CHELTENHAM — Quinn Boettinger stepped to the foul line with 1:23 remaining in the fourth quarter looking to give the Perkiomen Valley girls basketball a lead that had frustratingly eluded it for most of Sunday’s Hoops for Hope Classic contest with Archbishop Wood.
Five times after relinquishing the advantage in the opening quarter, Perk Valley pulled to within a point only for Wood to hold it off.
A Boettinger basket in the fourth cut the margin to one a sixth time at 43-42 and after Wood missed a pair at the line the junior was fouled inside then knocked down two free throws to put PV ahead.
“Just being able to hit those foul shots and give us the momentum that we don’t have to fight back,” Boettinger said. “And now it’s kind of just maintain and we don’t have to worry about them running out the clock.”
Perk Valley pushed its lead to four with 25.9 seconds but Archbishop Wood had a chance to force a tie in the final moments.
After Alexa Windish scored to cut Wood’s deficit 48-46, PV missed two free throws. Wood was fouled on a drive with 4.1 seconds left but could not connect on its two chances at the line. Grace Galbavy grabbed the rebound then hit her pair of free throws as PV, the reigning District 1-6A champion, topped the three-time defending PIAA-4A champs 50-46 at Arcadia University’s Alumni Gymnasium.
“I think it proves we can compete with anyone and the only people stopping us are ourselves,” Boettinger said. “As long as we mentally realize that we can compete and don’t let previous years reflect on this current team, we’ll be fine. And just kind of play in the moment and not look in the past.”
A 6-foot-3 Navy verbal commit, Boettinger put his edge in size over Wood’s lineup to good use, scoring down low or drawing fouls – she went 8-of-12 from the line – to finish with a game-high 18 points as Perk Valley (13-1, 6-0 PAC, 5-0 PAC Liberty) claimed their fifth straight win.
“I knew I had a size advantage,” Boettinger said. “Emily Knouse was guarding me, I’ve played AAU with her for, what is it, five years now. I know her pretty well and I knew that I was able to use my size advantage. And I mean she guarded me well but just being able to either draw the double team or see which way she was guarding me to just spin the other direction, I knew that’s what we had to do and when you need to score, you have to score some way.”
Galbavy added 11 points while Grace Miley had 10 points to help PV pick up a second quality win in three days after it topped PAC rival Spring-Ford 61-48 at home Friday.
“To our locker room it’s a step in the direction that we want to go,” Perk Valley coach John Russo said. “We know that Wood is with (Cardinal) O’Hara and (Archbishop) Carroll the preeminent basketball powerhouses in our area so we want to get to the level that they’re at and then continue to get better. So getting a win today energizes us for the season.”
Knouse hit four 3-pointers – three in the first quarter – to score a team-best 16 points for Archbishop Wood (9-4, 3-0 PCL), which tried to navigate the end of regulation without senior point guard Ava Renninger after the FDU commit fouled out with 4:32 left.
“Just thought our energy was low,” Wood coach Mike McDonald said. “Against O’Hara Friday night kids were moving without the basketball, moving toward it, the ball was moving. We weren’t moving it as well tonight, again credit to their defense and their zone early probably kind of slowed us down.
“We don’t see a lot of zone, most Catholic League teams at the top don’t play a lot of zone so we’re not spending a lot of time working on it going into the O’Hara game. We had a light day yesterday because the kids were dead after Friday.”
Both teams are on the road for league games Tuesday – Perkiomen Valley visiting Methacton at 6:45 p.m. while Archbishop Wood takes on host Bonner & Prendergast at 7 p.m.
Knouse, a junior St. Joseph’s verbal commit, knocked down a three then converted a layin to give Wood a 36-30 lead in the third.
A Boettinger basket made it 36-32 and following the inbounds, Galbavy came up with a steal, scored and drew the foul – completing the 3-point play to have PW down 36-35 entering the fourth.
A Sophia Topakas trey and Lauren Greer’s bucket pushed Wood’s lead to 41-35. Miley’s 3-pointer sliced the margin to 41-38 before Makayla Finnegan scored to put Wood up five.
Perkiomen Valley, however, collected the next eight points to take the lead for good. Two Lena Stein free throws at 5:26 then a Boettinger basket had PV within 43-42. Wood missed two free throws at 1:34 and 11 seconds later, Boettinger earned a pair at the line and drained both for a 44-43 PV edge.
“Boettinger is a problem for us,” McDonald said. “Em Knouse worked her butt off to try to make it hard but she’s a problem, we don’t have the size there to compete. We ended up on the wrong side of her too many of the times.
“We wanted to stay on the low side, kind of make her make post moves and allow us to give a double team but she did a nice job of face cutting and kind of getting around us so we were kind of giving up uncontested layups.”
After Wood could not connect on a three, Miley made two free throws at 52.2 seconds for a 46-43 PV lead.
Windish hit the second of two foul shots at 27.3 seconds but two Anna Stein free throws had Perk Valley leading 48-44 with 25.9 seconds.
Windish drove for two and PV missing at the line gave Wood the ball down two, the PCL side getting two free throws with 4.1 seconds but could not make either free throw and Perk Valley held on for the win.
“As a coaching staff, we didn’t feel like we played well,” Russo said. “We felt like they were winning the 50/50 balls, they were getting rebounds, we left their shooters open, our kids got a little out of control because sometimes they try to chase a win instead of doing their job on the basketball court and it’s my job to reel that back in. I think we did a better job in the second half, which was why we slowly progressed.
“We stayed in it. Even though we gave up baskets, we were still doing the things that we thought were going to be successful to win the game.”
PV’s last lead before the fourth quarter came at 6-5 after a Boettinger bucket inside. Wood proceeded to hit three 3-pointers – two by Knouse – for a 9-0 run to go up 14-6. Two Boettinger free throws at 28.1 second made it 14-8 after the opening eight minutes.
A Finnegan trey had Wood leading 17-8 but Perk Valley scored the next seven to get within 17-16 on a bucket from Boettinger. PV was down a point again at 20-19 after a Boettinger free throw before baskets from Topakas and Sophia McDonald had Wood up 24-19 at halftime.
Perkiomen Valley 50, Archbishop Wood 46Archbishop Wood 14 10 12 10 – 46Perkiomen Valley 8 11 16 15 – 50Archbishop Wood: Emily Knouse 2 4 0-0 16; Lauren Green 3 0 0-1 6; Alexa Windish 2 0 2-3 6; Sophia Topakas 1 1 0-2 5; Makayla Finnegan 1 1 0-2 5; Ava Renninger 1 0 1-2 3; Emma Yogis 1 0 0-0 3; Sophia McDonald 1 0 0-0 2; Totals 11 7 3-10 46.Perkiomen Valley: Quinn Boettinger 5 0 8-12 18; Grace Galbavy 3 0 5-5 11; Grace Miley 1 2 2-3 10; Lena Stein 0 1 2-2 5; Bella Bacani 2 0 0-0 4; Anna Stein 0 0 2-2 2; Totals 11 3 19-24 50.
