Debebe, Perkiomen Valley start fast and hold on to knock off Central Buck East in District 1-6A first round

DOYLESTOWN >> Perkiomen Valley got out to a 16-point lead to start Friday’s District 1-6A first round game against Central Bucks East.

Though the 19th-seeded Vikings saw that advantage trimmed down on a number of occasions, they never relented the large head start over the 14th-seeded Patriots.

Senior Dawson Debebe scored 23 points and sophomore Julian Sadler added 16 as Perkiomen Valley held on for a 55-53 win to move on to the second round of districts at third-seeded Cheltenham on Tuesday.

“It was a big one,” Debebe said. “It was win-or-go-home, backs against the wall. It just felt really good to get this one done and extend our season.”

.@ValleyBoysBBall senior Dawson Debebe had 23 and sophomore Julian Sadler had 16 as the Vikings kept their season alive with a District 1-6A playoff win over CB East on Friday. pic.twitter.com/9RVBDYO47A

— Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) February 19, 2022

 

Debebe had 11 points in the first quarter to jump start the Vikings (16-8), helping them to a 20-4 lead after eight minutes of play. He also came through with a handful of clutch drives  in the second half, seemingly finding a way to score every time PV needed a big bucket.

“I was just patient on offense, wait for the ball to come back around for me,” Debebe said. “I would swing it around, get other guys looks and know mine would could when I needed it.”

The first half was a tale of two quarters.

After the Vikings jumped out to the 16-point lead after one, CB East (15-9) outscored PV, 14-4, in the second quarter.

CB East senior Tyriq Toney-Bailey reeled off all 14 of his team-high 21 points for the Patriots in the period, cutting the PV lead all the way down to four before the Vikings went into half with a 24-18 lead.

“We got off to a bad start, and I think it really lingered as the game went on,” CB East head coach Erik Henrysen said. “It took a ton to come back, and I just felt like we were never able to get clicking like we can.”

The Patriots cut the PV advantage down to one, 30-29, with 3:39 left in the third quarter on a bucket by sophomore Jacob Cummiskey, who followed Toney-Bailey with 12 points. Debebe quickly answered with an and-one on the other end to put PV back up four.

That was the story throughout the rest of the night. PV grew its lead as large as eight only to see CB East cut it down to a single possession on multiple occasions, but the Patriots couldn’t get over the hump.

“I’m proud of the guys,” Henrysen said. “We have seven seniors and our rotation’s been 10 all year, and they battled. We had two, three, four, probably five or six chances to turn that corner and it just never happened for us tonight.”

CB East had one last shot when Toney-Bailey drilled a three and Jake Cummiskey scored with 1:36 to left to pull the Patriots within two, 48-46.

But senior Josh Pelzer, who finished with nine points, knocked down a free throw and the Vikings got a stop on the other end for Sadler, who missed his first three foul shots in the period, knocked down four three throws in the game’s final minutes to finish off the victory.

“It’s a big crowd,” Sadler said. “It’s one of my first times in that big of a situation. I just had to lock in and hit shots, and that pretty much sealed the game.”

PV’s starting five of Julian Sadler and seniors Debebe, Vance Sadler, Ethan Kohler and Josh Pelzer played most of the game with Luke Hansen also seeing action. Pelzer had nine points, and Kohler added four. Vance Sadler and Pelzer both hit big threes in the third period to prevent the Patriots’ from coming all the way back.

Perkiomen Valley advanced to the District 1-6A quarterfinal last season, which usually results in a trip to the state tournament. However, only district tournament winners made it to states last season due to COVID-19 restrictions.

With Friday’s win the Vikings are now guaranteed at least two more games — next week’s second round game and either a trip to the District 1 quarterfinals or state playback bracket — and they need just one win to earn a spot in the PIAA tournament. District 1 has 12 spots reserved in the Class 6A tournament.

“We’re super excited,” Debebe said. “Last year we knew we were a state playoff team, and unfortunately they didn’t take as many teams as they usually do and we were just hungry this year to get back to it.”

NOTES >> Kohler and Debebe also helped guide the Vikings’ football team to a win over the Patriots in the first round of districts.

Perkiomen Valley 55, C.B. East 53

Perkiomen Valley: V. Sadler 1 0-0 3, Hansen 0 0-0 0, Kohler 2 0-0 4, Debebe 9 5-6 23, Pelzer 3 1-3 9, J. Sadler 4 8-11 16, Totals 19 14-20 55.

C.B. East: Toney-Bailey 7 2-2 21, J. Cummiskey 4 4-4 12, L. Cummiskey 2 0-1 5, Rivera 3 0-0 6, Young 1 0-0 2, Weaver 1 2-2 5, Lenahan 1 0-0 2, Berndt 0 0-0 0, Lyzinski 0 0-0 0, Giordano 0 0-0 0, Totals 19 8-9 53.

Perk Valley 20 4 17 14-55
C.B. East 4 14 17 18-53

3-point goals: PV – V. Sadler, Pelzer 2; CBE – Toney-Bailey 5, L. Cummiskey, Weaver.