Spring-Ford settles in, overcomes Penncrest

ROYERSFORD >> Tuesday night, Spring-Ford was on Cloud Nine.

Friday night, the Rams, seeded nine spots higher than Penncrest, their District One first-round opponent, found themselves down by 15 points at home early in the second quarter, 21-6.

How fast emotions and momentum can swing in post-season tournaments. Sometimes lack of familiarity with a non-conference foe can lead to a first-round upset. Fresh off a thrilling PAC-10 championship game victory Tuesday, in overtime over Perkiomen Valley, the Rams quickly had to get their mojo back to avoid a disheartening, right-out-of-the-chute district tournament elimination.

“We didn’t want this to be our last game,” said Spring-Ford junior forward Charles Drummond.

The 12-seeded Rams made sure it wasn’t by bringing back the energy in the second quarter and powering up a 42-point second half to dispatch Penncrest, 69-60, advancing to Tuesday’s second round of the District One Class AAAA tournament against Pennridge.

Spring-Ford (19-6) had plenty of adversity to overcome early. Senior guard Matt Gnias, their top scorer during the regular season (16.0 ppg) had first-half foul trouble and scored only two points during that span. Big inside threat Cameron Reid (11.2 ppg), also faced foul issues early and had only two free throws the first half.

But Spring-Ford’s balance and depth carried the night. Ultimately, all five Rams who scored reached double figures, including a terrific second-quarter off-the-bench effort by junior guard Ryan Fitzpatrick, whose eight points in that stanza helped save the Rams. Senior guard Nigel Cooke was also huge in that quarter, scoring eight during a 13-0 run that put the Rams back in business.

Cooke led the Rams with 19 points. Reid and Drummond each got 14, Gnias and Fitzpatrick each 11.

“Everybody can score on this team,” Gnias said. “A lot of people showed up and played tonight. We knew we were going to come back.”

Penncrest (13-10), from the Central League, put up quite a fight from the outset, with impressive sophomore guard Taylor Norwood scoring 11 of his game-high 24 in the first quarter, which Penncrest led 19-6.

“They were just hitting their shots and breaking our zone pretty well,” Gnias said. “And later when we went on that run, we got stops from the zone.”

Penncrest’s half-court defense got Spring-Ford out of sync early, but to avoid elimination, Cooke said “We eliminated one-on-one basketball.” Spring-Ford began moving the ball better, tightening up their zone defense, using a half-court trap, forcing turnovers and taking the action back at the Lions.

“Our passing was a big key,” Drummond added.

Spring-Ford would hit nine 3s, with Cooke (who made four), Drummond and Fitzpatrick each nailing one during the second-quarter run. At halftime Spring-Ford was down only five, 32-27.

The Rams trailed by seven early in the third period, but with Reid hitting from outside, Drummond a floater, Gnias inside and Cooke another 3, the Rams took their first lead since 5-2 at 39-37 with 3:30 left in the third.

Norwood, forward Peter Spiotta, Justin Ross and Mike Mallon kept it a dogfight, and the game was tied at 46 heading for the final eight minutes. But Spring-Ford sustained its defensive effort and offensive movement, compiling a 23-point finish. Hitting the Lions from various angles, they eased out to a six-point lead, 54-48, and came up with big plays in the final three minutes to hold on after the Lions had whittled the margin to one.

From there, Gnias hit a 3 with 2:37 left to put Spring-Ford up 60-56. After Spiotta scored off a driving feed from Norwood, Gnias answered again with a baseline floater. Especially crucial in the final minute were two offensive rebounds the Rams hustled down after missing bonus free throws. Reid made two with 42.8 left to make it a seven-point game and allow the Rams to exhale after an interesting beginning to their district journey.