Coming off an 11 point win against New Hope Solebury, the Quakertown High School basketball team looked to capitalize on the momentum. There is no better day to do that than Senior Night. This night highlights the Senior basketball players as they play one of their final basketball games as a Panther. This year’s celebration came earlier in the season this year due to the uptick in Covid cases around the region. This year’s seniors included #13 Owen Menszak, #15 Stephan Frumuselu, #20 Jahshua Thomas, and Captain #25 Brendon Ruzicka.

Before the game, the Seniors were announced and were walked across the court by members of their families. Each senior got a handmade paper banner along with a canvas banner.

The Seniors, along with a Freshman Point Guard, started the game for the Panthers. The Seniors were pulled four minutes into the game in favor of the everyday starters. They didn’t return until the final minute of the game.

William Tennent came out hot as they outscored the Panthers 21-8 in the first quarter. Slashing shot after shot, it seemed like they couldn’t miss, and the Panthers seemed to have no answer for them. Quakertown didn’t give up and matched William Tennent’s second-quarter points at 13. That first quarter would end up being the only rough patch of the Panthers performance. Coming out of the half, Quakertown looked determined to win this game for their seniors. Suddenly the script had flipped on William Tennent. Quakertown was making shot after shot and playing stellar defense. They were able to hold Tennent to a meager 5 points in the third quarter.

From the stands, it looked like the Panthers had gotten a second life and had become reinvigorated. The roaring crowd fueled the comeback of the team as it was impossible to block out the noise by the entire Panthers fanbase. At the start of the fourth quarter, the team was down 39-36 but they had all the momentum. The Panthers continued to get stop after stop, and on the other end, they looked amazing from the floor. The 22 points in the final quarter proved to be the strong finish they needed to push them over their opponent and come out with the victory. The final score was 58-51 with Quakertown pulling out the victory. When asked when they realized they could complete their comeback a varsity player on the team stated “We knew that they were in the lead, but they simply got too comfortable. We picked up on their body language and kept on putting our foot on the pedal”.

This game was most definitely a team win. Whether it was Miles Longacre’s career-high 16 points or Vince Micucci hyping up the team from the sidelines, each player was vital in the victory. All the players seemed locked in, and even when the game looked dim they never lost that energy. Although this game was to celebrate the Seniors, the season is barely halfway over and the future looks bright coming off back-to-back wins. That 7 point victory was and possibly will be the most important/impactful win all season for the Seniors. One of the players even mentioned that “this was a game that we needed for the program moving forward. No better night to do so than on Senior Night. It will definitely be a night none of them will forget.