Cam Jones’ return to the court spoiled by Spring-Ford buzzer-beater
Cam Jones has been waiting for weeks to get back on the floor with his Wilson basketball team. He was happy to finally make his season debut Saturday against Spring-Ford, and played well off bench. Too bad Zach Zollers spoiled his return.
Zollers, a 6-2 reserve who subbed in for the Rams’ final possession, tipped in a miss at the buzzer to send Spring-Ford to its 11th straight win, 42-40 at West Lawn.
“The game wasn’t really falling our way, but we regrouped and had a good fourth-quarter stretch going,” said Jones, “and then to end it off like that was kind of disappointing.”
Jones, who’s only been practicing with the team for about a week, looked good in his 18 minutes of action. He scored nine points, matching Madyx Gruber for the team lead, and made a key basket as the Bulldogs (8-3) came all the way back after trailing by eight with 5 1/2 minutes to go.
Jones scored on a strong drive to cut the Rams’ lead to 40-38 with 1:34 left.
“I saw the paint was open, I used my instincts to get there,” said Jones of his final basket.
After a Spring-Ford miss Cleveland Harding came up with the ball out of a scramble and took it to the rim to tie it with 15 seconds remaining.
The Bulldogs used two fouls to slow the Rams (11-1), who called their final timeout with 6.1 seconds left. Caleb Little got a good look on a drive out of the timeout but his shot rolled off the front of the rim. Zollers snuck in and put it back, setting off a wild celebration by the Rams.
The Bulldogs — whose first loss, at Warwick, came in a similar manner — looked on in disbelief. (Against Warwick they allowed a game-tying tip-in off a free throw at the end of regulation, then lost in overtime.)
Zollers play gave the Rams their 11th straight win. Their only loss came in their season-opener to West Chester East in double-overtime. They entered Saturday ranked No. 2 in the District 1 Class 6A power rankings, behind Lower Merion.
“(During the last timeout) one of our assistant coaches said: ‘You’ve gotta put Zach Zollers in, he’s a football player, we might need a tip in,” said Rams coach Joe Dempsey. “And that’s exactly what happened.”
Exciting as the finish was the Rams really put themselves in position for the win from the perimeter minutes earlier. Sophomore Jacob Nguyen knocked down 5-of-11 3-pointers, including three straight during a torrid third-quarter stretch.
Nguyen scored all three baskets during an 8-0 run that gave Spring-Ford its first lead at 28-27 midway through the quarter. After Jones scored to put Wilson back on top Nguyen came off a screen and buried another 3 for a 31-29 lead. He finished with a game-high 24 points.
“When he gets his 3-ball rolling, it’s impressive, isn’t it?” Dempsey said.
The Rams hit 6-of-14 shots from beyond the arc, the Bulldogs 2-of-10. That was a huge difference in a tight game between evenly matched teams.
“We left their very good shooter wide open twice,” Bulldogs coach Matt Coldren said of Nguyen. “We knew he could shoot it but there were two opportunities where he was wide open (and we had our) hands down and he banged a shot. We can’t have that, mental breakdowns (like that).”
The Bulldogs got off to a fast start and led 14-5 after one period. The points were tougher to come by after that as Spring-Ford switched up and showed a variety of zone looks, switching back to man-to-man occasionally.
Wilson scored 26 points over the final three periods and made just 10-of-26 after the first quarter.
“Defense is like a good friend,” Dempsey said. “He doesn’t leave you. You’ve gotta make sure you play defense because on the road the offense might just not be there. We’ve been holding some teams at the mid to low 30’s, and at the high school level that’s impressive.”
Wilson was held 14 points below its average and to 40 points for just the second time all season; the Bulldogs scored 39 in a loss to Reading High Thursday.
“I thought our energy level was kind of low today,” Coldren said. “It was a rough week, playing an emotional game against Muhlenberg (Tuesday) and playing Reading. I just thought we were a little flat.
“I’m disappointed we lost, but (Spring-Ford’s) a good team. I’d be more disappointed if we lost to a team that I knew we were a hundred percent better than. That’s a team that if we play 10 times, we’d probably split.”
The good news for the Bulldogs was the return of Jones, an all-division pick and their leading scorer last season. He’s also one of the best on-ball defenders in the league. That will make an already good defense — which held the Rams to a season-low scoring total — even better.
Other than being winded Jones said he felt fine.
“It’s been hard (missing games),” said Jones, who was out after suffering a groin injury during football season, “but I took a diffrerent role on the team, kind of stepped up as a player-coach, trying to help the guys who are playing. Guys stepped up and played the roles that they needed to help us be successful.
“(Right now) I’m just trying to feel the team flow. I’m been out 10 games. I’ve gotta see where I fit in the offense that they’re running now.”
“It’s just good to have him out on the floor,” Coldren said. “He did some good things. Most people didn’t notice it, there were two occasions where we got beat back down and his guy was in the corner and they didn’t get the layup because he was there. He just knows where to be. He’s only going to get better.”
As Dempsey was talking about the game, Jones walked past. The coach stopped him, they embraced and wished each other well.
“You could’ve fooled me,” Dempsey said as Jones walked away, “(it didn’t look like) you hadn’t played in six months.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Spring-Ford | 5 | 13 | 15 | 9 | 42 |
| Wilson | 14 | 9 | 6 | 11 | 40 |
| Rams (11-1) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Campbell | 2-4 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Nguyen | 8-14 | 3-4 | 5-11 | 1 | 2 | 24 |
| Little | 0-5 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Kelly | 2-2 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Lewis | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Banks | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Zollers | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 5 | 4 |
| McKenna | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 15-29 | 6-8 | 6-14 | 6 | 18-20 | 42 |
| Bulldogs (8-3) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Gruber | 3-6 | 2-4 | 1-1 | 2 | 1 | 9 |
| Harding | 2-7 | 2-3 | 0-1 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| Melograna | 2-7 | 0-0 | 2-6 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| Odiale | 4-9 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
| Breslin | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| Jones | 4-5 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 0 | 2 | 9 |
| Pena | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Hunsicker | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 16-37 | 5-9 | 2-10 | 5 | 16-18 | 40 |
Turnovers: Spring-Ford 12, Wilson 8.
