Brett Eberly sparks Methacton in PAC Liberty win over Spring-Ford

FAIRVIEW VILLAGE >> Brett Eberly knows most nights he won’t fill up the scoring sheet like teammates David Duda and Erik Timko.

The Methacton junior point guard, who is averaging more than five assists per game, is content with being the Warriors’ floor general and playmaker, setting up his teammates for open looks instead.

With some of Methacton’s sharpshooters cold to start the Warriors’ home game against Spring-Ford on Thursday night, Eberly felt he needed to take on a bigger scoring role.

Brett Eberly, who scored 18 points, discusses @MHS_BoysBBall’s win over Spring-Ford. pic.twitter.com/Ms0H5IL7q7

— Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) January 18, 2019

 Eberly provided a spark with 18 points, and junior forward Jeff Woodward collected 20 points and 17 rebounds as Methacton defeated Spring-Ford, 69-53, in a Pioneer Athletic Conference Liberty division game.

“I’m usually the playmaker, so when Dave (Duda) and Erik (Timko) weren’t doing much in the first quarter, first half, I knew I had to step up my scoring game,” Eberly said. “I took that and I needed to score. I just went out and played how I play and made sure I took advantage of every opportunity I could score at.”

Spring-Ford (2-5 Liberty, 9-7) got out to an early 11-7 lead, but after a timeout Methacton (5-2 Liberty, 12-5) regrouped.

After a fastbreak layup by Eberly, who scored eight of his points in the first quarter, the two teams went into the second quarter tied, 15-15.

“As our point guard, he’s a great distributor,” Methacton coach Jeff Derstine said of Eberly. “We know he’s a great shooter, and he’s really embraced the role of understanding he’s got a lot of weapons around him, so his priority has been trying to find his teammates. He also knows we needed a little bit of a lift tonight. We weren’t shooting it that well, and he stepped in and hit big shots for us.”

Timko and Woodward combined for 41 points the first time these two teams met on Dec. 13, when Methacton won 69-50. While Spring-Ford kept both players to just two points in the first quarter, the Rams couldn’t contain them for long.

Woodward helped Methacton to a 36-22 halftime lead with 10 points in the second quarter, and Timko scored 10 of his points in the second half as the Warriors pulled away.

“You have to limit Woodward as much as you can,” Spring-Ford coach Chris Talley said. “It’s tough because when you double him, they have shooters that make shots. We wanted to challenge our guys man for man. We’re a switching defensively team, and we didn’t tonight. We challenged guys to have individual efforts, and give Methacton credit. They were the much better team tonight.”

In addition to his 20 points and stellar play on the defensive end, Woodward opened up the floor for Methacton.

The Warriors made 10 3-points shots, including four from Eberly.

“Our gameplan is always to get the ball inside and get our shooters open,” Woodward said. “Brett stepped up and hit a couple of big ones, Ben (Christian) hit a really big one, Dave and Erik were of course hitting. It was a really good team effort and we just stuck to the gameplan.”

Junior forward Tre Medearis, who scored 15 points, and senior big man Robert Bobeck, who finished with 14 points, tried to keep the Rams in the game, but Methacton held a double-digit lead for the entirety of the second half.

Medearis had a fastbreak dunk in the third quarter that looked like it might swing the momentum Spring-Ford’s way until Eberly came down and drilled a three at the other end.

“I really thought they scrapped through out,” Derstine said of the Rams. “I felt like we were pulling away a little bit, and they kept making runs to battle back.”

“I thought our defense really set the tone when we didn’t have one of our better shooting nights tonight,” he added.

Spring-Ford heads to Boyertown on Saturday, hoping to keep itself from falling out of contention in the league playoff race.

Methacton faces Perkiomen Valley on Saturday in what Derstine called essentially a playoff game. After the Vikings’ last-second win against Norristown on Tuesday, the Warriors trail both teams by just one game of the loss column in the Liberty division standings.

“You get towards the end of the season, and you want to be preparing to play some meaningful games, and you want to put yourself in a position for some playoff opportunities,” Derstine said. “This is what you battle for all offseason, these opportunities.”