Alex Walinski and Kyle Sulliuvan
Staff Writers
The Lions started the year playing against two Five A schools in the Upper Moreland tip-off tournament. In their first game, they took down Upper Merion 53-42 with a strong defensive team performance and overall performance. The Lions won three of the four quarters, only losing the third quarter by one point. The Lions played their next game against another Five A school, almost doubling New Hope’s size in Upper Moreland. The beginning was a rocky start, but the Lions were able to recuperate as the game progressed. In the end, they came up short by losing 55-41. Following strong performances out of Kyle Mclaughlin and Alex Walinski, having scored 14 and 21 points respectively over 30 minutes, the team could not follow through on the defensive end.
The regular season continued with the first home game against the Bristol Warriors. The Lions had complete control throughout the entire game, winning all four quarters. Mike Borys had a strong defensive game with three steals and 10 points. Followed by Chris Keatings stellar performance 13 points and 8 rebounds. This allowed the New Hope Lions’ head coach Rick Fedele to go deep into the bench. Resting many of the starting key players of the team to help develop the skills of the subs as the long season played out.
The next game was a Saturday evening at home facing the New Hope Lions and the Holy Ghost Prep Firebirds. This game had high attendance and was a close back and forth game as two great defensive teams battling for the lead in the league. The Lions were down three points with eight seconds to go and junior guard Alex Walinski came down and hit a deep heavily contested three pointer to send the game to overtime.The Lions controlled the lead in overtime and finished with a 50-48 win. Alex Walinski had an outstanding game with 20 points and six rebounds followed by a great performance by Junior Philip Weinsemimer with four fast break layups to go along with other baskets to total 17 points. This win put the Lions in first place in the league.
The most recent game was against Mast Charter Academy. The Lions headed into the game with a 3-1 record against Mass Charter’s 0-6 record. With a tie game in the first quarter of 12-12, the Lions took the lead and maintained a strong lead for the rest of the game. With a 30 point win for the Lions, this allowed them to clear the bench and rest the starters who have had some minor injuries. It was a great experience for the young sophomore players, such as Charlie Albano and Justin Lehman, to get varsity playing playing time as they are the young talent which will take over the future of the team. Alex Walinski had 15 points in short outing along with Kyle Mclaughlin's 15 points orchestrating the offense at point guard, alongside senior Mike Borys who finished with 16 on the day.
The Lions were off to a spectacular start with a 4-1 record and are hoping to become the face of the BAL this season and clinch their first league championship. The long three hour practices six days a week including over Thanksgiving break and Christmas Break had paid off great, resulting in the team's early success. The intangibles that go unnoticed on the scorebooks is what pushed the Lions over the top thus far. It is what is preached in practice and it pays off at game time. They don’t focus on outscoring teams, but rather prioritizing the defense and hustling, and the scoreboard has been in their favor due to this mindset. Philip Weinsiemer, Mike Borys, Bryan Dougerty, Kyle Mclaughlin, Christian Keating, and Kyle Sullivan prove this mentality to achieve success for the Lions.
The Lions had four games over the winter Holiday Break against four tough schools. Starting off with a brutal loss to Christopher Dock losing 69-63. The Lions struggled defensively stopping the big guy inside the paint and the quick athletic guards. The following game was on the day before Christmas Eve, the Lions lost to Neshaminy by one point. They allowed the opposing team to shoot the three ball consistently hurt them and forced them to be trailing the entire game. On Dec. 27, the Lions continued their losing streak with a loss to William Tennent High School where the team was outplayed offensively. The team struggled with help across rotations and struggled to stop them on the defensive end.
This was the tipping point as the team had to come together and discuss how their early success has fallen off and what it was going to take to rejuvenate their success. With a good game plan the Lions faced Council Rock North on Dec. 28, in which they were down 10 points at half time. With a second half comeback they tied up with a few seconds left to send the game into overtime. With the clock ticking down, Alex Walinski dribbled down the court and finds Michael Les for a wide open layup as time expired to win the game. This was a game that moved the Lions back up in the rankings of the league.
The Lions played their next game against Church Farm where they handled business winning by 15 points. The game was close until the late third and fourth quarter where the team began to run away with the game when they dropped into a 3-2 zone defense and got consecutive stops and turned them into scores on the opposite end.
The Lions then started a small road trip by traveling to Delaware county Christian where they played a solid team in the knights. The Lions held their own all game, but in the third quarter they shot 2-17 which killed them in the end. The Lions ended up receiving their fifth loss of the season, the second loss in league play, by a score of 57-49.
This is the team’s last year in the BAL and they hope to end on top before they head off to Suburban 1 and face many schools much bigger schools which have more talented players to choose.
