Bucks County reaches Donofrio finale

“This is brand new territory for us,” stated Bucks County head coach Jim Kenny. “We’ve never been here before.”

Those were the words uttered by the man who has held the top post for the Bucks County all-stars for the past six years now. He said them after the local boys downed the Sonny Hill Juniors in double overtime in the Albert C. Donofrio Classic April 14 at Fellowship House in Conshohocken.

Earlier in the tourney, the boys from Bucks defeated Filly Sol, Don-Len, The Old School Cavs and the Sonny Hill Juniors before falling to the I-3 All-Stars April 15 in the finale.

The win over the Sonny Hill team took a pair of overtime sessions and took efforts from a couple of Pennsbury seniors to get to overtime.

Pennsbury senior Dalton Pepper led the way with 39 points, including a 3-point play he pulled off with the Bucks boys trailing by 5 points with less than a minute to play.

The West Virginia-bound Pepper finished off an end-to-end drive with a reverse layup then sank the ensuing free throw to draw his team within a pair.

Then, with only seconds left, Falcon junior Jesse Krasna tied the game at 78-all, sending it into its first overtime.

In overtime, Bucks was up by 3 points with 14 seconds to go when the Sonny Hill team hit a 3-pointer that sent the battle into a second extra session.

The locals finally outpaced Sonny Hill, 12-7, in the second OT to emerge with a 101-96 semifinal victory.

The area players included Pennsbury senior Eddie Dirugeris, Andrew Stress and Arron Goodman from Council Rock North and Neshaminy freshman Ryan Arcidiacono. Will Barrett and Greg Johnson represented CB South.
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--Steve Sherman, Sports Editor