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Perkiomen School makes first-ever PAISAA final

03/05/2022, 1:30am EST
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)

PENNSBURG — Xaivian Lee and Ryan Dunn started their time with Perkiomen School last summer as mostly unknown quantities. A couple late bloomers who’d been among the thousands of high school ballplayers set back by the COVID pandemic, they each needed more time to develop and grow their games, picking the upper Montgomery County boarding school and head coach Tom Baudinet as the right place and mentor to help get them to where they wanted to be.

Dunn came to Perkiomen by way of Long Island Lutheran (N.Y.), a lanky 6-foot-7 wing guard with a Stony Brook offer and a decent amount of upside, though still very much an unproven quantity when he made the decision to prep. Lee, a 6-3 point guard, came from Toronto, where the pandemic cost him his entire previous season, not really on any college radars.

Nine months later, it’s hard to say they haven’t gotten the most out of their time at Perkiomen. And they’re one win away from helping the Panthers achieve something the program hasn’t done before.

A 76-39 win over Hill School on Friday night put Perkiomen into the Pennsylvania Independent School Athletic Association (PAISAA) state tournament final for the first time ever, a rematch with Westtown on Saturday night away from their first title. 


Ryan Dunn (above) will be playing in the ACC next year at the University of Virginia. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“It’s been a lot, over the year, it’s a lot of ups and downs with us two,” said Dunn, now a Virginia commit and consensus top-125 prospect in his class. “Getting acclimated to (Baudinet) and stuff, but over time we figured out how to come together and be a team. It’s really humbling and exciting that we’re going to play for the state title.”

“It’s been really crazy,” agreed Lee, who’s off to Princeton in the fall. “Because we both kind of came in as underrated, not really known, and you know, I think that really forced us to become really tight. 

“And once we got that exposure, once we got a bit known, it’s been really fun just to keep playing and grow together, and I feel like we’ve become really close because of that, and it’s translating on the court so far.”

The pair were both terrific in a dominant performance by Perkiomen on both ends of the court. Dunn finished with 12 points on 5-8 shooting (1-2 3PT, 1-1 FT), with eight rebounds; Lee led the Panthers with 15 points on 4-8 shooting (0-3 3PT, 7-8 FT), with four rebounds, three assists and three steals. 

Dunn, who can play anywhere from the ‘2’ to the ‘4’ due to his length and guard most positions on the floor, was a matchup problem for HIll all game long; Lee got in ball-handlers faces and forced a few turnovers he wasn’t credited with, while continually making the extra pass or smart read on offense. 

On the defensive end, they were major reasons the Panthers were able to limit Hill to 15-of-42 (35.7%) from the floor, with 13 turnovers, forcing the Blues into tough shot after tough shot all game long. 

“I think when we’re really locked in, that’s been consistent all year, the effort that you saw tonight,” Baudinet said. *It’s been a long year [...]  we’ve played 33 games and we played a lot of ranked teams, a lot of heavy road travel, it’s hard in some of those games, we played a lot of 40-minute games. It’s hard defensively to bring it every game.

“I think the ones that we’ve had some practice time and have been geared up and prepped for, we’ve looked like that.”

It didn’t take Dunn long after starting to play with Perkiomen that his recruitment hit high-major levels, teams instantly attracted to his high-upside frame and smooth jumper, and his versatility on the defensive end. It’s that end that he’s most proud of his improvement over the last year, clearly having putting on some muscle over the course of the season, with a more confident game to boot.

“I think [how my game’s improved] defensively’s the biggest thing for me,” he said. “A couple years ago, I couldn’t play defense to save my life, but now I feel like I’m guarding the best player; being able to attack and stuff offensively [too], but for me I think [improvement] defensively’s the biggest thing.”

Lee had his coming-out party at the Peach Jam in July, where he averaged 13.5 ppg and 4.8 rpg while playing with Bounce Elite (Can.) in the 16U portion of the crown event of the summer circuit. Having reached his current height after beginning his high school career as a 5-7 guard, Lee originally planned on spending two years at Perkiomen, but Princeton was willing to take him as a member of the Class of 2022, and so the not-yet-18-year-old (his birthday is later this month) will only be spending one year in Pennsburg.

Xaivian Lee (2) will play at Princeton University in the fall. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“He was not a known quantity at all, nobody really knew who he was,” Baudident said. “They did after the summer, clearly; the kid can really play. So yeah, Princeton jumped on him.”

Those two weren’t the only two who played well in the semifinal win: junior forward Thomas Haugh knocked down two 3-pointers to help him to 11 points; senior guard Sam Pohlman added seven points, four rebounds and three assists; senior forward Daouda Dembele added six points, eight rebounds and three assists; junior wing Bobby Rosenberger had five points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks. Even deeper reserve Luca Baratta got in on the act, knocking down his only three 3-point attempts in the fourth quarter for nine points.

The win earned Perkiomen a berth in Saturday night’s championship, 8 p.m. at La Salle College HS against top-seeded Westtown School. The Moose, who won the last PAISAA championship in 2020, are led by the No. 1 player in the 2022 class, 7-foot-1 Dereck Lively II, who went for 30 points, 14 rebounds, six steals and four blocks in a 70-61 Westtown win over Perkiomen back on Feb. 2. (That game was played under PA Cup rules, which more closely mimic the college game with two 20-minute halves, rather than the PAISAA’s more standard high school layout.)

“Obviously Lively presents a challenge defensively, they do a good job scheming for us personnel-wise and they use him well against us,” Baudient said. “They make it difficult to finish around the rim, you’ve got to be able to make shots against them. And then on the defensive side of the ball, being able to guard their pick-and-roll action, being able to contain him on the block and rebound the basketball, I’d say those are the biggest things.”

No matter what happens Saturday night, Perkiomen’s season isn’t over. The Panthers have been invited to participate in the 16-team National Prep Championship, facing off against Brewster Academy (N.H.) on Wednesday in the first of at least three games at St. Joseph’s University (Conn.). 

But first, they have to take care of business Saturday, or getting further than they have before will all be for naught.

“It feels nice to finally get past this round, we feel like we’ve been there the last couple years and haven’t gotten there,” Baudient said. “It doesn’t really mean much if we don’t win tomorrow, though, I’ll be honest. I don’t know if there’s a ton of difference between losing in the semifinals and losing in the finals.”

By Quarter
Perk: 17  |  18  |  17  |  24  ||  76
Hill:    8   |   9   |   9   |  13  ||  39

Shooting
Perk: 28-54 FG (9-23 3PT), 11-13 FT
Hill: 12-42 FG (2-8 3PT), 7-14 FT

Scoring
Perk: Xaivian Lee 15, Ryan Dunn 12, Thomas Haugh 11, Luca Barrata 9, Sam Pohlman 7, Priest Ryan 6, Dauoda Dembele 6, Bobby Rosenberger 5, Jake Koretz 3, Christian Dufort 2

Hill: Augie Gerhart 11, Josh Cameron 6, Jacob Meachim 6, Ethan Meuser 5, Anthony Wise 3, Trey O’Neil 3, Graham Eilberg 3, Oliver Hutchinson 2


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