Methacton locks down Perkiomen Valley to repeat as PAC champions
ROYERSFORD >> The Methacton boys basketball team entered the season as the reigning Pioneer Athletic Conference champion, the favorite to win it again and they got to believing their own hype.
All that got them was a 6-5 record.
“We knew we had that talent to score with anyone … In the beginning of the year, we were trying to outscore teams. And we were 6-5,” junior Jeff Woodward said. “We knew we had to make a run and it had to start with our defense. Our defense has picked up so much.”
That commitment was on full display Thursday night as the Warriors defense was equal to their offense as they handled Perkiomen Valley in the Pioneer Athletic Conference boys basketball championship game, 67-43, to claim a second straight league title.
Methacton (20-5) rattled off its 14th straight victory in dominant fashion and became the first PAC boys team to win back-to-back titles since Spring-Ford in 1999-2000. Lansdale Catholic (1997-98) and the eight straight of Pottstown from 1988-95 were the only other repeat champions.
“It’s crazy,” Woodward said, “not just for this team and this group of guys, but the school to have a team that everybody loves and comes out to support.”
The Warriors had four players in double figures, Woodward and senior David Duda had matching 15-point games while junior guards Brett Eberly and Erik Timko had 12 and 11, respectively.
Timko, as well as fellow junior Owen Kropp, may have been receiving the biggest praise of anyone postgame. They held PAC leading scorer Tyler Strechay to just nine points, well below his season average.
“Erik and Owen, they did a spectacular job on Strech,” Eberly said. “They held him to 9 points. That’s what our goal was, to not let him get the ball. They did a spectacular job and held their ground and that got us into the game. We were taking their best player out.”
Meanwhile, 6-9 center Woodward was dominant in the paint and had six blocks and 10 rebounds, a margin Methacton owned 36-22. Methacton held PV to 17-for-58 shooting (29 percent) from the floor.
HALF: Methacton 33, Perk Valley 21… Woodward scores eight points in Q2 and gets two huge blocks at end of half. pic.twitter.com/QVVr6JSlNF
— Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) February 15, 2019
“Our defense has picked up so much, not only on the perimeter, but I feel like I’m playing better on the defensive end,” Woodward said. “Beginning of the year, I was not playing up to the level I know I can play. But here in the biggest moment of the year so far, I tried to step up and play the best defense I could.
With that sort of play on defense, the Warriors didn’t need to be great offensively, but they were, shooting 25-for-46 (54 percent).
After winning last year’s championship over Spring-Ford and so much of that core returning, the big-game atmosphere in Royersford Thursday night was anything but overwhelming for the Warriors.
“We returned a core group of guys that had the chance to do this last year so I don’t think there was much new,” Methacton coach Jeff Derstine said.
The two teams split in the regular season – the Vikings won 44-39 on Dec. 18; the Warriors won 53-51 on Jan. 19 – but the momentum felt as if it was Methacton’s from the tip.
“That’s a really good basketball team, who we expect to go very far in postseason play,” PV coach Mike Poysden said. “They’re just a handful to guard, and when you think you’re doing a good job on one guy, other guys know how to make plays. They have the complete what you need to make deep runs in the postseason.”
Poysden felt like it was a night where Perk Valley (19-6) just didn’t have its fastball.
“I said it in one of our huddles, I said, ‘The shots we’re taking don’t look like ourselves.’ We shot the ball poorly,” he said. “We were 17-for-58, 3-for-23 from three. For a team like us, you can’t have an average defensive night and have a poor shooting night and expect to beat a team like that. You can get one, or you can have the other. You can’t do both in the same night.”
For Methacton, the early spark came from guard Eberly, who scored nine first-quarter points and set an energetic tone for Methacton while building a 17-12 lead that would have been bigger had Zach Krause (11 points) not hit a buzzer 3-pointer.
“PV always has a great gameplan against us so I knew we needed to bring the fire,” Eberly said. “I took that and brought the energy and wanted to do the best I could. I kept bringing the energy and intensity and it helped us create that big gap and they couldn’t recover.”
A Woodward jumper put the Warriors up 26-14 with 4:54 in the second quarter, a lead that would remain into halftime, 33-21.
They never let PV any closer as Timko got going offensively in the second half and powered to the finish line, a Duda corner 3 that removed any questions with 2:30 left.
Methacton can feel it. David Duda three makes it 64-38 with 2:30 left. pic.twitter.com/1Y9avqRnRl
— Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) February 15, 2019
Despite the early-season uncertainty, now, Methacton keeps rising to the occasion.
“My favorite games in the world are games with a huge environment, a hostile crowd,” Woodward said. “It’s not even about proving people wrong, but (other fans) come in believing their team is the best, that their team is going to win.
“But being able to win in those big environments, but we knew we had to step up. Every team we have played, we’d risen to the occasion – except PV. We hadn’t really ever played that well against them … tonight, I’m pretty sure that people will say we played pretty well.”
Claim to Fame >> The Methacton senior class will have the claim to fame of being the first to have back-to-back title in almost 20 years. Along with Duda and fellow starter Ben Christian (2 points), the group includes Marcus Girardo (4 points), Conor Smith and Aiden Hazlett.
Silver Lining >> Perkiomen Valley senior Connor McShea was a starter for last year’s team. He tore his ACL in July, and wasn’t fully cleared to play until last week. Thursday night’s game was McShea’s first action of the season. He scored a basket in the third quarter for his first points of the year.
“I was super glad, on a total side note, that we were able to get him out there tonight,” Poysden said. “Last year, he was a starter. Last year, he was a huge piece of the success we had on that team. I was just so glad to see him out there. We’re glad to have him back. For your first game back to be this one, that’s a lot to walk you into.”
Big Picture >> Methacton claimed the No. 7 seed and first-round bye in districts. Up first will be the winner of No. 23 Bensalem and No. 10 Central Bucks South. A win there could set a meeting with No. 2 Coatesville in the quarterfinals. … Perkiomen Valley heads to the District 1-6A playoffs. The Vikings earned as first-round bye as the No. 8 seed an await the winner of the Cheltenham and North Penn opener. A PV win in the second round would earn it a PIAA playoff berth and probable matchup with 2,000-point scorer Eric Dixon and District 1 powerhouse Abington.
