Boys Basketball: Hanna celebrates return to hoops with win for Penncrest

ETHER PROVIDENCE — Drew Hanna’s summer wasn’t nearly as eventful as he would have liked.

This was supposed to be the summer he was going to use to get fully acclimated to running the Penncrest offense as the heir apparent to Eddie Baxter as the Lions’ point guard. Instead, Hanna was relegated to simply relaxing and trying to stay away from contact sports.

Hanna lacerated his spleen in the last game of the lacrosse regular season last spring and had to sit out the Lions’ two playoff games, then had to bide his time until basketball season was around the corner. He’s back and fully healthy, and as he showed in Friday night’s 70-38 rout of Chichester at the Media Shootout at Strath Haven, he can be a more than capable replacement for Baxter.

“It was a little rough,’ said Hanna, who had four points and did a top-notch job of running Mike Doyle’s offense. “I had to sit out over the summer and I missed a lot of play. Once I got back into it, got back into playing with the team, it’s fairly easy playing with these guys who can shoot and we’ve got big guys inside. I just do the passing, they do the scoring. It’s pretty easy for me.’

It didn’t hurt Penncrest (1-0) or Hanna that Ben Casanova showed up in style in the third quarter. With the Lions nursing a 26-19 halftime lead over the Eagles (0-1), Casanova erupted, scoring all 13 of his points in the third frame. Against a lineup long on speed, but very much short on size, Casanova bullied his way to the paint and couldn’t be tamed. His frontcourt running mate, Rahmi Halaby, was even better, putting forth an 18-point, six-rebound, five-assist effort.

“Coach Doyle just talked to me at halftime, got me fired up and told me I’m better than I was playing,’ Casanova said. “I knew I could play better than I did in the first half. (Getting early touches) was absolutely big for me. Coach Doyle told me he was going to give me the ball and he told me I was part of the offense, so I needed to start scoring.’

That worked out well. Chichester put up a fight for a while, buoyed by Derrick Welles’ 11-point night and seven points from both Jamai Womack and freshman Eric Montanez, but ultimately, the Lions’ frontcourt battered and bruised the Eagles to the point of no return.

Given his team’s talent up front and a heady point guard, Doyle would be wise to keep using that strategy.