Spring-Ford makes easy work of PJP, wins 62-30

ROYERSFORD >> Leading by 24 points midway through the third quarter, Spring-Ford’s Cam Reid swatted away a lofted lay-up by a PJP shooter into the second row of bleachers behind the basket.

Emphatic? Yes. Summation of the Friday night’s semifinal? You bet.

“We wanted to make each other better, move the ball, get transition buckets,” Spring-Ford’s Nigel Cooke said. “(Coach Talley) wanted us to drive and look for shooters. Everyone shoots the ball real well on our team and we felt good tonight with the 3-pointers.”

Cooke finished with a game-high 18 points for the Rams, who will meet Perkiomen Valley (57-48 winners over Phoenixville) in the PAC-10 Final Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at Spring-Ford. Matt Gnias added 16 points with Charles Drummond rounding out the players in double-digits with 10 of his own for a Rams squad that bounced back from tough losses from Phoenixville and Perk Valley to close out their regular season.

“It’s amazing what a week of practice can do,” Spring-Ford head coach Chris Talley said. “When the season’s in mid-grind you have game, practice, game, practice. You have to find the balance of keeping their legs but staying sharp. We had the whole week of great practice and it showed.

“The Phoenixville game, that was emotional. That was one of the games circled on the calendar from the summer when we played them. To go down there and have a chance to come out of it with a win, it took a lot of wind out of our sails.”

All of which was gained back in the opening minutes Friday night. The Rams shot a blistering 7-for-9 from the field to start, building a 21-12 lead at the break before a 22-3 third quarter put the game well out of reach. The Rams ended up shooting 55 percent (22-of-40) from the field, 10-of-14 from three and 8-of-8 from the foul line and didn’t have a lead less than 10 after the first quarter.

Nigel Cooke after @BoysSF victory pic.twitter.com/q6dVGbh9Ql

— Sam Stewart (@Samuel_Stewart7) February 6, 2016

“We shared the basketball and that’s what we didn’t do against PV and that’s what we didn’t do against Phoenixville,” Talley said. “We made that extra pass all night, no matter who was in there and that was fun to watch.”

Fun for Spring-Ford, not so much for PJP, which fell in the semifinals after a comeback victory over Pottstown placed them in the Final Four after a year hiatus. Rich Dunham finished the game with a team-high 11 points but the Golden Panthers weren’t able to control the tempo, falling prey to Spring-Ford’s ball movement and kick-outs to an awaiting shooter along the perimeter for the majority of the night.

“They’re a very good team and they had an excellent start,” PJP head coach Jack Flanagan said of Spring-Ford. “If you want to play a slowed down tempo and you want to zone it, you also can’t be down by 10-2. I’m not going to sit back in the zone down 12 points.

“We didn’t come here to try and make this a nice game and just compete, we came here to win. So whenever you’re down, 38-20, my job is to get them back in the game and you can’t do that sitting back in the zone.”

It just wasn’t in the cards for PJP, which will await the district seeding meeting Sunday to see where they fall in the District 1-AAA bracket.

Spring-Ford, meanwhile, gets ready for Perk Valley, a team the Rams beat for the PAC-10 football championship three months ago.

Now, the question remains if Spring-Ford can repeat on the hardwood.

“It’ll be something special,” Cooke said.

NOTES >> Gnias finished with six assists in the win. … PJP shot 11-of-44 from the field and 3-of-21 from three. … The 30 points was the lowest PJP has scored all season.