Faw does it all in Upper Merion’s win over Upper Perk before leaving with injury
UPPER MERION >> Upper Merion senior Matt Faw got off to a scorching hot start in Tuesday night’s 54-38 Pioneer Athletic Conference Frontier Division win over Upper Perkiomen at Upper Merion Area High School.
The Holy Cross commit made the game’s first two baskets — a pair of three-pointers — to get started on a team-high 21-point night. The hot start continued all the way until late in the third quarter when Faw exited with an apparent ankle injury that’s not believed to be too serious.
The 6-foot-8 forward went 8-for-8 from the field and 3-for-3 from the free-throw line. He showed off his diverse skill-set by hitting shots from the outside, driving for layups and sinking floaters in the lane.
“Always,” Upper Merion coach Jason Quenzer said about Faw having a nice outside jumper. “Since he was a kid. Just a really good stroke — it’s clean, long, finishes great. It’s something he’s worked on really hard. He’s very confident in it — as he should be.”
He landed awkwardly after getting fouled jumping for an offensive rebound and limped off the court with three minutes remaining in the third quarter.
Fast start
Upper Merion remained perfect after beating Upper Perk with a 4-0 record and 2-0 mark in the PAC Frontier Division.
This is a big difference from last year, when the Vikings were in the Suburban One League American Conference and started 0-2 against league foes with an 11-point loss to Cheltenham and 31-point loss against Plymouth Whitemarsh.
“My assistant coach was walking out saying it took us all season to get five wins our first year,” Quenzer said. “We never got to four our second year and I think we were 4-4 last year. It feels good to be on this side for once.”
Kendra a bright spot
The Indians offense had a tough night in the team’s 72nd consecutive PAC loss. It scored less than 10 points in each of the first three quarters before managing 15 in the fourth when Upper Merion had most of its reserve players in the game.
“I thought our X’s and O’s were fine,” Upper Perk coach Jared Krupp said. “Just shots didn’t drop. We got shots in open space, but again they just didn’t fall. That’s one thing we try to preach in a lot of our games — take good shots. We took good shots, they just didn’t drop.”
The lone bright spot was junior guard Ryan Kendra. He scored a game-high 25 points — an astounding 65.7% of the Indians 38-point total.
“That’s what he does,” Krupp said. “We rely a lot on him on the offensive end. He’s kind of a do-it-all kind of a guy. He can shoot, he can take it to the basket. Tonight he was hot from behind the three-point line — he hit five of them. We really needed those because other shots weren’t falling. Typically we get contributions from our other guards around him and our bigs, but it was going to be tough when (Upper Merion features) a lineup that’s four guys over 6-foot-4.”
