City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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GRATERFORD — Ella Stein didn’t realize when she left the house Wednesday morning that younger sister Lena wouldn’t be joining her at school.

So it came as quite a surprise when Perk Valley girls basketball coach John Russo texted her that Lena, one of PV’s five starting sophomores, wasn’t going to be playing in Wednesday night’s District 1-6A semifinal against league rival Spring-Ford due to an illness.

“My parents didn’t tell me,” Stein said. “I got a text from Russo, ‘Lena’s got a stomach bug.’ I don’t know how he knew this before I did.”

Stein, PV’s lone senior, knew what it meant though. The Vikings’ sixth man would get the start in the biggest game of her career to date in lieu of her younger sister. She rose to the occasion with 11 points as one of four double-figure PV scorers along with sophomores Quinn Boettinger (17), Bella Bacani (11) and Grace Galbavy (11).

Her five fourth-quarter points included the go-ahead bucket as top-seeded PV rallied from an eight-point hole in the fourth quarter for a 53-42 victory over the fifth-seeded Rams. The Vikings will play second-seeded Haverford, a winner over Pennsbury, on Saturday at Temple in their second district final in program history, seeking their first title since 2016.

“I’ve been a role player this entire year,” Stein said. “Besides Senior Night, I don’t think I’ve scored more than five points in a game. It’s an awesome feeling, but not what I was expecting at all. I was expecting to pick up Lena’s role on defense and do what I needed to do and the ball landed in my hands. It worked out.”

Spring-Ford senior Meg Robbins scored 14 points and sophomore Mac Pettinelli had 11 for the Rams (23-5) in their fourth meeting against Perkiomen Valley (26-1) this season. Spring-Ford won the first one 56-44 on Jan. 13 then dropped the next two — 44-37 on Feb. 2 and 51-26 in the PAC title game Feb. 15. 

For about 37 minutes on Wednesday night, the Rams looked ready to even the season series. They led 15-10 after the first quarter, 22-20 at halftime and went up as many as nine in the third before bringing a 37-29 lead into the fourth. Bacani and sophomore Juila Smith hit triples to cut the lead to one, 37-36, but the Rams came back, going back up by six, 42-36, on a three by junior Siena Miller with a little less than three minutes to play.

It was a time younger sister Lena, who typically manufactures energy pregame with a Rocky Balboa-inspired speech in the locker room and with hustle plays out on the floor, might make a big play to turn the tide. There was no Lena before the game (ideas of a FaceTime didn't work out) nor during the game, so someone else had to rise to the occasion.

“The first thing, Quinn came in and said, ‘Who’s going to do the Rocky speech?’," Stein said. "We all just kind of picked up our hype and stuff in the pregame in the locker room, kind of, ‘Do it for Lena. We need to play like Lena. Lena’s effort.’ … We were down most of the game, but we picked it up in the fourth quarter, and it worked out.”

Boettinger scored the first two points of a 17-0 run for PV to close the game. With the Rams’ defense cracking down on her after that, she kicked to Stein for a three, pulling the Vikings within one, 42-41, with 2:05 to play.

Galbavy came up with a steal two possessions later and fed Stein for a fastbreak score, which marked the go-ahead bucket with 1:31 left. They were the two biggest buckets of the game.

“Ella’s been so underrated all year. In practice, we’ve known how quick she is, and she really showed it tonight,” Galbavy said. “Even with (Anna) Azzara with how quick Azzara is, geez, she could even out run her a little.

“We have a great starting lineup and obviously being the sixth man on any great team, you should be ready to step up, but Ella hit her shots and she was prepared for the game all day. She knew what she was prepared to do and she did it.”

Galbavy forced a jump ball with 1:18 to play to get the ball back for the Vikings. Two Boettinger free throws shortly after pushed the PV lead to two possessions. The Rams turned the ball over a few more times in the final minute as Boettinger and Bacani combined to go 10-for-10 from the line, sealing a trip to Temple on Saturday and keeping Sprig-Ford from a third straight District 1 title appearance.

“Huuuge steals (from Grace), huge blocks from Quinn, Bella with the intensity, Julia, everyone,” Stein said. “As a team we really picked it up. We knew what we had to do and we did it.”

Russo’s coached Stein since seventh grade when he was the Perk Valley middle school coach. She was a starter for him as a sophomore in 2020-21 when he took over the program. 

Last season, a group of then-freshmen — Boettinger, Bacani, Smith, Lena Stein and the injured Grace Miley  — made an immediate impact at the varsity level alongside a pair of seniors, hopping Stein in the Vikings’ rotation.

While Stein certainly didn’t welcome the reduced role she accepted it and understood it during her conversations with Russo.

“My answer to her was, ‘Hey they’re dominating (in practice). I can’t not start them,” Russo said. “They have taken the positions, now it’s your turn to go fight, get better. Here’s the things I want you to work on. She had things she wanted to work on, and she kind of blended them and she’s become one of the starters.”

Stein has functioned as the team’s sixth starter this season, bringing instant energy off the bench. It’s a trait that apparently runs in the family as Lena and middle sister Anna Stein are both relentless on both ends of the floor as well.

“She comes in, gets all crazy and she grabs rebounds,” Galbavy said. “She has the most heart. All the Steins, that is the Steins’ role on the team, bring the energy and bring the heart. … They can move their feet quick, they can grab offensive boards and they can make open buckets.”

Stein scored a total of four points in the first three games against Spring-Ford this season. Wednesday was just her third double-figure scoring total of the season.

“I’ve coached her since seventh grade. It’s the greatest thing for me that I could see,” Russo said. "I feel like she’s one of my children. I feel like I've spent so much time with that young lady that she deserves moments like this. She works just as hard as anybody in the gym, she’s our captain. She’s our leader. She sets the tone at practice.

"This is the first year I walk into a practice two minutes late and they are already started and the girls all give her the credit. To watch her go from starter Year 1 I was here to role player last year to one of our most valuable as the sixth man … she just deserves this. I’m so happy for her.”

Stein is a mix of best friend and older sister to her PV teammates and said she sometimes even feels like a mom with most of the players on the court with her two years younger. 

She's had quite a few special memories with a terrific regular season and a PAC championship and Wednesday night's win over Spring-Ford was another. Stein now has the opportunity to make few more memories with her young teammates, beginning at Temple on Saturday.

“There’s no feeling like this in the world, and I’m glad I got to do it with them my senior year before I left," Stein said. "It’s just an awesome experience, an amazing team.”

By Quarter

Spring-Ford 15 | 7 | 15 | 5 || 42

Perk Valley 10 | 10 | 9 | 24 || 53

Scoring

Spring-Ford: Meg Robbins 14, Mac Pettinelli 11, Anna Azzara 8, Katie Tiffan 6, Siena Miller 3.

Perk Valley: Quinn Boettigner 17, Ella Stein 11, Bella Bacani 11, Grace Galbavy 11, Julia Smith 3.