Sniras’ meaningful effort leads to career high as Garnet Valley downs North Penn in District 1-6A 7th place game
TOWAMENCIN >> It meant something to Jake Sniras.
The annual slog of District 1 basketball playback games can feel unending, the void between a team’s exit from the district bracket and the start of the state playoffs. To Sniras, a 6-foot-4 sophomore at Garnet Valley, there’s no such thing as a “meaningless” game and he played like it Friday as the Jaguars traveled to North Penn to compete in the 6A boys seventh-place game.
It meant something to Jake Sniras and he played like it, scoring a career-best 39 points as GV ran over the Knights 88-52 to complete their seeding games.
“Every game means something, I hate when people say the seeding games don’t mean anything,” Sniras, who had 30 points in the first half, said. “Every game means something and any time you’re playing, you should be going 100 percent.”
The Jags staved off a losing streak going into states, earning the 1-7 spot in the PIAA bracket and a trip out to District 3 runner-up Cumberland Valley next Friday. North Penn dropped its third straight game, the Knights drawing a first-round clash with District 12 runner-up Central next week.
Sniras surpassed his previous career high of 33, set in a dramatic win over Coatesville at the Pete and Jameer Nelson Classic held in late December, so he’s not a stranger to big games. However, the sophomore was not happy with his performance in the game that put Garnet Valley in the playbacks, a quarterfinal loss to top seed Spring-Ford, and wanted to go into states on a good note.
“After the Spring-Ford game, it was a stinker, I didn’t play that good of a game, I was shooting a lot of bad shots and whatnot,” Sniras said. “I wanted to get it going at the rim. I try to work inside-out.”
Sniras missed his first shot, but not many more in the first half. For the game, the sophomore wing shot 15-of-25, 2-for-4 from long range and 7-of-8 at the foul line but his numbers in the opening 16 minutes were ridiculous, featuring the 30 points on 12-of-15 field goals, 2-of-3 threes and 4-of-5 free throws.
He scored pretty much every way possible, getting down low and finishing on the block, hitting the perimeter jumpers, ghosting behind North Penn’s defense for layups, getting run-outs and splashing turnarounds and pull-ups inside the arc. While the offense stood out, Sniras actually pointed to the other end of the floor as the catalyst.
Early on, it looked like it was going to be both teams running rampant on the offensive end. Knights guard Norman Gee was all over with 10 points and two assists on threes for North Penn in a 17-16 start. That prompted a change for the Jags, abandoning their man-to-man defense to go zone, leading to a 7-0 run to end the quarter with all seven coming from Sniras.
“They were running with us, beating us off the dribble in the first quarter and they didn’t know what to do, it looked like they weren’t ready for us,” Sniras said. “The wings are really important, especially when it’s on the opposite side and we do a good job of dropping. All our steals come off that zone, so it really helps us.”
Sniras ended the first quarter with 14 points and he was just on a different level in the second. The 6-foot-4 sophomore opened the quarter with a steal out of the zone and an impressive eurostep finish, he hit a smooth turnaround later in the quarter and ended the half sinking a midrange jumper, almost not even noticing the hand of a North Penn defender in his face on the contest.
As the Knights tried to slow him down, Sniras and the Jaguars used their passing to keep the points flowing.
“The cuts off the backdoor, that’s always there,” Sniras said. “Especially once they start getting all over me, the backdoor’s pretty easy to hit when they’re trying to take away my shots.”
Knights coach John Conrad was disappointed in his team’s effort on defense, the Knights giving up at least 71 points in all three games of the losing streak and more than 80 in two of the three.
“I don’t know that we played with a tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm,” Conrad said. “Yeah, their kid got going but boy, we sure seemed to make it easy for him.”
With the set-up of playbacks, some teams have to enter states on a losing streak, but it’s especially hard dropping three in a row and trying to reverse as North Penn will have to do before next Friday. Conrad said his team has no momentum at the moment and put it on the team’s players to try and find the same drive that carried them on a 12-game winning streak late in the regular season.
“It starts at the top and we didn’t play well so that starts with me,” Conrad said. “I’m going to rely on my seniors, hopefully they’ll be senior leaders and show us the way to get us going next week.”
Friday night meant something to Jake Sniras and because it did, the Jaguars got to leave on a good note and ready for the state tournament.
“Every game means something,” Sniras said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a playback or a playoff, even regular season, if you’re playing, you’re playing. There’s no such thing as laying down.
“We came in with a killer mentality. We were on a losing streak, we wanted to get one and we needed one.”
Garnet Valley 88, North Penn 52
Garnet Valley 23 25 21 19 — 88
North Penn 17 12 18 5 — 52
Garnet Valley: Jake Sniras 15 7-8 39, Drew Van Horn 1 0-2 2, Logan McKee 4 0-0 9, Max Koehler 6 0-0 13, Ryan Faccenda 2 1-2 5, Jack Krautal 3 0-0 7, Chase Furchner 1 0-0 2, Adam Anderson 1 0-0 2, Nick Bosch 3 0-0 7. Totals: 36 8-13 88.
North Penn: Mario Sgro 2 1-1 5, Norman Gee 5 2-2 15, Ryan Zeltt 2 0-0 5, Ryan Deininger 1 0-0 2, Corey Meade 1 0-0 2, Ahmaar Godhania 2 2-2 7, Teddy McAllister 3 0-0 8, Lee Hammond 2 0-0 6, Tre Simpson 1 0-0 2. Totals: 19 5-5 52.
3-pointers; GV – Sniras 2,McKee, Koehler, Krautal, Bosch; NP – Gee 3, McAllister 2, Hammond 2, Godhania, Zeltt.
