City of Basketball Love

Tyler Sandora (@tyler_sandora)
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Valley Forge Military Academy came into this year as a favorite to make it to the state tournament, but it never seemed like a real possibility to the Trojans. 

After winning the Bicentennial Athletic League’s Independence division title as well as the unified BAL tournament, the Trojans started to see their dreams turn into reality. 

Valley Forge defeated Catasauqua on Wednesday night in the District 1-11 semifinals for the chance to play in the state tournament for the first time in school history. 

Both Valley forge and Notre Dame Green-Pond, a District 11 team, have already clinched a state berth, they needed to play one more game for seeding purposes.

The Trojans came out firing on all cylinders Saturday afternoon, defeating the Notre Dame Crusaders 69-51, clinching the District 1-11 No. 1 seed in the upcoming state tournament. 

“This is a whole new experience for Valley Forge Military,” head coach Francis Bowe said. “It’s been surreal, winning the league, league tournament, district tournament, and the regional, it’s all just unbelieveable.”

Valley Forge typically has a simple game plan; get the ball inside. Usually, they would be giving the ball to junior big man Abraham Deng, who is currently sidelined. The South Sudan native, who has multiple Division I offers, has missed the last couple of games with a wrist injury.

“Every week he gets a checkup,” Bowe said. “It’s killing him not to be out there. We will hopefully have him back for states.”

No Deng, no problem. 

Valley Forge still stressed the need to dump the ball down low, only this time to Deng’s “Twin Tower”, Marius Ntwari.

Ntwari had no problem finding his rhythm down low, as the Rwandan native chipped in 14 points and 10 rebounds, on 6-8 shooting from the field. 

The 6-foot-10 300 pound forward has made major improvements in his game since coming to the U.S. from East Africa. 

“When we first got him, the kid couldn’t make a layup, couldn’t dribble, and he wasn’t in shape,” Bowe said. “Now he’s got a great touch and he played his rear end off tonight.”

Ntwari can credit his never-ending work ethic for his new additions to his evolving game.

“We practice all the time, but i like to put in more time afterwards,” he said. “I work out all the time, I run the hills, I never sit down when we have free time.” 

While admitting that he has worked out and spent countless hours in the gym, there is one part of the big man’s game that nobody taught him; his size. 

Physically dominating his opponents, Ntwari has no problem scoring down low. 

“Thats one thing that I really like about me is I’m bigger than the rest,” he said. “There is times where I can put it back and it’s easy.”

That worked out for Ntwari, as Notre Dame’s tallest player, the 6-foot-4 Greg Lauray, a state champion high jumper, was not playing due to off court issues. That meant the Crusaders of the Lehigh Valley were forced to put their next tallest player, Matt Anthony, who stands at 6-foot-3, on Ntwari. 

Also for the Trojans, senior Devon Hill, a Philadelphia native, chipped in 17 points including three 3-pointers. One of two seniors on the team, Hill is excited to be leading his team into its first ever state tournament.

“It’s a blessing to be in states. All the hard work we put in is finally starting to show,” said Hill. “We wanted to punch them in the mouth and not let them get back up.”

That is exactly what they did, outscoring Notre Dame 21-8 in the second quarter, thanks in part to the shooting of Hill and junior Arion Lewis, nailing two 3s apiece. 

Alos contributing for Valley Forge was Bloomsburg commit, senior Myles Bunyon, adding eight points. The BAL player of the year, who spent his first two years at Perk Valley, was the floor general, making crisp passes, and handling the ball into key situations.

Notre Dame Green-Pond, who defeated New-Hope Solebury for the District 11 championship, didn’t go down without a fight, cutting the lead to 15 with 4:00 left, but the size and speed of Valley Forge was no match. 

Leading the way for the Crusaders was 5-foot-9 senior Mitch Daniel, who scored 14 points and grabbed six rebounds, to go along with some beautiful passes down low leading to easy layups.

Also for Notre Dame, 6-foot-3 freshman guard Titus Wilkins displayed signs of promising potential, scoring 13 points, and showing he wasn’t afraid to score down low, as most of his points came in the paint. 

Notre Dame was able to get some open looks, as Valley Forge was in a 2-3 zone for the majority of the game, but only shot a mere 19-59 from the field, and 3-21 from deep. 

After clinching a state berth, the members of the Valley Forge basketball team now have their minds set one goal.

Hershey.