City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@owen.mccue)
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COLLEGEVILLE — As Jake Robinson streaked down the court in the final seconds of Thursday’s Pioneer Athletic Conference semifinal, his coach barked out “Layup.” 

Robinson heard the directive but had other ideas.

Instead of laying the ball up, he skied with both hands to put down a dunk — his first ever in-game slam — and add an exclamation point to the fourth-seeded Golden Panthers’ 73-63 win over top seed Pottsgrove.

“I did hear that, and I knew I could dunk it, so I just went up and did,” Robinson said.

“I definitely feel like the past four years, all the work I’ve been doing, all the work my teammates have been doing, it’s definitely leading up to this,” he added. “It’s just really nice to see everything come together. For me, as that guy who’s been there for the past four years, to finish off the game like that, it means everything to me and I’m excited to hopefully go win the PAC championship for the first time in four years.”

Junior Jason Green poured in 28 points, junior Ayden Wise added 17 and the senior Robinson finished with 13 to help book PJP’s (17-6) first PAC title game trip since 2022. Junior Daymein Doctor had 26 for the Falcons.

“He’s probably our biggest leader,” Green said of Robinson. “He’s a captain. We all look up to him. He gets on us when he needs to and he keeps us accountable. He’s one of the best teammates I’ve had in my life, and it means a lot to win a game like this with him.”

Pottsgrove (20-3)  entered on an 11-game win streak, including a 58-54 win over PJP on Jan. 14. Doctor pulled up for a triple in the closing seconds to put the Falcons up 40-37 at halftime after a back-and-forth first 16 minutes.

A triple by junior Jack Kessler (11 points) gave PJP back the lead, 48-46, with a little under five to play in the third. After Doctor tied the game back up, Green drilled a pair of triples from well beyond the arc to spot the Panthers a 58-52 lead heading into the fourth. The advantage was up to nine less than a minute into the fourth.

Green scored 14 of his 28 points in the third quarter, including four of his seven threes in the game.

“I would just say I give the credit to my teammates,” Green said. “They always find me on passes. They understand that I can shoot it and whenever I’m open … we move the ball really well and in that second half we just got going. Jack’s a sniper too. We have so much shooting around the floor that it really makes it hard for defenses to guard, especially when Ayden and Jake, they’re really getting downhill.”

Doctor did his best to find an answer for the Falcons. He scored 16 of his team’s 17 points during a stretch in the second half. His steal and score with 2:12 to trimmed the deficit to four, 65-61. 

However, Robinson answered with a bucket and fellow senior Bradey Bass added another fastbreak layup with under a minute left to push the PJP lead back to eight. Kessler hit a pair of clutch free throws and it was all but over by the time Robinson sent the PJP bench and student section into a frenzy with his dunk.

“That was really cool,” PJP coach Earl Wise said. “That kid’s worked extremely hard, especially last year he had limited minutes and he cheered his teammates on. … But he had a goal in the summer. He wanted to help lead his team with rebounds, and all the extra stuff, the dirty work so it’s good to see him get up there. I didn’t even know he could dunk.

“He put it down and he’s never gonna forget that. That might be the only dunk of his career, but we’ll take it to catapault us to the championship.”

Despite winning a District 1-4A championship last season, the Golden Panthers missed out on the PAC Final Six for the second year in a row in 2023-24.

Robinson and the rest of the senior class were freshmen when PJP won the league title in 2021 and made it their mission to try and put the program back atop of the PAC on their way out.

They are now one win away.

“During last year, Coach Wise kind of came to me and some of the senior leaders and was like, ‘We need a new culture this year. I’m tired of losing,’” Robinson said. “The seniors just kind of executed that this year, and now we’re here.”

Pope John Paul II 73, Pottsgrove 63

Pope John Paul II 17 | 20 | 21 | 15 || 73

Pottsgrove 16 | 24 | 12 | 11 || 63

Pottsgrove: Daymein Doctor 26, Kamal Curry 14, Julius Marshall 8, Bryce Phillips 6, Gregory Rosenberger 6, Thomas Sambrick 3

Pope John Paul II: Jason Green 28, Ayden Wise 17, Jake Robinson 13, Jack Kessler 11, Bradey Bass 2, CJ Hestick 2.

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Perkiomen Valley's Grace Galbavy, center, drives between Phoenixville's Nevaeh Latimore Beasley and Ava Gnias. (Photo: Owen McCue/CoBL)

Perkiomen Valley 68, Phoenixville 8

When Perkiomen Valley’s senior class made a run to the Pioneer Athletic Conference championship game as freshmen in 2022, the Vikings broke a three-year drought in the league title game.

Three years later, PV’s seniors are headed back to their fourth straight PAC championship after a dominant 68-8 win over Phoenixville in Thursday’s semifinal round.

The Vikings scored the game’s first 39 points to cruise to a win, advancing to Tuesday’s championship against either No. 2 Pope John Paul II or No. 3 Spring-Ford. Seniors Grace Miley (17), Quinn Boettinger (14), Grace Galbavy (12) and Lena Stein all reached double figures.

“When we made the first one it was a big, big, big, big deal,” PV coach John Russo said. “It was breaking through. And now that we have been here, now it’s just take care of business on your road to taking your shot to win it.”

The Vikings’ (20-3) defense was stifling while its offense was opportunistic against the Phantoms (14-10). Russo said after a regular season when he let his seasoned group stay loose, the Vikings were back in playoff mode this week prepping their game plan.

After winning two straight PAC and District 1 championships, PV’s celebrations have been muted, even after postseason victories. Russo made sure to celebrate another accomplishment on Thursday night as his group of seniors won their 100th game together. 

Boettinger, Stein, Miley, Bacani and Julia Smith all played in that semifinal win over PJP three seasons ago that marked the first significant achievement for a group that now has quite the resume they hope to keep on adding to.

“It’s an amazing statistic,” Russo said of the 100 wins. “I didn’t even know it was a statistic until PV four years ago posted their 100 wins and I was like, ‘Oh that’s a thing?’ We just kind of counted, and I think about things and I knew this was the 100th win for them as a group.

"To play as well together as a group and get their 100th win is a testament to what great basketball players and kids they are. They have just embraced the coaching staff and what we want to do and blocked out all the noise from everybody else and just stay together and worked really hard. I couldn’t be happier.”

Perkiomen Valley 68, Phoenixville 8

Phoenixville 0 | 5 | 1 | 2 || 8

Perkiomen Valley 25 | 21 | 15 | 7 || 68

Phoenixville: Emine Ulcay 3, Charlie Campbell 2, Allyson Turner 2, Taylor Schneider 1.

Perkiomen Valley: Grace Miley 17, Quinn Boettinger 14, Grace Galbavy 12, Lena Stein 10, Bella Bacani 5, Kate Nemic 4, Julia Smith 3, Hannah Evans 3.

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PAC Final Six Playoffs

First Round
Tues., Feb. 4 @ Perkiomen Valley
GIRLS: Phoenixville 56, Upper Merion 43
BOYS: Pope John Paul II

Wed., Feb. 5 @ Spring-Ford
GIRLS: Spring-Ford 50, Methacton 40
BOYS: Phoenixville 71, Owen J. Roberts 48

Semifinals
Thurs., Feb. 6 @ Perkiomen Valley
GIRLS: Perkiomen Valley 68, Phoenixville 8
BOYS: Pope John Paul II 73, Pottsgrove 63

Sat., Feb. 8 @ Spring-Ford
GIRLS: 2) Pope John Paul II vs. 3) Spring-Ford, 1 p.m.
BOYS: 2) Spring-Ford vs. 3) Phoenixville, 3 p.m.

Championship
Tues., Feb. 11 @ Perkiomen Valley
GIRLS: 1) Perkiomen Valley vs. Spring-Ford/Pope John Paul II, 5 p.m.
BOYS: 4) Pope John Paul II vs. Spring-Ford/Phoenixville at 7 p.m.