City of Basketball Love

Anthony Dabbundo (@AnthonyDabbundo)

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As Justin Jaworski’s floater rolled in with less than two seconds left to give Perkiomen Valley  a one point lead on Spring-Ford, the Vikings’ student section stormed the floor, thinking their team had just won the PAC-10 championship.

The student section failed to realize one crucial thing.

The buzzer had never sounded.

Because of the premature court storm, Perkiomen Valley was charged a technical foul, and Nigel Cooke stepped to the line needing just one free throw to force overtime.

The Rams’ senior wing made one of two, and Spring-Ford went on to win in overtime, claiming the PAC-10 title, defeating archrival Perkiomen Valley 54-48 in an instant classic featuring a wild and controversial finish for the ages.

What may go down as the greatest final in PAC-10 history, is now overshadowed by a controversial refereeing decision that will unfortunately diminish what was an incredible 32 minutes (and then some) of drama and big-time shooting.

The drama was never higher than the final minute of regulation, with Spring-Ford leading Perk Valley 40-38 with 1:00 left.

The lead then proceeded to change hands five times in the final minute, sending the Rams gym into an absolute frenzy at both ends of the floor.

The constant back and forth final minute mayhem culminated in the final 20 seconds, when Jaworski’s three gave his team a 44-42 lead with just 16 seconds to play.

Jaworski’s three was answered almost immediately by Rams’ point guard Matt Gnias, whose three with ten seconds left turned the tides again, leaving Spring-Ford up 45-44 with six ticks left on the clock.

It was then Jaworski, who had struggled from beyond-the-arc for most of the evening, who took the ball coast to coast, sinking a floater with about 1.1 seconds left, sealing the victory for the Vikings.

Or so they thought.

“I thought it was over,” Gnias said. “But then I looked at the clock and there was still time.”

The Vikings raucous student section raced onto the floor, only to be ushered off by security because the officials had awarded Rams’ head coach Chris Talley a timeout with 1.1 seconds left on the clock.

“I was just trying to get the timeout, I can’t even really wrap my head around it all at this point” Talley said.

The officials then awarded two free throws to Spring-Ford, of which Cooke made 1-of-2, forcing overtime. Spring-Ford was in control for most of the extra period, outscoring the visiting Vikings 8-2 in the extra four minutes.

Vikings coach Mike Poysden and his team left shell-shocked after having what was a hard earned victory and championship taken away in the final moments.

Especially after his team battled back from a double digit deficit to have seemingly won the game.

Spring-Ford raced out to a quick 20-8 start, as Jaworski scored just three points in the first half for the Vikings. Rams’ big man Cameron Reid scored eight points in the first half, providing the inside presence that was lacking when the Vikings upset the Rams just 10 days ago on the very same court.

“We did not want them to dictate the pace because we didn’t want to them to get a lead and hold onto the ball and force us to play catch up,” Talley said.

The Vikings’ settled in defensively, holding the Rams to just four points for the last four minutes of the first half and opening four minutes of the third quarter.

“They have tough kids,” Talley said of the Vikings. “They are such a disciplined defensive team.”

The Vikings battled back into the game, and a Jaworski three right at the buzzer to end the third quarter left the game all knotted at 26.

Gnias then took over the game for Spring-Ford early in the fourth, sinking big shot after big shot, including the first five points and last three points of the fourth quarter for the Rams.

The Rams’ senior leader, who overcame a slow start to finish with 24 points to lead all scorers, finished off the game with a dagger with 1:30 left in overtime that the Rams never looked back on.

“We were hitting big time shots, they were hitting back, it was like a cage fight, back and forth,” the Rams’ senior point guard said. “We just came out on top.”

It’s unfortunate to see a game of that magnitude decided by such a controversial call, where a team deserving of a victory had it snatched away by a situation that was truly out of their hands.

But for the Rams, it’s a second league title in three years, after failing to qualify for the Final Four in last year’s disappointing season.

“We worked so hard all year for this game, none of the games before this even mattered,” Gnias said. “It was all about this one”