City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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Brooke Albeck didn’t think she would get off the bench on Thursday night.

Pope John Paul II’s sophomore swing player logged three quarters in the JV contest earlier in the evening. She typically stays glued to the bench throughout most of the varsity contests this season and had no reason to believe it would be different in a Pioneer Athletic Conference Frontier Division game against Upper Merion that had one of the final league playoff spots at stake for both teams.

For the first three quarters she was right, then late in the fourth with her team trailing double digits, Albeck entered the game. She hit one of the biggest shots and made two of the biggest defensive plays during 13-point fourth-quarter rally that helped the Golden Panthers to a 31-23 and spot in next week’s PAC Final Six.

“It was crazy. That was crazy,” Albeck said. “They’re just the best team and I wanted to win for them.”

Perkiomen Valley, Spring-Ford and Methacton entered Thursday with league playoff spots locked up and Phoenixville (11-7, 8-2 Frontier, 9-4 PAC) clinched the Frontier title — its second in three seasons — with a win over Pottsgrove on Thursday.

With Owen J. Roberts likely to claim the league’s last remaining wild card spot, Upper Merion (8-12, 6-4 Frontier) and Pope John Paul II’s (8-12, 6-3 Frontier) matchup was a battle for the Frontier’s remaining playoff entry.

For three quarters and most of the fourth, it looked like a freshmen-led Vikings team would earn the chance to extend their season. 

Pope John Paul II trailed after the first (8-2), second (16-4) and third (18-8) quarters and seemed incapable of making a basket through several stretches of the game. Upper Merion freshman Kennedy Coles scored the last of her game-high 11 points to give the Vikings a 23-10 lead with under five minutes to go. Then came a comeback no one in the gym will soon forget ensued as Pope John Paul II rattled off 21 unanswered points to close the game.

“We kind of just came together as a team and our coach on the sideline really got us motivated,” PJP junior Katie Nilles said. “He just told us to play together and play for us and the seniors.”

The run started slow with a pair of splits at the free throw line, then junior Elena Colliluori knocked down a pair to pull the Golden Panthers within single digits for the first time since early in the second, 23-14, with 2:53 left on the clock.

Albeck knocked down a three with 2:06 to play — 23-17 — and the small PJP contingent in the gym erupted. Suddenly there was a buzz the Golden Panthers could actually pull this thing off.

“She hadn’t played the first 27 minutes and she’s a good player to the point that her coach has the confidence to put her in,” PJP coach Jack Flanagan said. “When the time came, she did what she can do, and I couldn’t be more proud of her. The way that she’s battled and she does a lot of different things for us. She practices hard everyday, and when she got her chance, it seemed like there was a lid on the basket there for a while and she helped rip it off.”

Another triple by junior Nadia Platt, who had all of her team-high nine points in the fourth, pulled the Golden Panthers within two with 1:25 left. After Platt knocked down a free throw with about a minute left on the next possession, freshman Rylee Derecola swiped the ball back from Upper Merion and scored a lay-up to give the Panthers a 24-23 lead.

Coullori stole the ball back for PJP and Platt knocked down two more free throws with 30 seconds left, 26-23. Upper Merion never got a chance to tie as Albeck swiped another quick steal and extended the PJP lead to 28-23 with a layup. If that wasn’t enough, she took a charge on the other end to seal the deal and gave seniors Sarah Bell and Morgan Hughes a Senior Night to remember.

“I just wanted to come out and win for my seniors,” Albeck said. “It was one of their last games and I wanted to win on Senior Night for them. I was just pumped on adrenaline and everyone, the bench was hype, the team was hype and I was just ready.”

“Coach always says look around and choose one person you want to play for,” she added. “Tonight, I played for the seniors. We needed an extra game for an extra practice with them.”

The late-game effort and energy provided by Albeck were not unsurprising to her teammates.

“She hasn’t played a lot of varsity, but when she comes in she plays her hardest,” Platt said. “She doesn’t give up and she just doesn’t try and let anyone down, which doesn’t. She just goes out and does her thing. … She deserves all that.”

The Golden Panthers have one division game remaining Saturday at home against Pottsgrove. A loss would drop PJP into a tie with Upper Merion in the division standings, but the Golden Panthers have a season sweep over the Vikings for the tiebreaker after Thursday’s win.

“A this point in the season it’s pass-fail,” Flanagan said. “It’s like in college when you take some of those classes and it doesn’t matter if you get an ‘A’ or a ‘C’. If you pass it’s survive and advance. … That’s not the prettiest game. That’s not the tape that’s being sent down Springfield, Mass., but it's what we sent out to do. It’s what we had to do.”

Even with their league playoff spot secured, there’s still plenty to play for on Saturday for the Golden Panthers. PJP missed out on the four-team District 1-4A playoff field by hundredths of a point last season. They entered Thursday in fifth in the unofficial power rankings, but hope wins over Upper Merion and Pottsgrove could boost them into the tournament field.

“It’s been a tougher season so far, losing, winning, losing, winning,” Platt said. “And we just need to come together these last couple games and put out our hardest so we make it to the playoffs and then possibly farther.”

By Quarter
UM:   9   |   7   |   2   |   5   ||  23
PJP:  2   |   2   |   4   |  23  ||  31

Scoring
Upper Merion: Kennedy Coles 11, Olivia Smith 6, Julianna Callison 4, Levayda Fuqua 3.

Pope John Paul II: Nadia Platt 9, Elena Colliluori 5, Brooke Albeck 5, Rylee Derecola 4, Benincasa 2, Aubrey Delpha 2, Grace Fitzgerald 2, Katie Nilles 2