Pottstown deals Upper Merion its first Frontier loss

POTTSTOWN >> Larry Wingo wasn’t hoping to be involved.

But if called upon, the Pottstown junior knew where he needed to be.

Entrenched in a nail-biter tied in the closing stages against Upper Merion, which entered Tuesday night’s game at Pottstown undefeated in the Pioneer Athletic Conference Frontier Division, sophomore guard Floyd Dashiell came up with a pivotal steal in the backcourt and took it on the break.

His contested layup attempt rimmed out but Wingo was crashing the boards for the putback and eventual game-winning basket with 7.7 seconds remaining to give Pottstown a 62-60 victory over Upper Merion.

The loss was the Vikings’ first in PAC Frontier play, dropping them to 7-1 (8-3 PAC overall). Pottstown’s fourth Frontier win (4-5, 4-8) denied Upper Merion the chance to clinch the division title.

Wingo’s tip-in capped his 19-point game, a team high. Aaron Diamond followed with 17 and Dashiell and Malik Brown each scored 10 apiece.

No basket was bigger than the last one though.

“Floyd stole the ball so I was trailing, prepared to tip it back in. It came off, I grabbed it and tipped it back in,” Wingo said. “I was hoping he was going to make it, but I had to make sure to be behind him if it came off the glass to tip it back in.”

“I feel great. We’ve been practicing hard. We knew we had to prepare for them in practice. We’ve got young players, Tyshyre (Malachi) and Floyd, they stepped up a lot.”

It capped a game that was tight throughout – Pottstown narrowly led 30-29 at halftime and 49-43 after three quarters – and had lead changes late after Anthony Sheppard (10 points) hit a 3-pointer to put Upper Merion up 60-59 before Diamond hit 1-of-2 at the free-throw line to level it.

It was a different occasion from their first meeting, a one-sided 66-49 win in Upper Merion’s favor.

“This team beat us before, by a lot,” Brown said. “We came back, worked hard, did what we had to do and it brought us the win.”

Ethan Miller scored a game-high 21 points for Upper Merion.