Perkiomen Valley wins first PIAA playoff game in school history
WISSAHICKON >> A season of firsts landed Perkiomen Valley into the school’s first PIAA tournament.
Now, similar to their plans in the district playoffs, the Vikings want to stay awhile.
KT Armstrong led Perkiomen Valley with 16 points while Megan Jonassen finished with another double-double as the Vikings led from start to finish in a 60-50 victory over District 3’s Red Lion Friday night at Wissahickon.
The win is Perkiomen Valley’s first-ever victory in the PIAA tournament and advances the Vikings to the second round of the Class AAAA tournament Tuesday night against North Penn (59-27 victors over District 12’s Central) at a site and time to be determined.
“We just wanted to keep doing the same things that we’ve been doing, rebound and play good defense,” Armstrong said. “Going into districts we had to take it up a notch, and going into states we knew that we had to take it up another notch. We just tried to keep our intensity up.”
That went without question.
Armstrong, known as the catalyst to a Viking offense that finished tops in the PAC-10 in points per game (52.5), was her usual self, leading the charge to another Viking assault with eight first-quarter points as the team built an early 17-4 lead that proved to be the early difference maker.
It marked the second-straight contest that the Vikings built an early double-digit lead, most recently leading Downingtown East 16-2 at the end of the first quarter in the District 1-AAAA championship. That game went all Perkiomen Valley’s way. This one proved the same as the Vikings never led by less than six the rest of the way.
“The kids are just playing great,” Perkiomen Valley head coach John Strawoet said. “That’s the thing, when we get off to that good of a start, we’re hard to beat.”
Hanan Richmond (15 points) and Taylor Hamm (10 points) each finished in double digits, alongside Jonassen, who had another monster game. The sophomore forward finished with 13 points and 17 rebounds for her 21st double-double of the season, her nine first-half points and 10 first-half rebounds a big reason why PV held a 34-25 lead at the half.
“I felt that the starting five and everyone who came off the bench really participated and put in 100 percent on the floor. They left everything out there,” Jonassen said. “We knew that we had to leave everything out there and keep our composure and we did that. Everybody rebounded, everybody scored and that’s why we won.”
The Vikings’ fast start overshadowed a solid performance from Red Lion’s Courtney Dimoff, who finished with 12 points. Hannah Wolf came off the bench and finished with 12 points, including nine in the fourth quarter as Red Lion tried to erase a double-digit lead in the remaining minutes, cutting the deficit to 53-45 midway through the quarter.
“She’s a heck of a player,” Strawoet said of Dimoff, who showed tremendous range throughout the game, hitting two deep 3-pointers. “I’ve seen them on tape twice. When I saw them on tape, some of those kids that came off the bench didn’t make a big impact but they did tonight, especially No. 3 (Wolf).”
A comeback wasn’t in the cards, however. Armstrong wouldn’t allow it.
With the aforementioned 53-45 lead, Armstrong went on a tear. She split two defenders en route to a contested layup to build the lead back to 10 before dishing a cross-court pass while double covered to an open Jonassen for an easy bucket to make it 57-45, the game sealed with free throws from Hamm and Tori Walter.
“Each game, it continues to be the same formula and we’re not going to change it,” Strawoet said. “We’re going to stay with it until someone can stop it.”
NOTES >> Amy Maciejewski finished with 11 points for Red Lion in the loss … Bridgette Bonjo finished with two points in the victory … Perkiomen Valley defeated North Penn 69-50 in the team’s season opener.
