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PIAA Class 6A: Perk Valley, PW girls advance to quarterfinals

03/12/2022, 12:00am EST
By Andrew Robinson

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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ROYERSFORD — All night, Perkiomen Valley freshman Lena Stein kept hearing two things over and over from her bench.

Stein, who drew the assignment of sticking Methacton senior Nicole Timko, knew her job would require a lot of running and a lot of navigating screens as Timko weaved her way around the floor hunting offense. To make things easier on Stein, the PV coaches implemented a pretty elementary system using two signals to keep Stein on her mark.

Simple system, difficult task, yet Stein was up for it and delivered as she helped limit Timko to just four points as the Vikings made history, advancing to the state quarterfinals for the first time with a 38-31 win over the Warriors on Friday in the second round of the PIAA Class 6A tournament at Spring-Ford.

Quinn Boettinger and Lena Stein

Quinn Boettinger (33) and Lena Stein (11) played stellar defense to help PV win on Friday night. (Photo: Andrew Robinson/CoBL)

"I know Timko is a great player and from playing them before, I know she's very ball-dominant so if I was going to face-guard her, I was going to have to stay tight," Stein said. "That meant I had to get around every screen and I know Quinn (Boettinger) is always going to be behind me in help."

Senior Emma Miley paced PV with 12 points and senior Jen Beattie added seven points. Mairi Smith led Methacton with 10 points and Cassidy Kropp had eight.

If it felt like there was a lot of PAC in this match-up, it's because there was. In the regular season, PV and Methacton split their two PAC meetings with each team winning on the other's home floor. That their rubber match would also come in PAC country, even with the host Rams on the road trying to keep their season alive, felt quite fitting given Spring-Ford's annual hosting of the PAC playoffs.

Stein's spot in the starting lineup has rotated throughout the season between her, freshman Bella Bacani and her older sister, junior Ella Stein. It was an incentive to Lena Stein then to continue working on her defense with the idea she would prove herself to the coaches and earn the type of assignments she did on Friday.

"Lena walked into the gym and we already knew she could guard really good basketball players," PV coach John Russo said. "Did we know she could guard Timko the way she did? Look, nobody has, but we felt she would do the best of anyone on our team against her."

It's never an easy job, but it's one the 5-foot-7 freshman clearly prides herself on.

"I always know I have to have a short-term memory on defense and if I put 110 percent in on the next play, then I know I'm doing my job," Stein said. "I knew if I really worked and emphasized my defense, I'd be able to guard players like Timko so I tried to show my coaches and my team I was able to take that role."

So, the screens. Knowing Methacton would employ a plethora of them, Russo devised a way to call them out to Stein and Bacani, who spelled her classmate guarding Timko, in the flow of the game and keep his defenders attached to their mark.

"We were in the gym for two hours this afternoon. We were the last team to get here where the point I think Spring-Ford might have thought we weren't coming, because we were running through how to cover (Timko) when she was coming through versus coming across," Russo said. "It's two different defenses. I gave her two nicknames, it was 'tag' if you're coming around it and 'hide-and-go-seek' coming off the other side. It sounds silly, but there's only a couple ways you can come off a screen so you have to read it, go with her and be on her hip otherwise they're going to keep screening you."

Timko finishes an incredible career No. 2 on the all-time PAC scoring list and exits as the Warriors all-time leading scorer with 1,748 points to her name. The guard will continue playing at Christopher Newport next season but her final appearance in a Warriors' uniform was certainly a frustrating one.

On top of being face-guarded and her every move shadowed for 32 minutes on Friday, the few clean looks she did get didn't do her any favors with a handful of looks going halfway down before rimming out.

"We looked at her game and I know from playing against her, I had to get through every screen," Stein said. "Knowing her game a little bit definitely helps."

Also helping Stein was Boettinger on the back end of the defense. PV had freshman Grace Miley guard Smith, Methacton's 6-2 post, so Boettinger could focus more on helping and the freshman provided plenty of it with several emphatic blocks as her perimeter defenders funneled drives toward her.

Russo called the forward a "game-changer" because of her ability to let the rest of the defense dictate matchups and also change the scheme or plan on a game-to-game basis.

"I'm always there if someone gets by on a drive to clean up. I try to be there for everyone," Boettinger said. "With the intensity they're playing defense, I know there are times where they'll get driven by but that's where I'm able to step in and alter their shot in any way I can."

Perk Valley never trailed in the game but it's not like the Vikings were never threatened. Methacton came out energized in the third and cut the lead down to 24-19 when Smith converted inside with 5:45 left in the quarter.

Stein's job on Friday was defense but she also gave PV five points, none more vital than the 3-pointer she hit to answer Methacton's surge out of the halftime break.

"I know my game is mostly defense but a shot like that really helps my confidence," Stein said. "It's an extra energy boost on the court."

As a program, PV is now in uncharted territory having made it to the Elite Eight. For every player on the roster, from the freshman core to the upperclassmen who built the foundation for this run, it's been like that each step of the way.

"We all knew we could do it, but the fact none of us had been here including our seniors, it's a new experience for everyone," Boettinger said. "All of us knew we belonged, we showed that in the regular season and postseason so we knew if we played the way we have been all season, it would work out."

By Quarter

PV:            11 | 9 |  8  | 10 || 38
Methacton:  4 | 7 | 10 | 10 || 31

Scoring

PV: Emma Miley 12, Jennifer Beattie 7, Grace Miley 6, Quinn Boettinger 6, Lena Stein 5, Bella Bacani 2

M: Mairi Smith 10, Cassidy Kropp 8, Tori Bockrath 7, Nicole Timko 4, Kayla Kaufman 2

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FIONA STRIKES AGAIN

Every shot Plymouth Whitemarsh senior Fiona Gooneratne hits seems to be a major morale-booster for the undefeated Colonials.

Spring-Ford has not been a welcoming building to PW over the years, and early Friday, the the Colonials just did not look like themselves. They were making mistakes in their press defense they haven't made all year, shots weren't falling and their usually steady hands seemed afflicted by a case of nerves. With District 11 runner-up Northampton sticking around in a see-saw opening quarter-and-a-half, the District 1 champions needed someone to make a big shot.

Enter Gooneratne, who has made a habit of it this season.

Erin Daley and Fiona Gooneratne

Erin Daley (15) and Fiona Gooneratne (11) came up with a clutch play late in the first half to pad PW's lead. (Photo: Andrew Robinson/CoBL)

The reserve guard's 3-pointer assisted by Erin Daley put the Colonials ahead by four with 3:39 left in the first half. Northampton answered with a bucket, but Gooneratne's shot had done its job and PW would close the half on a 10-0 run as the defense turned up in an eventual 44-28 win over the Konkrete Kids.

"One thing Coach D (head coach Dan Dougherty) always tells us is to take shots we practice and that was a shot we've practiced," Gooneratne said. "I felt my defender was far enough off that I could get a shot off, so yeah, I just had the confidence to take it."

Abby Sharpe led PW with 12 points while Lainey Allen had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds and Daley ended with eight points, seven rebounds, three assists and three blocks.

Dougherty wasn't overly surprised his team got off to a rocky start. On top of the bad vibes the Spring-Ford gym - the Colonials saw their season end on that court last year - seemed to give his team, he was blunt in saying the Colonials had a poor practice on Thursday.

He also wasn't overly surprised it was Gooneratne coming to the rescue with another timely shot. The senior, a three-sport athlete who also has a starring role in the school musical being performed this weekend, is the epitome of a team player and it's her baskets that usually elicit the loudest cheers from her teammates.

"It's not just a basketball play, it's an emotional lift," Dougherty said. "She has the green light to shoot when she's open, it's a shot she practices and she hit nothing but net. It calms everyone's nerves. When she goes in, there's no drop-off and she plays fearless and that's what you need of a bench player."

Daley, who had a dominant defensive outing while guarding a bigger player in Northampton post Grace Lasko, saved no words describing the impact Gooneratne's three had on the floor.

"We all trust Fiona 110 percent to take that shot. She's made them before and she's going to keep making them," Daley said. "It gives us, and I think our crowd, too, a big lift of momentum that keeps us going."

PW didn't trail again after the back-to-back baskets by Sharpe and Gooneratne mainly because the Colonials' defense wasn't going to let the boost from those scores go to waste. With their press not working, the Colonials went to their switchable man defense and Daley took over down low with three swats in the second quarter.

The team racked up nine blocks, with posts Allen and Jordyn Thomas getting in on the act as well. Daley was eager to make a statement and also usher any lingering bad vibes in the gym out any of its numerous exits.

"I want to say with that team, they're probably not used to getting their shots blocked so it did seem like it brought them down a little bit," Daley said. "We walked off the bus and the first thing I said was that I felt PTSD from that game, I think I had a little deja vu. Last year, we were here and this gym ended our season and we did not want to face that again."

Thanks to their senior super-sub, it wasn't an issue.

"It's really funny, teachers and other students will come up to me and tell me how much everyone was cheering for me," Gooneratne said. "It's really great being able to feel the crowd's energy when any of us make shots like that."

By Quarter

PW:                 9 | 15 | 11 | 9 || 44
Northampton: 10 | 2 |  5 | 11 || 28

Scoring

PW: Abby Sharpe 12, Lainey Allen 11, Erin Daley 8, Kaitlyn Flanagan 6, Jordyn Thomas 4, Fiona Gooneratne 3

N: Lesko 8, Kranzley 8, Gilliard 4, Yellen 4, Demcheck 1


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