DUNLAP — So-called mid-major-bound Franko House said he didn't feel like he had anything to prove against full-major-bound Austin Torres, but he proved plenty nevertheless.

House scored a career-high 31 points, grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds, dealt three assists and went to the line an astonishing 24 times as the Concord Minutemen edged the Penn Kingsmen 63-59 in their boys high school basketball home opener Friday before about 2,500 fans at McCuen Gym.

House signed during the offseason to play next winter at Ball State, while Torres — who had eight points, six rebounds and four assists despite missing about half the game in foul trouble — inked with Notre Dame.

“It's definitely motivation when you play against somebody like that,” House said of going head-to-head much of the evening with Torres. “I was excited, and felt like I played with a lot of energy, but we know each other and there was not necessarily anything to prove. I just wanted to play hard, play physical, get to the basket”

House went 8 of 18 from the field and 15 of 24 at the line.

“I'm disappointed I missed so many free throws,” the 6-foot-6 forward of granite said, “but I'll work on it at practice and get better.”

“That's probably the second-best he's played, behind those (postseason) games his sophomore year,” winning coach Steve Austin said of House. “Tonight he showed how good he can be when he's not tentative.”

“We tried to trap him and not let him just go where he wanted,” Penn coach Al Rhodes said, “but it's hard to stop him without fouling. (Him going) 15 of 24 probably actually helped us. We started Austin on him, and I thought he did a decent job, but he got in foul trouble, so that hurt us.”

The 6-foot-6 Torres sat out the final 13:33 of the first half after picking up his second foul just 2:27 into the game.

The Kingsmen (1-1) nonetheless jumped to an 18-6 lead through one quarter, but the Minutemen (2-0) turned it right around on a dime by outscoring Penn 19-2 in the second period, including 12 points by House.

A back-and-forth third quarter featured six lead changes and three ties, but the hosts took a 41-39 lead into the fourth quarter and never relinquished it, going up by a high of 62-54 in the final minute.

“We tried to do too much one-on-one, not depend on each other,” Austin said of the game's start. “Our offense does look helter-skelter, and it is, but there is a rhyme and reason to what we do. We got better it as we went and I thought we persevered tonight.”

“The first quarter was a little bit of fool's gold,” Rhodes said, “the way we made the 3-pointers (4 of 5), but Concord settled down and played better exterior defense after that and we were not able to function very well inside.”

Senior DuWhan Alford had nine points, seven rebounds and three steals for the winners.

Senior Conner Sowders poured in a career-high 24 points for Penn. He was 8 of 14 from the field, including 4 of 7 outside the arc.



Concord 63, Penn 59

Penn — Austin Torres 3-6 2-4 8, Billy Doslak 2-2 0-0 5, Mikey Szrom 1-4 3-4 5, Conner Sowders 8-14 4-6 24, Jordan Geist 1-8 2-2 4, Christian Wittendorf 1-1 0-1 2, Nathan Miller 2-3 0-0 5, Ryan Lutz 2-4 0-0 6, Cory Kreiger 0-1 0-0 0, Andrew Kimm 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 20-43 (.465) 11-17 (.647) 59.

Concord — Franko House 8-18 15-24 31, DuWhan Alford 3-10 3-6 9, Ghaneah Wayker 2-4 0-0 4, Adam Glandes 2-8 3-4 7, Ramon Johnson 2-4 1-3 5, Dylan Wynne 0-0 0-0 0, Filip Serwatka 2-3 0-0 5, Dakota Simon 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 20-49 (.408) 22-37 (.595) 63.

Scoring By Quarters

Penn 18 2 19 20 — 59

Concord 6 19 16 22 — 63

3-point goals: Penn (8-18) — Sowders 4-7, Lutz 2-4, Doslak 1-1, Miller 1-2; Concord (1-8) — Serwatka 1-1.

Rebounds: Penn (29) — Torres 6, Szrom 6, Wittendorf 6; Concord (36) — House 13, Alford 7.

Assists: Penn (13) — Torres 4, Geist 3; Concord (11) — Johnson 5, House 3.

Steals: Penn (2) — Geist, Lutz; Concord (9) — Alford 3, Johnson 3.

Turnovers: Penn 17, Concord 10.

Fouls: Penn 23, Concord 15.

Officials: Mark McCammon, Justin Shippy, Roy Lesher.

Records: Penn 1-1, Concord 2-0.

Next: Penn at FW South today, Dec. 8, following 4:30 p.m. JV; Memorial at Concord Friday.

JV: Penn 38, Concord 35. Top scorers: Penn — Camden Bohn 17, Taylor Brooks 11, Mark Burns 8; Concord — Brett Austin 10, Danny McMahon 7. JV records: Penn 1-1, Concord 1-1.