City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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COLLEGEVILLE — Perkiomen Valley stepped on the floor last season in the Pioneer Athletic Conference championship with a head coach who had never been in the title game and a group of players — most of them freshmen — in the same boat.

The Vikings’ inexperience showed in the third and fourth quarters as “the standard” of the PAC, Spring-Ford, wiped away a significant second-half deficit to win a fifth straight title. There were many lessons gleaned, albeit painful ones. 

“That was my first year in the championship game and I kind of let the girls slip away, and I feel bad about it,” PV third-year coach John Russo said.

Russo’s team was in a similar position again in a title game rematch Wednesday night as they led by double digits in the third and then the fourth quarters  — this time on their home floor instead of the Rams and with valuable experience on the sidelines and the floor.

It showed as Perkiomen Valley continued to add to its advantage in a dominant 51-26 victory that ended Spring-Ford’s five-year run atop the league and delivered PV its first PAC title since 2016.

“We worked really, really hard in practice and we just knew if we could come out really strong that we could have the upperhand the whole game and hopefully maintain, which we did a good job doing,” said sophomore forward Quinn Boettinger, who led the Vikings with 18 points. “We were in the gym early in the morning all fall. We’ve been working out since the end of last season for this moment. It’s so great to see us finally accomplish our goal.”

The Perkiomen Valley girls basketball team poses with the PAC championship plaque following Wednesday's win over Spring-Ford. (Photo: Owen McCue/CoBL)

Boettinger and fellow sophomores Bella Bacani, Lena Stein and Julia Smith all started Wednesday’s title game after seeing action in last season’s defeat, joined by classmate Grace Galbavy, who was at Upper Perk last year before moving into the school district.

They jumped out to a 16-10 lead in the first quarter, led by 27-17 at halftime and 33-22 entering the fourth quarter.

“We knew we had to come out in the fourth and go really hard because last time we didn’t play as hard as we could,” Bacani said, referencing the game last season. “We just came out in the fourth and we put everything into it and we got a good lead and we just kept going, going, going.”

Spring-Ford junior Anna Azzara, who led the Rams with 13, scored the first basket of the fourth to cut the PV lead to single digits one more time, but the Vikings answered with 11 in a row to go up 44-24 with a little less than four minutes left — an and-one by Stein and another bucket by Bacani the putaway punches in a bout between two of the top teams in District 1.

“I felt like we were talking, ‘We cannot get comfortable. We have to play as hard as we can,’” Lena Stein said. “This is what we’ve been working for all season, so we can’t take one play off, one possession off.”

Russo said the preparation for Wednesday's championship game began in practice the day after last season’s championship loss to the Rams. The Vikings made runs to the District 1 and PIAA Class 6A quarterfinals after that while Spring-Ford advanced to the district title game and state quarters as well.

They both came into this season as the clearcut favorites in the league and amongst the area's top squads.

“We said 366 is our number,” Russo said. “We’re gonna be back here 366 days from last year, and we’re going to be better stronger, faster and better coached.”

That’s what the Vikings did this season from the start, jumping out to a 12-0 start before a 54-46 loss to Spring-Ford in their first meeting. Russo wasn’t concerned, noting while the district implications of the regular-season matchups were more significant, he wanted to deliver the coveted PAC title for his players, their families and their fans, who showed up in abundance on Wednesday night.

The Vikings finished their regular season with nine straight wins, including a 44-37 win over the Rams to force a season split and earn the top seed in the PAC and District 1 tournaments. They finished the job Wednesday night, following a 58-33 semifinal victory over Methacton with another 25-point win over the Rams. 

“We know they’re the standard,” Russo said. “Mickey (McDaniel)’s a great coach. His staff is unbelievable, the players are great. I mean Azzara is the best player we play. She’s dynamic. Mac (Pettinelli) subtly sees the floor better than anyone we play against. We know they are the standard, so that was also our theme was respect. We want to be respected in their class, and I feel like we are now. This game was the game.”

Spring-Ford enters the District 1 tournament as the No. 5 seed, so the Liberty Division rivals wouldn’t possibly meet again until semifinal round..

“It was a really tough one last year, but we made it really far after PAC chips in districts and states,” Boettigner said. “It was just really fun to see us get this one. We still have districts and states on the horizon. I think this one gave us a very good push and just proved a lot since Spring-Ford is a very, very good team. They’re coached so well. Coach Mickey’s amazing. Just playing like that against such a good team is going to be a good catalyst for us.”

The championship celebration for the Vikings wasn’t quite as crisp as their championship performance on the floor. Lena’s older sister Ella, the lone senior on the roster, wasn’t quite sure which part of the net to cut when she climbed the ladder started things off. Russo had a little bit of trouble finishing off the net cutting.

PV's sophomore-laden group hopes its not the last championship celebration they have together this season or in the future. It's likely things would go a little smoother postgame as they proved Wednesday night they learn from their mistakes.

“That was also a great learning experience,” Lena Stein joked.

“Everyone has a first time,” Bacani added.

By Quarter

Spring-Ford:   10  |   7   |  5  |  4  ||  26

Perkiomen Valley:   16   |   11   |   6   |  18  ||  51

Scoring

Spring-Ford: Anna Azzara 13, Mac Pettinelli 5, Haley Prophet 3, Meg Robbins 2, Sophia Allocca 2, Katie Tiffan 1.

Perkiomen Valley: Quinn Boettinger 18, Grace Galbavy 12, Bella Bacani 9, Lena Stein 7, Julia Smith 5.