BOYS BASKETBALL: Nate Rusike provides offensive spark, Souderton tops North Penn to stay undefeated

TOWAMENCIN – It does not take much for Nate Rusike to ignite on the offensive end.

“Really what just lights the spark is I just think ‘go, go go,’” the Souderton boys basketball senior said.

In Friday night’s visit to North Penn, Rusike had gone scoreless in an opening quarter that ended even at nine points apiece. The host Knights knocked down a trio of 3-pointers to begin the second quarter and were still up nine at 20-11 when Rusike finally broke through for a basket.

More points followed for Rusike and he and the Indians found their footing in the up-tempo contest. Rusike collected 10 points as Souderton finished the half with a 17-4 run, scoring the last 12 before the break to hold a 28-24 edge.

“They had us up in the beginning, going to the second quarter and I’m like no this can’t be, like this can’t be what we want right now,” Rusike said. “So, you know, just any way to help my team whether it’s passing or scoring, I just think of that and just turns up for me.”

The Indians extended the run after halftime, opening the third with seven straight points – four from Rusike, who put Big Red up 35-24 with a basket off an inbounds.

Midway through the second, I don’t know if they did anything specific but I personally just feel like we just started making careless turnovers, careless passes and they do a good job of getting out and running,” North Penn coach Cordell Lord said. “They’re like us, they’re small, they’re fast, they can shoot and they make plays. We hurt ourselves not taking care of the basketball and then it was chasing the whole time after that.”

Souderton extended the margin to 13 later in the quarter then was up by 15 in the fourth before holding off the Knights and staying undefeated with a 62-53 victory.

“When we have momentum we keep going, we keep going, we keep going,” Rusike said. “We don’t bring our momentum down. And I feel like once we start to feel as a team that we have momentum, we start doing everything the right way, no one’s going to stop us.”

Rusike finished with a game-high 23 points while backcourt mate Chanse Salone scored 11 of his 17 points in the second half, including a five-point burst early in the fourth after North Penn had cut the margin to 49-41.

“Nate has improved in a variety of ways.” Lord said. “I personally think it’s tat-for-tat with him and Chanse and I think they’re a hell of a two-way combo. But I think Nate has done a really good job of taking over in terms of being a little bit of their motor, getting them going. And then Chanse just being a MVP of our league and one of the better players just having such a great feel for the game and controlling the pace at all times and just being a good player and being consistent.”

Koby Rollerson added 12 points for the Indians (8-0, 4-0 division), who host Lansdale Catholic in a nonleague game at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

We can’t settle with 8-0, that’s nothing special,” Rusike said. “We have goals that we want to reach and 8-0 wasn’t one of ‘em, we want to keep going from here.  So it feels good to be 8-0 but job’s not done.”

JC Wood hit five 3-pointers in scoring a team-best 15 points for the Knights (2-5, 1-3), who had snapped a three-game skid Tuesday with a 57-54 win over Pennridge. Chase Kingkiner recorded 12 points.

North Penn hosts Dock Mennonite 3:30 p.m. Tuesday

“We’ve been on the rough end of these runs at times but I think it’s a really good learning experience for us,” Lord said. “Because we’ve been in every single game so far this year and we’re young and we’re making a lot of mistakes and we just have to realize to sometimes slow the game down and get the best decision at all times.”

The Knights still led by nine in the second quarter after a Nolen Foust reverse layup made it 22-13. Rusike connected on a three before Aiden Thomas scored off a drive to have NP up 24-16.

But the rest of the first half’s points came from Souderton. A Rollerson three then baskets from Marquis Brown and Rusike had Big Red down just 24-23 while Rusike’s 3-point play off a fast break at 1:19 gave Souderton its first lead since 9-7. A Salone bucket had the Indians ahead 28-24 at halftime.

Rusike started the third driving in for a layin. Salone chipped in the next three points with another Rusike basket capping the 19-0 run.

North Penn pulled to within seven later in the third when Kingkiner’s step-back trey made it 41-34 but Rusike responded by draining a three of his own, putting Big Red up 10.

“That was a good move by Chris, I knew he was going to pull some move out like that,” Rusike said. “The moment he made that I was like ‘shoot, I got to get it back at some point, right?’”

A Salone 3-point play with 42.7 seconds left in the third made it 49-36. The Knights scored the next five to get within 49-41 in the fourth before Salone answered with a 5-0 personal run, his 3-point play at 6:09 pushing the Indians’ advantage again to 13.

Souderton’s largest lead came at 58-43 after consecutive baskets from Brown. North Penn went on an 8-0, back-to-back 3-pointers from Wood cutting the margin to 58-51 but Rusike posted the next four points to put the Indians back up double digits.