Phoenixville erases late 22-point deficit, defeats Spring-Ford 70-69

ROYERSFORD >> Each week represents a dedication toward a new team trait.

It’s a practice Phoenixville’s Eric Burnett devised — and after Wednesday night — it’s one that seems to be working.

Avery Close finished with a game-high 25 points while Shyheim Abernathy added another 17 as the Phantoms exercised their “theme of the week” in a stunning 70-69 come-from-behind victory over Spring-Ford in a non-league showing.

The theme this week, you ask? Resilience.

“We’ve been doing something new this year, which is a theme of the week,” Phoenixville head coach Eric Burnett said. “The first week was attention to details, followed by discipline. This week it happened to be resilience. We know that our schedule was tough out of the gate with three games in a row, Friday, Saturday and Monday with no practice. Coming out of that 1-2 and then coming into an emotional game against Spring-Ford, we knew this had to be a resilient week.”

It didn’t take much for the Phantoms to prove they’ve been listening to their coach’s words. Led by the senior duo in Abernathy and Close, Phoenixville chipped away at a 22-point deficit in the third quarter, ultimately taking the lead midway through the fourth via a 24-0 run before holding on in the final minutes to leave the Rams’ faithful stunned.

“We won’t forget this one,” Abernathy said.

“Nope, not a chance,” Close added. “I’m proud of my team for never giving up and the way we battled even though we were down is something that should carry us the rest of the season.”

Wednesday’s contest never seemed in doubt after the depth of Spring-Ford’s lineup shined through in the second quarter, reserves Noah Baker and Robert Bobeck contributing nine and eight points, respectively as the Rams outscored the Phantoms 23-7 to take a 41-26 lead at the half before extending it to 22 early in the third via solid play from Chucky Drummond (18 points) and Ryan Fitzpatrick (16 points) and a stifling defense that limited the Phantoms’ effectiveness on the perimeter while forcing contested shots in the low post.

From there, however, the Phantoms began to chip away … bit by bit.

Trailing by 16 entering the fourth, the Phantoms put on a defensive display, forcing the Rams into eight turnovers in the first four minutes while Close and Abernathy took over. Close, who scored 14 of his game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter, started the frame off with a putback and the foul before nailing a turnaround jumper to cut the deficit to 55-44. Abernathy’s bucket followed by Nasir Green’s steal and finish in transition then cut the deficit to seven before Close added two more via free throws and Abernathy finished off an old-school 3-point play to make it 55-52. Close then tied it following another Ram turnover and then gave the Phantoms’ their first lead since early in the opening quarter with two free throws to make it 57-55.

With the score 59-55, Baker finally snapped the Phantoms’ 24-0 run, but the Rams couldn’t get a stop when they needed it. Phil Meszaros’ bucket and foul gave Phoenixville a 63-58 lead with 56.1 left before free throws from Close and Abernathy sealed the deal.

“We were just trying to slow the game down, play our game,” Abernathy said. “They got us out of it but at the half, we regrouped, came back out and fired on all cylinders.”

“We talk about chipping away at deficits,” Burnett said. “We wanted to get the lead down to seven or nine points going into the fourth quarter. Once we saw that happened, the next thing we know it was five, then we’re hitting foul shots and the momentum was swinging in our favor.

“We’re still trying to find a way to tie it all together. The last couple of games we started really well, but we need to learn how to carry that throughout the game and not getting down when a team is going back-and-forth with us.”