Boyertown’s timely defensive puts clamps down on Pope John Paul II
Royersford >> Boyertown’s 16-point lead was down to four with five minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Suddenly Boyertown’s offense, efficient most of the night, was slumping at an inopportune time. The Bears turned it over on three straight possessions as Pope John Paul II’s defense and home crowd picked up the intensity.
But then so did Boyertown’s defense, which had been dependable the majority of the game. Now the Bears came through on that end of the floor when they absolutely had to, and they wouldn’t let the Golden Panthers edge any closer.
After cutting that sizable lead down to four, PJP went its next six possessions and over three minutes without scoring. The Bears would survive despite making just one field goal in the fourth quarter — a huge three-pointer by Marcus Thomas to regain an eight-point lead. Down the stretch, Boyertown made the hustle plays, defensive stops and enough free throws to hang on for a 65-58 PAC-10 victory Friday night.
Senior forward Ben Longacre (19 points), sophomore guard Jerry Kapp (17) and sophomore forward Thomas (15) did significant offensive damage against the Golden Panthers, but it was team defense that the Bears emphasized in post-game comments.
“Our defense stepped up big. We felt like we controlled the game with our defense,” Longacre said. “And that’s what ended up winning us the game.”
“We keep fighting and pounding; that’s how we’ve got our wins all year,” Thomas said. “It was a good team effort with defense. We play hard and really focus on that.”
“It’s always a challenge coming here. PJP does good stuff, and they make you play team defense,” Boyertown coach Mike Ludwig said. “And our kids stepped up to the challenge tonight.
“It’s been a heck of a start to the season for us — this is our eighth game in 14 days — and we’ve been talking about just grinding. And that’s what they did, they just kept grinding to the end of the game. If things didn’t go well on offense, it didn’t matter because they kept playing defense. And that’s how you win tough ballgames.”
Boyertown is now 3-1 in the PAC-10 (7-1 overall). PJP, 1-3 in the league, got 21
points from standout senior point guard Rich Dunham, who scored nine in the fourth quarter as the Panthers began making a run. Ludwig noted, though, how well he was defended throughout the night by senior Tom Randall, who made the quick, slick-driving Dunham work for his points.
“It was great to see a kid like Tommy Randall step up on the defensive end and guard one of the top two players in our league, and do a heck of a job on him,” Ludwig said. “Dunham’s a great player, he’s going to get his points, but Tommy did a great job on him tonight.”
While the Bears were justifiably proud of their defense, their 3-point shooting punctured the Panthers. Boyertown nailed 11 trifectas, led by Kapp’s four. Thomas hit three and Longacre two.
Boyertown hit big bombs back-to-back late in the first half, when Kapp made a nice pass from under the basket to Eric Spohn for a trey, and Thomas followed with another. It was 36-25, Bears, at the break.
An eight-point surge early in the second half stretched Boyertown’s lead to its largest of 16, 45-29. Randall hit a three, Kapp another, then Kapp blocked a shot that led to Randall’s fastbreak finish.
A left-handed scoop by Thomas and his inside-out pass to Kapp for a three ended the third quarter, with Boyertown up by 12.
But here came the Panthers, led by consecutive scores from Dunham. Sophomore Dan Cirino, Fran Interrante (13 points) and Luke Moratelli contributed as well on the Panthers’ surge back to within four, 53-49, five minutes to go.
That’s when the Bears, who have bought into team defense and total effort, saw it all pay off again.
And Kapp credited other helpers as well. The Boyertown students travel well.
“Our bench and our student section, you’ve got to give them props, they kept us up the whole game,” Kapp said. “We just stuck with the defense and the boards. We stressed that a lot this week.”
