Pope John Paul II locks down Spring-Ford for PAC title game spot
ROYERSFORD >> While the seed was the same, this was a different Pope John Paul II boys basketball team.
The Golden Panthers earned the No. 2 seed in the Pioneer Athletic Conference playoffs last season after winning the Frontier Division, but they entered the league tournament for the first time in three years with a .500 record and proceeded to be thumped by eventual champion Methacton in the semifinals.
One year later, Pope John Paul II — this time coming into the league playoffs with the most regular-season victories in program history and with some experience under its belt — was the architect of another lopsided PAC semifinal game. This time, PJP was on the right side of the result, defeating fourth-seeded Spring-Ford, 61-31, on Friday night.
PHOTO GALLERY: Spring-Ford vs Pope John Paul 2.7.20
Justin Green and Kevin Green both had 13 points, and Drew McKeon and Jaden Workman added 12 apiece to lead the Golden Panthers to a spot in Tuesday’s league championship against Methacton. It will be the program’s first PAC title game appearance since winning the league in 2010-11, the school’s inaugural season.
“It was just a different hunger,” McKeon said. “Last year, a lot of us were new, inexperienced. This year, we came into it knowing that we had something to prove. Last year, we kind of snuck into the two seed, but this year we knew we had to make a statement.”
Justin Green swatted a Spring-Ford (15-8) shot on the Rams’ first offensive possession Friday, setting the tone for the rest of the game: Points weren’t going to come easy for Spring-Ford.
After getting ahead 15-10 in the first quarter, Pope John Paul (18-5) held the Rams to fewer than 10 points in each of the final three quarters. PJP led 24-15 at halftime, extended that advantage to 40-23 with a strong run to end the third quarter, then started the fourth quarter with 12 straight points to go up 52-23 with 4:42 left in the game.
Patrick Kovaleski’s 12 points paced Spring-Ford, which shot 24 percent from the field and 1-of-17 from 3-point range. Green and company contained Rams forward Tre Medearis to seven points after he went off for a season-high 24 points in Wednesday’s first-round win.
“We worked on defense all week,” Justin Green said. “We lost to Upper Merion last week, and ever since then, we upped our sense of urgency on defense because we know we can score. It’s just about defense.”
Justin Green finished with three blocks in the game, and Green, JP Baron and David Smrek each added a steal in the win.
Pope John Paul II second-year head coach Brendan Stanton paced the sidelines throughout the contest with his hands held in the air, yelling “Hands” to his players to reaffirm the team’s emphasis heading into Friday night, which was playing with their hands up.
“We preached all the last two days because we’re not the biggest team in the world, so we gotta have incredibly active hands, disrupt passing lanes and vision,” Stanton said. “I thought we did an unbelievable job of that tonight…Especially when we go four guards, we’re pretty small. But if you put your hands up, you can become 6-6 pretty easily.”
Pope John Paul went winless against its Liberty Division foes last season, being outscored by an average of more than 15 points per game in the six losses before a 77-49 loss to Methacton in the playoffs.
The Golden Panthers dropped their first crossover contest this season, a 50-47 loss to Spring-Ford on Dec. 14, before finishing 4-2 against the league’s big schools, picking up wins over Boyertown, Norristown, Owen J. Roberts and Perkiomen Valley.
PJP’s crossover success this season gave the team confidence entering its playoff matchup with Spring-Ford on Friday. The Golden Panthers broke a nine-game losing streak against the Rams, beating Spring-Ford for the first time since the 2010-11 championship game.
“That was the big step,” PJP coach Stanton said. “All offseason our guys talked about how disappointed we were last year that we didn’t win any crossover games. That was a big goal of ours this year.
“Once you start beating Boyertown and Norristown and going close against Spring-Ford, hanging with Methacton, it just really helps our kids believe. Even though I think we’re enrollment-wise, the smallest school in the PAC, I think we have an unbelievable team and we can play with anybody on any given night.”
McKeon said he’s followed the PJP program since the school opened when he was a fourth grader in 2010-11, even attending the team’s PAC championship win over Spring-Ford.
Along with beating the Rams and clinching the team’s first spot in the PAC title game since the 2010-11 team, PJP won its 18th game Friday, tying the 2010-11 squad’s program record for wins in a season.
“It’s awesome,” McKeon said. “We’ve worked really hard and this is something we’ve had our eyes on all spring, summer and fall. It just feels really, really good to put up 18 wins in a season.”
NOTES >> Spring-Ford junior point guard Zack Skrocki missed the Rams’ win over Upper Merion on Wednesday with the flu. He scored six points on Friday … McKeon finished with a double-double, grabbing 10 rebounds to go with his 12 points.
PAC FINAL SIX
Wednesday, Feb. 5
Spring-Ford 48, Upper Merion 46
Phoenixville 45, Boyertown 41
Friday, Feb. 7
Pope John Paul II 61, Spring-Ford 3
Methacton 69, Phoenixville 41
Tuesday, Feb. 11
Methacton vs. Pope John Paul II, 7 p.m.
Pope John Paul II 61
Spring-Ford 31
SPRING-FORD: Cooke 1 0-0 2, Fitzgerald 0 0-0 0, Irby 0 0-0 0, Kovaleski 3 5-8 11, Kressley 0 0-0 0, Lewis 0 0-2 0, Little 1 0-0 2, Medearis 3 1-3 7, Santiago 1 0-0 3, Scilingo 0 0-0 0, Skrocki 3 0-0 6 Wright, Totals 12 6-13 31.
POPE JOHN PAUL: Baron 0 4-4 4, J Green 5 3-5 13, K Green 5 2-6 13, McCarthy 1 1-2 4, McKeon 4 3-3 12, Mink 0 0-0 0, Simpson 1 0-0 2, Smrek 0 0-0 0, Workman 4 3-3 12, Yasneski 0 1-2 1, Totals 20 17-25 61.
Spring-Ford 10 5 8 8-31
Pope John Paul 15 9 16 21-61
3-point goals: K Green, McCarthy, McKeon, Workman, Santiago.
