City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Park head coach Allen Brydges looked at the Upper Merion sideline at halftime and saw exactly what he wanted to see.

The Vikings were exhausted, searching for breath after going up against the Knights’ full-court press for the opening 16 minutes of the teams’ District 1 AAAA playoff first-round matchup on UM’s home court.

Eventually, Brydges knew, that would pay off.

“When we were walking into the locker room at halftime, I thought they were dead,” Brydges said. “We knew at some point our press would give us that run we needed, that little run we had--we knew it was coming, it was just a matter of getting it.”

Though No. 15 Upper Merion weathered the storm well into the fourth quarter, that press finally got to them down the stretch as No. 18 Academy Park pulled off the 53-51 road win.

The Vikings committed 18 turnovers to just eight by the Knights, including three in a row with under three minutes remaining. That broke a back-and-forth second half to put Academy Park up 51-45 on the final swipe, a steal-and-layup by reserve senior Nahim Stokes with 2:21 left.

The Knights only scored two more points the rest of the way, but it was enough.

“They picked up their intensity and we couldn’t match it there for a little bit--and then it’s just a quick jab, and they took advantage,” UM head coach Jason Quenzer said. “I think they scored six straight on us and at that point it was kind of tough to get back.”

Upper Merion came into the game with a significant height advantage, and while juniors Matt Faw (11 points, nine rebounds) and Ethan Miller (14 points, 11 rebounds) both got their share of points and boards, Academy Park was still able to hold its own inside.

Knights junior Teddy Wright, a 6-2 forward who stars as a safety for AP's football team, was matched up with the 6-7 Faw all night and still found his way to nine rebounds, including five on the offensive end, to go along with seven points. Freshman Khyree Temple, a 6-4 wing forward assigned to Miller, finished with seven points but 12 rebounds (six offensive). And senior point guard Jawan Collins added one offensive rebound to go along with his game-high 15 points.

As a team, Academy Park pulled in 18 offensive boards.

"Teddy was awesome, we didn’t want Khyree being a freshman playing (Faw) to start, we were going to start Teddy on him and move Khyree on him for more length, but Teddy was so great we never had to switch," Brydges said. "He just played like a safety and he’s awesome, he just plays his role, he could care less if he scores. His job tonight was to shut that kid down and that’s all he wanted to do.”

While the Vikings appeared out of breath for the latter half of the game, Academy Park's players afterwards hardly appeared as if they'd just ran up and down for 32 minutes in a tense, exciting playoff atmosphere.

“We’re used to it, that’s how we play, that’s our tempo," Wright said. "Run hard, go hard every day in practice, that’s how we play. They’re not used to it.”

Upper Merion did have one final chance to send the game to overtime, as junior guard Aiden Newell was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 0.4 seconds remaining and his team down by that exact amount. Newell hit the first, but was unable to connect on the second, and missed the third on purpose to try and get a miracle put-back.

Newell had already hit a few big shots earlier in the game, including a 3-pointer from the left corner at the halftime buzzer to tie it at 24-up. Academy Park led 37-34 after three quarters, but Upper Merion had several one and two-point leads throughout the final period.

Afterwards, Quenzer was appreciative of the season his team had had, turning around from a three-win team in 2014-15 to go 16-7 and host a game in the first round of the district tournament for the first time since 1998.

And considering he put out a starting lineup consisting of all juniors--the team’s usual fifth starter, senior Isaiah Graham-Mobley, was out with a broken hand suffered in practice--Quenzer knows there’s a bright future ahead for a program that will be playing in both a new league (Pioneer Athletic Conference) and the new 5A classification next year.

“I mean, pretty good at keeping things in perspective and to go from where we were to where we are now, I’m proud of these guys,” Quenzer said. “Obviously a tough one to swallow but it is what it is, that’s basketball, you take your lumps, you learn, these kids got experience, their first district game so next year, we’ll know what it’s all about and we’ll come in and do what we need to do.”

Academy Park will travel to No. 2 Plymouth-Whitemarsh on Tuesday, with a win giving them an automatic berth in the PIAA state tournament and one of the district's top eight out of the 10 seeds it places there. Even if the Knights lose, they'll still have a chance to get there with two wins in the play-back bracket, which is where they stood last year before Penncrest stole a win on their home court.

“When I came in, Jawan was an eighth grader and I said that’s what we’re going to build around for four years," Brydges said. "Our goal all year has been to get to the states, because we were on our court with Penncrest last year, and there’s still a bad taste in their mouth from that.”

Though the Colonials’ gym will certainly be rocking and rolling for one of the district favorites, Brydges knows his team won’t be fazed.

“This district is pretty wide-open this year,” he said. “We played at Chester, we played at Penn Wood, we played at Glen Mills so they’re not going to be intimidated going to Plymouth Whitemarsh.”

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More CoBL District 1 AAAA First-Round Coverage
-- Lower Merion 68, Penn Wood 66 (OT)
-- Perkiomen Valley 49, Cheltenham 45
-- Spring-Ford 69, Penncrest 60

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