Myon Kirlew leads Norristown past Upper Merion, into PAC semifinals

ROYERSFORD >> Myon Kirlew scored 21 points to lead No. 5 Norristown to a 62-40 win over No. 4 Upper Merion in the Pioneer Athletic Conference quarterfinals Wednesday night at Spring-Ford High School.

Kirlew scored nine points in the second quarter. The sophomore hit three three-pointers during the eight minute stretch to help the Eagles turn a 20-15 deficit into a 33-28 halftime lead.

“In the warmups everything was just falling,” Kirlew, who credited his teammates for getting him the ball, said. “When I got into the game I was just letting them go and they kept falling.”

Norristown’s Zaki Gomez scored eight of his 15 points in the third quarter. The senior scored the first five points of the second half to double the five-point lead to 10, 38-28, and the Eagles lead was never in danger the rest of the way. Gomez opened the third quarter with a three-pointer and hit another triple in the final 20 seconds to put his side ahead, 47-33. Madison Tatom hit a three-pointer on the Vikings final possession of the third to send the game to the fourth, 47-36.

The Eagles put the game away with a 9-2 run in the final quarter. Kirlew hit a three-pointer to extend an 11-point lead to 14 and DJ Johnson made it a 16-point game with 4:40 to play. After Upper Merion’s Kalil Lawson made a basket, Kirlew and Gomez each converted layups to make it 58-40 with less than three minutes to play and both teams emptied their benches.

The Norristown defense held Upper Merion to 12 points in the second half after surrendering 28 points in the opening 16 minutes.

“Coach in the locker room said that we have to make sure we stay disciplined,” Kirlew said. “We needed to stay disciplined for 32 minutes and that’s what we did.”

“Seeing the five-point (halftime deficit) climb to double digits,” Upper Merion coach Jason Quenzer said, “I feel like they tried to get it back in one possession and if you play that way it’s not going to be an easy climb.”

Johnson joined Kirlew and Gomez in double figures with 10 points for Norristown.

Ty Jones led the Vikings in scoring with 13 points.

Norristown advances to the PAC semifinals, where it will face No. 1 Methacton at 6 p.m. Friday back at Spring-Ford. The Warriors swept the regular season series, 69-44 and 73-61.

Upper Merion turns its attention to qualifying for districts. The Vikings are No. 10 in the District 1-5A rankings, where the top 12 teams earn a playoff berth. They face Downingtown East in their regular season finale Friday.

“Thirteen through 10 (the difference) is decimal points,” Quenzer said. “Everybody else has like two games left, whereas we’re sitting here potentially with none because Downingtown East got bumped (from Feb. 4) and Harriton couldn’t play for some reason. I’d rather have a say in it than just watch other teams play and cross our fingers.”

Norristown 62, Upper Merion 40

Norristown 15 18 14 15 – 62

Upper Merion 15 13 8 4 – 40

N: Gomez 6 1-1 15, Gaymon 1 0-0 2, Johnson 4 2-3 10, Mitchell 4 0-1 8, Kirlew 8 1-3 21, Williams 1 0-0 2, Smith 0 0-0 0, Green 0 0-0 0, Stinson 0 0-0 0, Dinolfi 2 0-0 4. Total 26 4-8 62.

UM: Wynne 0 0-0 0, Jones 5 0-0 13, Lawson 4 1-2 9, Perry 0 0-0 0, Seals 0 0-0 0, Etheridge 2 2-4 7, Amaefuna 0 0-0 0, Tatom 2 1-2 6, Brooks 0 0-0 0, Hirshborn 2 0-0 5, Nguyen 0 0-0 0. Total 15 4-8 40.

3-point goals: N: Gomez 2, Kirlew 4. UM: Jones 3, Etheridge, Tatom, Hirshorn.