Krause has the hot hand as Perk Valley tops Wissahickon
PERKIOMEN >> Zach Krause has earned his green light.
The Perkiomen Valley senior guard has a quick release and an even quicker pull rate when he sees an opportunity. He has a green light because he can make those type of shots but only because of the countless hours he’s spent in the gym honing his craft.
Krause put that work on full display Thursday, connecting on six 3-pointers on his way to a game high 22 points as PV topped Wissahickon 60-33 in the first night of the Vikings’ Holiday Shootout.
“It felt awesome,” Krause said. “My teammates kept getting me the ball and I was just knocking down shots. We all wanted to cut and get open, set picks for each other and move the ball quick.”
Krause scored five in the first quarter but stayed at that point total by the time the half had ended. While he didn’t have an explosive first half, he also didn’t have to. Teammate Tyler Strechay, who scored 18 for the night, posted 10 in the first half including a first quarter trey from professional range.
All in all, it was quite the night for the Vikings (6-2, 2-1 PAC Liberty) behind the arc, hitting 12 triples as a team. While their shooting display rightly got their home fans fired up, PV coach Mike Poysden felt his team’s defense was the real showstopper.
“It will show we knocked down a bunch of threes and shot pretty well, I was happy with the way we guarded tonight,” Poysden said. “(Eddie) Fortescue is a really good player and Wissahickon is always well-coached and plays well. I thought we did a nice job covering up on screens and a really nice job on the ball screen and flex actions they showed.”
There weren’t too many easy shots for Wiss, which is still working its way through a relatively new-looking lineup. It certainly didn’t help that Perk Valley was hitting on pretty much everything it was putting up, but the Trojans (4-4, 2-1 SOL American) just couldn’t seem to find their way on Thursday.
Save for an early spell in the third quarter where their pressure defense got to Perk Valley, Wissahickon kept seeing any positive forward progress negated by another made3-pointer or two.
“We picked a tough night to not be able to find the basket,” Wissahickon coach Kyle Wilson said. “Our coaches had us 13-of-45 shooting and part of it is not making shots but part of it is we didn’t take great shots. At halftime, I felt we didn’t shoot well but were within 10, but the second half we didn’t play like a team in striking distance.”
Krause just went off after halftime. In the third quarter, he started with a flurry and finished with a flurry. The senior hit back-to-back 3-point shots to open the frame, then after Wiss cut it down to 31-22, he hit two more around an AJ Hansen bucket to push PV back out in front, 39-24 at quarter’s end.
Poysden liked the way his guys adjusted after Wissahickon went into a full-court pressure, something he told them after the game. Of course, having a hot-shooting senior guard to restore order also helped plenty.
“The kid is unconscious when it comes to not caring that he missed one,” Poysden said of Krause. “If he likes the next look at one, he’s going to fire it up there. He’s one of those guys who has earned that right in all the shooting practice and work he does all year long. He trusts and has confidence in his shot because he puts in so much work.”
Krause ended his night with a 3-pointer, of course, but he had a chance to get three the hard way earlier in the fourth when he was fouled on a drive to the rim. While the bucket dropped, in an ironic twist, he didn’t make the foul shot.
“He’ll be in the gym tomorrow working free throws first,” Poysden said. “He’s come a really long way.”
Tyler Caso paced Wissahickon with eight points, Fortescue had seven and both Harrison Williams and Carmen Ostroski had six. It was far from a lack of effort from the Trojans, who were diving after loose balls and scrapping for rebounds even down double-digits in the final quarter, but it wasn’t their night.
“I have visions of (Krause) and (Strechay) catching and shooting, and when you give up easy shots and don’t get them at the other end, it’s a long night,” Wilson said. “They did tonight what we did so well last year and we’re struggling to find again. We do it in stretches, but we don’t do it well enough yet where that ball moves, guys come off and have an open shot.”
Both teams are back on Friday. Wissahickon will face Methacton while Perk Valley will get a crack at North Penn, who topped Methacton 57-55 in Thursday’s opening game.
“We have chemistry as a team, we’ve been playing together since middle school and we like to move the ball,” Krause said. “We wanted to keep it moving and continue to play well. Tomorrow will be a good game, but we feel like we have to win it.”
PERKIOMEN VALLEY 12 13 14 21 – 60
WISSAHICKON 5 10 9 9 – 33
PV: Zach Krause 8 0-1 22, Kameron Parks 1 0-0 3, AJ Hansen 5 0-0 11, Tyler Strechay 7 0-0 18, Bryce Streeper 1 2-2 4, Aiden Quinn 1 0-0 2. Totals: 23 2-3 60.
W: Eddie Fortescue 3 1-3 7, Harrison Williams 2 0-0 6, Tyler Caso 4 0-0 8, Carmen Ostroski 2 2-2 6, Matt Compas 2 0-0 5, Alex Richardson 0 1-2 1, D’Shan Love 0 0-2 0. Totals: 13 4-9 33.
3-pointers: PV – Krause 6, Strechay 4, Hansen, Parks; W – Williams 2, Compas.
