City of Basketball Love

Anthony Dabbundo (@AnthonyDabbundo)
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Entering the season, Phoenixville head coach Eric Burnett told his team that both finishing games and team intensity would define how far this Phantoms team could go.

So far from that standpoint, Burnett has to be happy with how things are turning out.

After two close wins over District 1 powerhouse Downingtown West and Oxford, the Phantoms found themselves in another grind it out battle with conference rival Perkiomen Valley. And for the third time in as many tries, the Phantoms closed out a tight game in the fourth quarter with high intensity defense, clutch finishing, and timely free throw shooting, downing the Vikings 54-49 on Thursday night.

The PAC-10 Frontier division leaders found themselves down 12 points in the third quarter as they looked sluggish and off rhythm. As Perkiomen Valley was able to dictate the flow of the game for the first two and a half quarters, Phoenixville (6-1, 4-0 PAC-10) was searching for responses as they only scored three points in the game’s opening quarter.

“We wanted to start the game early and come out with energy, and we failed to do that,” Burnett said. “We just had to play with more intensity in the second half.”

Trailing 37-25, Phoenixville finally did what their second-year head coach has been preaching since day one of practice. They went on a 16-3 run, thanks to big second half performances from senior Christian Kelly and junior Avery Close. The Phantoms explosive offense scored 18 points in the 4th quarter, shooting 11-14 from the charity stripe as a team to help do what haunted them in multiple key games last year, finish.

Kelly, who now needs just 47 points to join the 1,000 career points club at Phoenixville, finished with 20 points despite a slow shooting night by his standards. The senior star was just 4-9 from the field, and 2-6 from behind the 3-point arc.

“They really slowed us down a lot and forced us to take shots we usually don’t take and they really slowed down the tempo,” Kelly said.

That run left Perkiomen Valley searching for answers on the offensive end, as the Vikings made just two field goals in the final quarter. Despite 24 points from sharpshooter Justin Jaworski on 6-7 shooting from beyond, the rest of the Vikings team struggled to score once Phoenixville upped their intensity.

“They amped up the pressure in the second half and I thought we got just a little bit quicker than we wanted to be, and we were just a few small things away from winning tonight,” Perkiomen Valley head coach Mike Poysden said.

The climax of that huge 16-3 run that turned the game was in the final 45 seconds of the third quarter, when Kelly hit a three to cut the lead to eight, which was later followed by a Close long range three at the buzzer.

“That last play was Avery [Close] coming in off the bench and hitting the three that really set the tone for the fourth quarter, our guys knew exactly who to get to the ball to,” Burnett said.

After those two shots, the Vikings never recovered. Phoenixville got into the bonus early, made their free throws, finished off key plays, and won yet another close game in this new season. Perk Valley is now 1-3 in conference play, with all three conference losses coming by less than five points.

“That run was a huge motivator for us because we cut the lead all the way down to five and it made us realize that if we kept up the intensity we could take the lead,” Kelly said.  

Despite an impressive defensive performance by Vikings’ senior Sean Moriarity on Kelly, the Phantoms’ star wing was able to get to the free throw line 12 times, making 10. The 6-foot-4 senior received a lot of attention all night, forcing others to step up; Close finished with 14 points of his own to aid the comeback.

“We knew we had to try and limit Christian’s touches because he’s a great player but I think Sean did about as well as you could ask him to tonight,” Poysden, the Vikings’ fourth-year head coach, said.

The Vikings came out and executed their plan. They contained Kelly for most of the first half, shot very well from long range, and built an early 13-3 lead. But it was not enough to take out the Phantoms, who yet again found a way to close out a tough opponent.

This season may be just getting underway, but this Phoenixville team is proving just how good they can be in the final minutes. A team that was overcome by the moment in last year’s conference semifinals has already shown that they are more prepared and experienced to put away teams when given the opportunity.