City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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ROYERSFORD — The Pioneer Athletic Conference has entered its Viking Age. 

Perkiomen Valley’s girls captured the PAC title from Spring-Ford last year, ending the Rams’ five-year run atop the league of mostly Montgomery County high schools up the 422 corridor.

But one championship does not a reign make. John Russo’s girls needed to play a season with the target on their backs, to defend their title, to truly stake this as their time.

Thursday night, on their archrivals court, they did just that. 

Behind a well-rounded effort from its junior-heavy top seven, Perkiomen Valley made sure the PAC crown stayed in Collegeville, a strong second half leading the way to a 60-51 win over Spring-Ford.

Perkiomen Valley celebrates with the trophy Thursday night after beating Spring-Ford in the PAC Championship at Spring-Ford High School. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“It’s insane,” said Anna Stein, the team’s only senior. “I think we earned it ... personally, it’s been a long journey to get here, so it feels good, it feels very good.”

It’s the sixth consecutive win for Perkiomen Valley over Spring-Ford in the rivalry, winning the last three of four meetings last year and winning both regular-season matchups this year before the league championship victory.

“It feels a little different because we were expected this year to win it,” said Russo, who’s in his fourth year as Perk Valley’s head coach. “Last year we felt like they were expected [to win] and we kind of came from behind and got them. And winning it here is a little extra-special because it’s the best team in the PAC (historically), and it’s their home gym, so it’s just more special.”

Last year, most of Perkiomen Valley’s rotation — including all five starters — were sophomores, a special group with size and talent winning the PAC and District 1 Class 6A championships. But they were playing without Grace Miley, who missed her sophomore year with a torn ACL, while also working Upper Perkiomen transfer Grace Galbavy into the mix; Stein, coming off her own injury, wasn’t herself either. 

“Last year we were missing Grace Miley, Anna Stein wasn’t back to her full potential, Grace Galbavy was new, but I feel like now we’ve developed into a true family,” junior forward Quinn Boettinger said. “We trust each other so much. I feel like this was more of a team win because we had everyone ready, everyone good to go, and just to do it for Anna’s senior year is amazing.”

This year, Russo’s had his whole rotation at full strength, and they’ve been nearly perfect, the only loss in 24 games coming to Gill St. Bernard (N.J.) back in December. It’s a rotation that all showed out during the championship, no one player truly starring.

Boettinger, the Vikings’ 6-foot-3, Navy-bound center, and the 6-1 Galbavy both finished with 14 points; Galbavy added 10 rebounds, five assists, four blocks and two steals while Boettinger grabbed seven rebounds with one assist, steal and block. Lena Stein, Anna’s younger sister, added nine points, six rebounds and three assists; Miley scored eight points with three rebounds and junior point guard Bella Bacani scored seven points with three assists and two steals. 

“My opinion is, our seven kids are seven studs that get in the game,” Russo said, including junior guard Julia Smith, who didn’t get into the scoring column but provided some good defense in her minutes. “Any one of them could go on any other team and score 15, 18 points. My opinion also is that when we share the basketball, we’re unstoppable.”

That was at its most clear in the third quarter, which saw Perkiomen Valley take what had been a tight, back-and-forth first half and turn a 31-28 halftime edge into a 48-36 lead going into the fourth. The Vikings’ final bucket of the period was as pretty as they come, a halfcourt pass from Anna Stein to sister Lena streaking down the left side of the court; Lena caught the pass in midair and before landing had already shuttled it ahead to Boettinger, who’d run the floor for a wide-open layup.

That capped off a period which saw four different Vikings score, including a Galbavy 3-point play, a couple buckets from Lena Stein and a 3-pointer from Miley. More importantly, they locked down on Spring-Ford, holding the Rams to 3-of-15 shooting in the period while Perk Valley went 7-of-9.

“We definitely knew coming into the game that we had to take away their 3s because they can shoot,” Bacani said. “So coming in after halftime, we all kind of communicated on how we can get over the screens, trusting our teammates ... really just guarding your girl and trusting everyone around you.”

Perk Valley (23-1) ended with 13 assists on 20 buckets, shooting 54% from the floor (20-of-37) and 80% from the foul line (16-of-20). Spring-Ford was 19-of-54 (35%) from the floor, 7-of-19 (37%) from 3-point range, a couple of those coming in the final minutes as the Rams tried everything they could to overcome a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit. 

It wasn’t until Bacani saved a ball from going out of bounds and found Galbavy for a layup to make it 55-46 with 1:12 left that the outcome finally seemed secure. Boettinger, who was in the lineup when Spring-Ford overcame a late deficit two years ago to win the league title, wasn’t happy until the buzzer sounded.

Up next for both squads is the District 1-6A tournament, though with byes into the second round — Perk Valley is the No. 1 seed, Spring-Ford No. 6 — neither will know their opponent until Friday night’s opening-round games conclude. Both are just one win away from guaranteeing themselves a spot back in the state tournament, though they also have plans on making deeper runs than that. Perk Valley is aiming to defend its title on March 2 at a venue still to be announced. 

Bacani admitted last year’s first-round state playoff loss to Archbishop Carroll is more of a motivator as the postseason continues, but a district run comes first. 

“I think it’s now just back in the lab, back to practice,” Anna Stein said. “After winning last year and being on top, the No. 1 seed, people are definitely going to come with an extra energy, extra wanting to win when they play us. We’re just back in practice and working hard again, have to stay humble, just make sure we have that same want for it.”

By Quarter

Perkiomen Valley:  14  |  17  |  17  |  12  ||  60

Spring-Ford:  13  |  15  |   8   |  15  ||  51

Shooting

Perkiomen Valley: 20-37 FG (4-13 3PT), 16-20 FT

Spring-Ford: 19-54 FG (7-19 3PT), 6-9 FT

Scoring

Perkiomen Valley: Quinn Boettinger 14, Grace Galbavy 14, Lena Stein 9, Grace Miley 8, Anna Stein 8, Bella Bacani 7

Spring-Ford: Mac Pettinelli 12, Alliyah Solliday 11, Anna Azzara 10, Katie Tiffan 10, Kareena Preuss 8