City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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COLLEGEVILLE — It’s not too difficult to figure what the difference-maker was for Perkiomen Valley’s boys in their District 1 6A playback game against Neshaminy on Friday night, why the Vikings’ season is still alive and their opponents’ is over. 

After all, Neshaminy hit more shots (26 to 18) and more 3-pointers (6 to 4), grabbed more offensive rebounds (10 to 5), turned it over only five times. 

But 23 times a Perkiomen Valley played toed the foul line, and all 23 times it went in. And so it was the No. 7 seeded Vikings who were celebrating a 63-60 win and the continuation of their season, with two more games for seeding purposes and then an appearance in the PIAA Class 6A bracket for the first time in four years. 

“That’s part of the blueprint for our success,” Perk Valley coach Mike Poysden said. “You can mark games we’ve lost, we’ve left a lot open at the free-throw line. If we’re going to be patient and methodical and work and spread the ball around, that’s how you finish the game.”

It was two weeks ago exactly that the Vikings missed 14 foul shots in a double overtime loss to Upper Merion in the PAC semifinals. This time around, the charity stripe was a life-saver.

“We had some games like Upper Merion where free throws pretty much cost us the game,” junior guard Julian Sadler said. “We’ve been working on them every day in practice, getting better, and you see the results tonight.”

Sadler was by far the biggest reason for PV’s perfect night, going 14-of-14 from the line to help him to a game-high 26 points, though he was also 5-of-9 from the floor, including 2-of-4 from 3-point range. The 6-foot-1 left-hander got to the line four times in the first quarter, sandwiched around a left-wing triple, and started feeling good early.

That paid off down the stretch, when he was 8-of-8 from the line in the fourth quarter, helping hold off a No. 18 Neshaminy squad that was tough to slow down. 

“Definitely getting some free throws early helped me get in a rhythm,” Sadler said. “Once I knocked down that first free throw, everything’s pretty smooth from there.”

Sophomore guard Mason Thear added a clutch pair of foul shots, hitting both ends of a 1-and-1 with 1:16 left in the fourth quarter to keep the lead at 55-50, the last of his nine points; he also added six assists and three rebounds. 

Coming up clutch for the Vikings was senior forward Shane Nelson, a 6-3 senior forward and scholarship-level defensive end. Nelson missed his first shot attempt, a 3-pointer, but hit two foul shots with 1:45 left to keep the lead at six and two more with 16.6 seconds left to make it a seven-point game.

“Shane’s a dog,” said junior forward Kyle Shawaluk, who had 12 points, four rebounds and four assists from the line, his only foul shot coming on an and-one in the third quarter. “Shane comes in, he plays his role well, and he helped us grab rebounds and we made a lot of foul shots late in the game and that helped us win.”

The combo of Nelson and senior forward Morgan McKinney inside has been a positive development for Perkiomen Valley (17-9), the two combining for 14 points and 12 rebounds on Friday. McKinney, a 6-5 post, hit two shots in the first quarter and two in the third, typically on pick-and-rolls with Thear, the sophomore finding the senior for layup after layup.

“We’ve changed our lineup a lot, pivoting around them,” Poysden said. “We started both in the beginning of the year, then we only started Morgan, sometimes we started Shane. The idea that that position for us scored 14 points and was perfect from the free-throw line, that’s a lot of production. It’s cool to see (them) step into that role and knock down those shots.”

Neshaminy (16-11) junior point guard Emeer Coombs hit two 3-pointers in the final 30 seconds to get to 18 points and provide for the final margin. He finished just behind classmate Nate Townsend, who got into the lane at will and finished with 19 points; senior forward Joey Zack had 10 points and nine rebounds, including five on the offensive end. 

The only thing Mark Tingle’s group didn’t do well on Friday night: shoot foul shots (2-of-9).

Perkiomen Valley led 17-15 after one quarter, Thear hitting a jumper ahead of the buzzer to put them up two, and then extended that to a 35-28 lead at the half. Neshaminy got within 44-40 going into the third, holding Sadler scoreless over those eight minutes, but he opened the fourth with a three-point play to get the advantage back to seven, which it still was with under three minutes to play when Coombs hit his first of three fourth-quarter triples.

Perk Valley’s foul shooting ensured Neshaminy never had a game-tying attempt.

In its first seeding game, Perkiomen Valley will play No. 11 Coatesville, which dispatched No. 14 Penn Wood 48-41 on Friday evening. If it wins that one and beats either Henderson or Haverford in the final seeding round, it would get the 1-9 seed in the PIAA Class 6A bracket.

A loss or two in there and it’ll end up with the 1-10, 1-11 or 1-12 slot, all of whom should (in theory) play increasingly difficult opponents, whether that’s the District 3 champs, District 12 champs or District 11 champs. So though the next two games might not feel like they have the same level of pressure as a do-or-die elimination game, they can make a big difference when the state bracket is set.

“There’s monsters out there,” Poysden said. “You’re playing to hopefully get a favorable matchup. To me, it all the way matters.”

By Quarter
Perk Valley:  17  |  18  |   9   |  19  ||  63
Neshaminy:  15  |  13  |  12  |  20  ||  60

Shooting
Perk Valley: 18-39 FG (4-13 3PT), 23-23 FT
Neshaminy: 26-49 FG (6-10 3PT), 2-9 FT

Scoring
Perk Valley: Julian Sadler 26, Kyle Shawaluk 12, Mason Thear 9, Morgan McKinney 8, Shane Nelson 6

Neshaminy: Nate Townsend 19, Emeer Coombs 18, Joey Zack 10, Sean Curley 9, Guy Horton 3, Ashton Lovelace 2