Severna Park Boys Beat South River, 54-44

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The Severna Park boys basketball team delighted a gym full of Green Hornets families with a solid home win over South River on Monday, beating the visiting Seahawks 54-44.

The Falcons improved to 5-11 and showed a full team effort in the victory, stifling the Seahawks with excellent team defense and deploying 12 different players for minutes in the victory.

“For us the cornerstone of what we do is what we do defensively,” said head coach Paul Pellicani. “We try to get people uncomfortable and frustrate what they’re trying to do. We played a lot of great team defense tonight.”

Jordan Hallet and Jerry Jennings led the Falcons with 12 points apiece, with Hallet pulling own 10 rebounds and Jennings grabbing 6 boards. Matt Simms (6 points), Evan Dill (6 points), Jacob Goodman (seven points), Josh Horgan, Colin Wolfe, Bryce Benedick, Orion Young, Stephen Horman, Joe Harrington and Ethan Mills all made contributions in the Falcons’ win.

Simms, the team’s point guard, described the defense the Falcons played as critical to their success now and moving forward.

“I think we had a great team win today, we moved the ball and played great help defense,” said Simms. “We got it done tonight as a team.”

Jennings set the tone early by taking a charge in the first quarter with a textbook slide into the lane to cut off a South River driver. He said Saturday’s practice was intense, and the Falcons came into Monday’s game ready to play hard.

“On Saturday morning, everyone competed, we were diving for loose balls, and the way you practice is the way you play, so it feels good to get this win,” said Jennings. “We had that energy. We came in focused, ready to go. People were sacrificing, taking charges. Quick, early help. If someone’s driving, step in and help. All-around it was a solid performance.”

With the game rescheduled from last Friday’s snow cancellations, the Falcons are right back at it again Tuesday against Meade.

Pellicani agreed the team has done a good job progressing and improving throughout the season.

“They are extremely coachable,” said Pellicani. “They accept coaching. They’re buying in to what we’re trying to do. It’s very rare we have a dud of a practice. Not saying we don’t have them, but they’re few and far between. That’s one of our goals, is, ‘Let’s be better than we were last week.’”

With a home rematch against Broadneck coming on February 15, the Falcons can punctuate their season with a win over the Bruins; Broadneck defeated Severna Park a few weeks ago at Broadneck.

Simms and Jennings stressed a one-game-at-a-time approach, but they didn’t rule out being a dangerous team come playoff time.

“I feel like when we play great team defense, we’ll be able to compete with anyone in this county,” said Jennings.

Simms agreed, saying, “If we play as a team, we can compete against anyone. It all starts at practice because we’re competing with each other every day to get better. I think that shows throughout the season, and we’re going to carry this on throughout the rest of the season.”

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