City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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SPRINGFIELD — Neither Springfield (Delco.) nor Unionville are strangers to low-scoring, grind-it-out type games. 

The two opponents in Friday’s District 1 5A first-round game could have been looking in the mirror: not the most laden with talent in the district but determined to out-tough and out-work anybody they come against. Even if it doesn’t look pretty. 

“It felt like we were playing ourselves, kind of,” Springfield sophomore TJ Valletti said.

The result wasn’t pretty: it was low-scoring and grind-it-out indeed, possessions long and buckets few and far between.

It ultimately came down to which team made winning plays — and on this particular night, it was Springfield (Delco.). With Valletti and his Cougar teammates controlling the boards and locking down defensively, Springfield survived Unionville, 37-28 to keep its season going. 

“They run a lot of the same stuff that we run, you’ve got two Princeton teams playing each other,” Springfield coach Kevin McCormick said. “Our kids just came up with some big rebounds, offensive rebounds, giving us second opportunities were huge. 

“I’m glad to get past that one.”

Springfield will play at No. 3 seed Pottsgrove in the second round next Wednesday night. 

Valletti led Springfield with 11 points in the win, the only player on his team in double figures. The 6-foot-1 left-handed wing guard, who’s playing a little bit of everything for the Cougars these days, added 10 rebounds, five steals, and two assists. 

“Can’t say enough about TJ Valletti, he just makes plays,” McCormick said. “TJ’s savvy in the middle of the floor, he’s not fazed. He took a couple bad shots tonight but he knows when the game’s on the line, he’s not going to do that. He’s just trying to make a play. He’s a stud.”

Valletti got plenty of experience as a freshman last year, when Springfield — then playing in the 6A classification — pulled off a couple road upsets in the first rounds of districts to qualify for states, then won their first-round PIAA bracket game before losing to Spring-Ford in the second round. 

With center Colin Treude (York College) amongst a healthy senior class graduating from that group, Valletti has been Springfield’s post presence for much of the season. But just under three weeks ago, senior guard Patrick Flaherty sprained his ankle against Strath Haven, necessitating Valletti’s move back out to the perimeter and on the ball. Springfield's hoping to get Flaherty back this week, but it's still up in the air.

“When a guy goes down, I think all of us stepped up a lot,” Valletti said. “But me stepping into his position, he was talking to me about it and I realized I had to step it up a lot [...] he creates so much stuff just from driving to the hole, and I feel like that’s what I do, so I started doing that.”

To help break open a game that was 8-7 Unionville after one quarter, 15-14 Springfield at halftime and 22-2 after three quarters, Valletti got things started with an offensive board that led to a couple of foul shots, and a steal/layup that put them up 28-24 with 4:30 remaining. From then on it was a matter of getting stops and hitting foul shots.

Springfield did the first just fine. The second was a little bit of an adventure, as the Cougars went 11-of-18 from the stripe in the fourth quarter, but eventually connected. Junior wing Peter Altes (8 points, seven rebounds) hit two with 1:21 to make it a 31-25 lead; Valletti then split a pair before junior guard Tom Toomey hit two to make it 34-25 with 56 seconds remaining.

Freshman Mason Ellis iced it with a pair to make it 36-25 with 28 seconds remaining.

It wasn’t much of a closing push, but in this one, it was enough. 

“It felt very competitive and then you look up and it’s 22-22 and you’re like, jeeze,” Unionville coach Chris Cowles said. “Probably not the most aesthetic to the crowd, but competitive, for sure.”

“We told our guys ‘we will play harder than them, we must play harder than them,’ and I think as the game wore on into the later third and fourth quarter, they just absolutely blitzed us on the boards,” he added. 

The defending District 1 5A champs, Unionville only had one starter returning from a year ago, junior wing James Brenner. The 6-5 wing didn’t have his best night from the floor, finishing with nine points while grabbing six rebounds and blocking two shots as the Cougars did a good job of limiting his open-floor touches. 

Junior guard Leo Lockwood led the Longhorns with 10 points. Senior forward Zach Dolce added eight off the bench, including two 3-pointers. 

The Cougars have some idea what they’re in for against the Falcons (20-3) in the district quarterfinals. They didn’t play each other this season but did match up in a fall shootout, where Pottsgrove took care of a shorthanded Springfield squad handily. 

They’ve been waiting for payback ever since. 

“Oh yeah, we were very mad about that,” Valletti said. “And we’re still thinking about it.”

By Quarter
Springfield:  7   |   8   |   7   |  15  ||  37
Unionville:   8   |   6   |   8   |   6   ||  28

Shooting
Springfield: 10-32 FG (3-15 3PT), 14-25 FT
Unionville: 9-33 FG (4-15 3PT), 4-9 FT

Scoring
Springfield: TJ Valletti 11, Peter Altes 8, Tom Toomey 5, Logan Kobb 5, Chris Dolan 4, Mason Ellis 4

Unionville: Leo Lockwood 10, James Brenner 9, Zach Dolce 8, Mikey Niemkiewicz 1

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Boys District 1 5A First Round
9) Chichester def. 8) Sun Valley, 49-48
5) Marple Newtown def. 12) Strath Haven, 64-40
7) Holy Ghost Prep def. 10) Springfield Montco, 74-41
6) Springfield (Delco.) def. 11) Unionville, 37-28

Boys District 1 5A Quarterfinals (Feb. 19)
1) Upper Dublin vs. 9) Chichester (7:30 PM)
4) Upper Moreland vs. 5)  Marple Newtown (7:00 PM)
2) Penncrest vs. 7) Holy Ghost Prep (6:30 PM)
3) Pottsgrove vs. 6) Springfield (Delco.) (7:00 PM)

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