On the Mark
Basketball 2007-08

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   Mark Hueber, son of assistant Tim Hueber and an energetic seventh-grader at St. Hilary, in Rydal, has offered to do reports on North Catholic's basketball team. The only bad thing is that he'll have to deal again and again with Puck for stat-getting purposes. Please pray for him (smile). Mark is also a player in school and out (Fox Rok.)

FEB. 25
CATHOLIC FINAL
North 51, Ryan 45
  NC has finally won a championship in an all-North Division final. This was easily the best game of the year for the Falcons in a packed Palestra. Although Lenny Young didn’t play as well as usually, North still played a great game. Woody Redding played amazing with 21 points and really got the Falcons going with some great jumpers. Velton Jones played like a warrior; he was awesome with 7 assists. North also had to overcome some adversity with not having a gym to practice in for 4 weeks. The gym had a flood and 3/4 of the floor buckled. I would like to congratulate Coach McCarron, he has worked so hard over all these years and it has finally paid off for him and NC. Also some other key players were Bob Makor, who did a great job on the glass and defense. Xavier Harris also played great with 7 points (an amazing, kinda lucky tip-in was one of his baskets) and 11 rebounds. North played awesome and is now 2008 PCL champion and down came the nets.
  We are the champions! We are the Champions -- Queen.
  Mark’s Hardcore Hardworkers: 1st Xavier Harris, 2nd Velton Jones, 3rd Woody Redding.

FEB. 20
CATHOLIC SEMIFINAL
North 52, SJ Prep 41
  Man, revenge is sweet. So sweet it is. The Southern Division has ruled the PCL for years, but their regime is over. Ryan and North remain. No Southern teams (applause). I told Ted that revenge is sweet and you have to put that in your DN article and he gave me one of them looks like, “Please, boy, that is so whack u can’t believe it." (ha ha). Now to the game, a battle of great coaches and players. It was kinda like a student beating the teacher with Coach McCarron and Coach Morris (like I beat my old pops). The place was jumpin' at the Palestra after that close Ryan game.  Lenny Young was easily the MVP of the game with how great he was playing. Although Lenny wasn’t hitting his jump shots his acrobatic layups were amazing. The reason that North won was easily because of James Towson and Bobby Lattanzi, assistant water boys. Also North would have never got here without Johnny Dever, a diaper dandy that North brought with them to the playoffs. When Lenny Young had a cut at the La Salle game he had to change his shorts in the Ryan hallway and had to wait pants less for Lenny shorts. Velton Jones was having back trouble in this game so that really hurt the Falcons. Bob Makor had some major blocks for NC. When wide-open layups were there, he blocked them (also he played great against SJP star Jim Mower). Xavier Harris also played phenomenally and is here to stay since he is only a freshman. Overall it was a great game and the Falcons looking toward the ship. 'Cause were going to the ship! We're going to the ship- Hardball.
  Mark’s Hardcore Hardworkers: 1st Xavier Harris, 2nd Bob Makor 3rd Lenny Young

FEB. 8
CATHOLIC NORTH
North 71, McDevitt 50
  Tonight the Falcons clinched first place for the Northern Division with a closer-than-the-score-looked game. I will give props to McDevitt, which did a really great job in the first half. North had a really bad shot selection, but with good defense and a taller lineup it turned out OK for the Falcons. North, I think, could just sometimes overpower the Lancers. I give props to McDevitt's Dan Drennen, though, as he played a great game. Lenny Young played the best game for the Falcons, hitting many threes. The next game for the NC team will be the regular season finale vs. C-E.
  Mark’s Hardcore Hardworkers : 1st Lenny Young, 2nd Woody Redding, 3rd Josh Stevens.

FEB. 1
CATHOLIC NORTH
Judge (still hated but now even more) 59, North (the loved) 54
  I have resurfaced after many games of winning by the Falcons but of course the game I go to they lose. NC started off OK with Judge playing at the some level as they were.  The Falcons did not have a lack of effort the whole game, but some better rebounding would have helped a lot. One problem was too many offensive rebounds for Judge. The 2nd half had no huge highlights beside a monster block by Rakeem “The Rock/6’10 Big Baby” Christmas. At half North was down by few but they came out ready to run. The big thing that hurt was Lenny Young with many fouls and then finally fouling out. At the end Judge just made more shots in a packed Judge gym.
  Mark’s Hardcore Hardworkers: 1st Woody Redding, 2nd Velton Jones, 3rd Jaleel Mack.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UkkIcdzIXY. Just a little NC video for everyone.

JAN. 18
CATHOLIC NORTH
N. Catholic 74, C-E 57
  Defense, Defense, and more Defense. I mean C-E only scored 14 points in the whole 1st half. The whole game the Falcons were ahead. Part of that was because of an amazing game by Velton Jones, who finished with 12 pts., 4 rebounds, 4 steals, and 4 assists. C-E's Hayk Gyokchyan was a non-factor the whole first half. The Eagles were just having trouble getting the ball over the half court line in the 1st quarter. But the defense doesn’t last forever. Pete Sellecchia was playing both ways with an awesome game he finished with 12 pts and 2 steals. Finally in the 4th quarter the Eagles gave the Falcons a scare, but we finished well. Overall defense won the game and great playing by the whole team. NC's rotation included 14 people!
  Mark's Hardcore Hardworkers: 1st Velton Jones, 2nd Pete Sellecchia, 3rd Xavier Harris.

JAN.  7
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
N. Catholic (the loved) 70, Judge (the hated) 60
  What a game. My gosh, there was a packed crowd in the just-above-100-degrees Pit. Velton Jones was the story of the night with the game I have ever seen him play. You can argue this, but he is the top point guard in PCL and top 5 in the city. Judge was never ahead in part because of Bob Makor, Pete Sellecchia and RJ Handy, who were doing a great job playing against a very good Bob Zanneo. Man, the crowd was already rocking at the time of the 3rd quarter when the Falcons just kept pressing and running. And by the 4th  quarter, the NC team was always ahead by 8 or 10. At the end there was nothing Judge could do. North was playing too good. Overall this was one of the best games I have seen the Falcons play; they played defense and offense 100%. Again it was an indescribable game.
Mark’s Hardcore Hardworkers: 1st Velton Jones, 2nd RJ Handy, 3rd Bob Makor.

DEC. 31
NON-LEAGUE
North 77, Truman 47
  I think Truman never really had a chance not because of how they were playing but because of how NC was playing. 13 people scoring -- that’s pretty rare, but you had to be playing good to have 13 people score. Lenny Young had one of his best games with 26 points with 4-7 from the three point line. (18 was reported to the Daily News).  This has been a great comeback after going 1-1 down in Wildwood with a tough loss to Rancocas Valley. But then the Falcons bounced back with a tough win against Strawberry Mansion.  Sophomores are this team's key players and they have not stopped working. Every game Bob Makor, Woody Redding, Mike Terry, and Josh Stevens, and many more, have just laid their heart out on the floor and I think it’s starting to pay off. The whole Falcons' team against Truman played as one. They know they’re going to get "subbed" because the team has so much depth, and they don’t care. It was a great game for North and they played together and as 1. I would like to show the scorers, too. Try to say this 2 times: Velton Jones 9, Lenny Young 26, Bob Makor 2, Woddy Redding 7, Shahid Paulhill 4, Mike Terry 5, Josh Stevens 2, RJ Handy 2, Rakeem Christmas 2, Xavier Harris 7, Jaleel Mack 6, Terrell Oglesby (Yes football star) 6, Kevin O’Neil 4, Pete Sellecchia 3.
   Mark’s Hardcore Hardworkers: 1st Velton Jones, 2nd Lenny Young, 3rd Terrell Oglesby.

DEC. 23
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
North 68, Ryan 58
  For some reason I always thought Andrew Rogers was a senior. Even when he was a freshman. I guess it’s because of his maturity on the court, but still . . . North came out like they start every game -- hot (the complete opposite of last year’s team). But that also seems too kill them, too, because they get cold after that. Today they did start out hot but they didn’t chill down so much as before; they kept on going and going. Mid-range jump shots by Lenny Young and Velton Jones helped to ignite their offense (Lenny had 22, not 20. Puck's fault. I found many other mistakes. ha-ha). At the half Ryan was making its way back with the help of Chris Wilk (20 points, not 14) and his 3-pointers. Ryan came out giving the Falcons some trouble, but foul shots were something Ryan just could not do anything about. North shot 19-22. Velton Jones had all his 10 points from the line. Overall Ryan and North played great games. Just North had a better day.
  Mark’s Hardcore Hardworkers: 1st Lenny Young, 2nd Josh Stevens, 3rd Rakeem Christmas.

DEC. 21
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Dougherty 59, North 55
  What a way to start a PCL season. Not good for the Falcons, but still a great game. NC was ahead substantially in the 1st half when everything was working -- the press, not a lot of turnovers, etc. Even the new 6’9 freshman, Rakeem Christmas, threw down a dunk. Everything was fine. Nothing to worry about. Just keep scoring and playing defense with a young, inexperienced Dougherty, right???  Well it’s not that easy. The 3rd quarter was what absolutely killed the Falcons. Turnovers, no defense, missed dunks, missed layups. It was a disgrace. The 4th quarter was better, but yet they never recovered after going back and forth. But at the end a wide open layup for the Cardinals helped and they also received a far jump shot by Zaahir Allen. Overall it was a fight to the end but the Cardinals beat the Falcons in the Battle of the Birds.
  Mark’s Hardcore Hardworkers: 1st Woody Redding, 2nd Mike Terry, 3rd Josh Stevens.

DEC. 10
NON-LEAGUE
Imhotep Charter 66, NC 59
  This was a great high intensity game in which the Falcons were ahead the whole game besides the dreaded 4th quarter. In the first quarter the NC team came out with a 8-0 run for 4:00 minutes. These teams were fast, and I mean fast. Both teams played OK offense and good defense. North came out running their press right away. At the half it was 31-26, NC. Both teams were playing sloppy defense with 24 turnovers for North and 21 Imhotep. The three-point line was what killed the Falcons: They shot 2-11 and gave up 8 out of 13 to the Panthers. The final stats ended with the leading scorer as Lenny Young with 14 and Mike Terry with 10 (may I also add he and super sophomores Josh Stevens played awesome). I think the NC team could have had a better chance if point guards Woody Redding and Velton Jones (with combined 13 turnovers) would have dished the ball better. Overall it was a great game but with better 3’s and less sloppy offense the NC team could have won.
  Mark’s Hardcore Hardworkers: 1st Mike Terry, 2nd Josh Stevens, 3rd Bob Makor.