City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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GLENSIDE — It wasn’t until a couple hours after his Perkiomen Valley girls had knocked off Archbishop Wood that John Russo really understood the magnitude of what had happened on Sunday afternoon at Arcadia. 

Sure, the Vikings’ head coach knew that beating Wood — also the Vikings — was a big win for his junior-laden squad squad. Mike McDonald’s program has been a hoops power for decades, an annual Catholic League and state title contender, routinely playing in major showcases and pumping out college talent. 

A come-from-behind, 50-46 win was certainly a confidence boost for Perk Valley, even though it’s the defending District 1 6A champs, with all of its key pieces back in place.

“For us to play on the level of a national powerhouse, I mean, that’s something special for a public school,” Russo said. “I don’t know how many can say that they knocked off the multi-time state champs, even in a regular-season game. To me, it’s a big deal.”

The answer, at least in the last decade (and then some), is zero. 

Perkiomen Valley is the first PIAA public school to beat Archbishop Wood since Mars in the 2018 state championship game, only the third team to do it in the last 10 years after Blackhawk did so in the 2014 and 2015 championship games. Nobody’s done it in the regular season since Red Lion in January 2012. 

It’s true that the majority of Wood’s non-league schedule most years includes a bevy of out-of-state and private school opponents, not many local high schools willing or able to tangle with one of the top programs in the Catholic League. But the few that tried had come up short — former Wood coach Jim Ricci, now an Arcadia assistant, said the last time Wood had lost to a District 1 team was to Council Rock North and Upper Dublin during the 2006-07 season.

Perk Valley has bigger plans for this season, including defending its Pioneer Athletic Conference and District 1 6A titles, then making it much further in the state playoffs after bowing out in the second round a year ago. They’ve already beaten some strong programs in Penn Charter, Sanford (Del.) and PAC rival Spring-Ford.

Beating Wood is a nice shot of adrenaline with three weeks left in the regular season, the postseason quickly getting larger on the horizon.

“Our team knows the sky’s the limit and the only people who can stop us are ourselves,” junior forward Quinn Boettinger said. “As long as we kind of just play our game and continue to work hard, we’ll be successful. A win like that and a win against Spring-Ford this Friday, it shows that we’re able to compete with these high-level teams and not feel inferior.

“Last year, I felt like we deserved to play at this level, too,” she added. “We were still underclassmen so obviously the maturity level wasn’t there but just knowing that we’re all juniors and we’re all strong players[...] it’s like, how far can we go as a group?”

Boettinger led the way with 18 points in Perk Valley’s win on Sunday, which was the fifth of seven games in the Hoops for Hope Classic. The 6-foot-3, Navy-bound post — who added seven rebounds, three blocks and two assists — presented a matchup problem for a Wood squad without a true post or anybody taller than 6-0 in the starting lineup, and Perk Valley tried to take advantage whenever possible. 

“Our ‘clear’ offense was, let’s go throw Quinn down (on the block), see how they play it,” Russo said. “Their ‘clear’ offense was to get the ball to the girl Quinn was guarding and get her as far out away from the basket as possible. That’ll tell you how important Quinn was to the matchup.”

Grace Galbavy added 11 points, two rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks for Perkiomen Valley, while yet another junior Grace Miley added 10 points, including a key fourth-quarter 3-pointer, and four rebounds. 

Getting Miley, a 5-9 wing back in the rotation after she missed the last season due to a torn ACL, has been a big boost for Perk Valley. Her value was apparent in the first quarter after Wood grabbed four offensive rebounds on its first possession, Miley coming on and immediately grabbing a rebound the next time down the court.

“The energy level and confidence she brings on the court just raises everyone’s game,” Boettinger said. “She’s an incredible hustler, always on the ground, so much fun to play against at practice, she’s doing so much at once.”

Wood led most of the way, opening up a 14-6 lead in the first quarter behind three 3-pointers from junior wing and St. Joe’s commit Emily Knouse (16 points). Wood led 24-19 at halftime, then was clinging to a 36-35 lead going into the fourth. Perk Valley was hanging in, but couldn’t make a run.

“We felt like it was a football game,” Russo said. “We would get to one, they’d get seven. We’d get to one, they’d get a touchdown.”

It wasn’t until the final couple minutes that Wood finally got over the hump. It was Boettinger who put them on top 44-43 with a pair of foul shots with 83 seconds remaining, Miley tacking on two more with 52 seconds to play to make it a three-point lead.

Perk Valley went 10-of-12 from the foul line in the last 1:23 to hold on, while Wood went 3-of-9 from the line and 1-of-6 in the fourth quarter. 

“It was very similar to what happened to us with Carroll in the state playoffs last year, we were up the whole game and then the last few minutes, we lost the lead,” Boettinger said. “We want to prove that we can play at these high levels and we can close out a game regardless of situation, being able to get something done and knowing the game’s not over until it’s fully over.”

Archbishop Wood (9-4) played the latter half of the fourth without FDU-bound point guard Ava Renninger, who fouled out with 4:32 remaining. With Renninger’s minutes limited all game due to fouls, McDonald was encouraged by strong play from sophomore Sophia Topakas (5 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals) and freshman Makayla Finnegan (5 points, 3 rebounds) on the ball.

“We were waiting [for] Sophia Topakas to bring her energy back offensively,” he said, “so there (were) a lot of good things to come out of this game for us moving forward. One is that we’ve got to make sure Ava’s staying on the floor, though.”

Both teams will now get back to their respective league play. Wood plays at Bonner-Prendergast on Tuesday before a marquee game against Archbishop Carroll at home on Friday. After beating O’Hara last week, a win over the Patriots would solidify the Vikings as PCL frontrunners. 

Perk Valley, already with a big PAC target on its back, has a busy week ahead: trips to Methacton and Upper Merion (Thursday), a visit from Pottsgrove on Friday and a game against Carroll on Sunday at the Maggie Lucas Classic at Jefferson. 

Beating the Patriots would mean exacting a measure of revenge from last year’s state playoffs, as well as send up another sign that the year-older Perkiomen Valley Vikings are ready go deep into March.

“It’s a step in the direction that we want to go,” Russo said. “We know that Wood is — with O’Hara, Carroll — the preeminent basketball powerhouses in our area. So we want to get to the level that they’re at, and then continue to get better. Getting a win today just energizes us for the season.”

By Quarter
Archbishop Wood:   14  |  10  |  12  |  10  ||  46
Perkiomen Valley:     8   |  11  |  16  |  15  ||  50

Shooting
Archbishop Wood: 18-54 FG (7-32 3PT), 3-9 FT
Perkiomen Valley: 14-36 FG (3-14 3PT), 19-23 FT

Scoring
Archbishop Wood: Emily Knouse 16, Lauren Greer 6, Alexa Windish 6, Sophia Topakas 5, Ava Renninger 5, Makayla Finnegan 5, Emma Yogis 3

Perkiomen Valley: Quinn Boettinger 18, Grace Galbavy 11, Grace Miley 10, Lena Stein 5, Bella Bacani 4, Anna Stein 2