put it together for 32 minutes, but it’s going to take time,” Jarjous said. “We have great kids. They’ll keep battling. They got a little frustrated today when Allen came back and we put our heads down a little bit, but we’ll learn from it.”
Snyder said his team will go through similar ups and downs.
“With our young backcourt, we’re learning every day,” he said. “There’s something every game we have to pick up and learn. That’s what happens when you’re a young team. We don’t play a lot of seniors. We have just four on the entire roster, so there’s going to be a lot of learning going on.”
Meeting No. 146
This is the 60th season of Dieruff basketball and while the Allen-Dieruff rivalry may not be what it used to be in the Milo Sewards-Dick Schmidt era or even what it was like when John Donmoyer coached against Terry German, it’s still special.
Allen now leads the series 82-64 and has won nine straight since Dieruff won 51-50 late in the 2013-14 season.
“This is always a championship-like game,” Snyder said. “We knew today that Dieruff would come and play us hard and play us tough. We knew they would compete. We were just fortunate to be able to get them into some foul trouble and pound the ball inside.”
Meanwhile at Muhlenberg
Emmaus was able to avoid a letdown after its big win over Central Catholic Friday night and stay unbeaten with a 56-48 victory over defending state champ Abington Heights at the Awesome! Holiday Challenge at Muhlenberg College.
Mark Swedberg led a balance attack with 17 points as the Green Hornets jumped out to a 14-2 lead in the first quarter and never looked back.
Zach Sabol and Cameron Brooks added 11 apiece and Bryce Diehl added 10.
Also at Muhlenberg, Bangor defeated Susquehanna Township 51-46, Executive Education Academy Charter routed Scranton 58-41 and Pennridge whipped Scranton Prep 61-38.