PHILADELPHIA — Watching his Perkiomen School teammate Alex Zakheim’s first-half heat check, Gabe Tanner must have felt a strong sense of déjà vu stemming from his 19-point performance in last year’s PAISAA Championship Game.
Then, instead of just admiring Zakheim’s torrid second quarter, Tanner himself went back for seconds.
Tanner once again scored 19 in Sunday night’s title game and Zakheim added 18 as No. 2 seed Perkiomen School successfully defended its PAISAA crown in a 77-67 victory over top-seeded Phelps School at Saint Joseph University’s Hagan Arena.
The duo combined for seven 3-pointers and each posted a double-digit scoring quarter — Zakheim poured in 13 in the second period with three of his four triples, then Tanner followed suit with 10 in a crucial third quarter that saw the Panthers turn a two-point lead into a 58-48 advantage heading into the fourth. Phelps briefly crept within four points in the fourth, but Tanner and Zakheim combined for eight more points to ensure the Lions never got any closer.
“I saw Alex getting hot, so at that point we really wanted to feed him,” Tanner said. “Then, I shot the ball when I was open and it went in. We played team basketball — whoever’s open is going to shoot it, and I just got hot. It’s a collective energy where we all feed off each other.”
It was an especially sweet night for the junior, who had missed the team’s three previous PAISAA wins with a back injury. He returned to the court in two Elite Prep League games last week in limited minutes as he searched to rediscover his rhythm. Although he came off the bench in this one, he still managed to shoot 6-for-8 from the field, including a 3-for-4 mark from downtown.
It was the third time Tanner has visited Hawk Hill in the past calendar year, twice for PAISAA title games and once on an official visit to Saint Joseph’s, which offered him a scholarship over the summer.
“I got to come see a game and go around campus, it was very nice,” Tanner said of his visit. “I was talking to [Head] Coach [Tom Baudinet] and he said I must really like playing here since I’ve played well here in back-to-back years. It’s certainly given me some ideas.”
The two talented teams traded punches in a back-and-forth first quarter that resulted in Perkiomen leading 15-13 after one. The Panthers led 21-17 when Zakheim caught fire, hitting a pair of corner 3s on consecutive possessions before splashing another from the wing that stretched Perk’s lead to 33-21. The Lions responded with an 8-0 run, but Zakheim beat the second-quarter buzzer on a jumper from the lane to give his squad a six-point halftime lead.
“Since the start of the year, the coaches and guys have always told me to shoot,” Zakheim said. “There were patches during the year where I wouldn’t, but I kind of had that confidence when the first one went in. Then the rim’s feeling way bigger than it normally is. So many guys on our team can get you double figures any night. The first half I had some shots going, then the second half Gabe did. Iron sharpens iron.”
To Zakheim’s point, all eight Perkiomen players who saw the court scored at least two points, with Macon Emory tallying 13 and Torin Bosch adding 10. The Panthers needed new blood to step up, as Baudinet said the team lost around 70 points per game from last year’s championship squad to graduation and three to Division-I college programs.
Phelps drew to within 39-37 with 5:10 to play in the third quarter before star junior guard-forward Will Riley — a top 25 recruit nationally in the class of 2025 — suffered a gash on his face near his eye when he collided with a Perk player in the paint. Riley was down on the floor for a few minutes before exiting for the remainder of the period. He returned to start the fourth, but not until after Tanner had started sizzling.
Tanner hit a 3 on the first possession after Riley’s exit, then drained a midrange jumper before converting a driving layup and finishing with another trey that put the Panthers back up by 10. Phelps managed to stay in the fight but couldn’t quite get over the hump before time ran out.
“It was critical to stretch the lead in the five minutes he [Riley] was out, and fortunately we were able to,” Baudinet said. “We were able to score during that stretch and also got a couple of critical stops to get it from two to 10, which was very important in that time.”
“We have a lot of other talented players, but obviously Will is special,” added Phelps head coach Trey Morin. “We played really well in stretches, but they played really well for the duration of the game. They made it tough on us when they made a little run in the third and put us away to the point we could never climb back. I’m proud of our kids for battling, and hopefully we’ll be back next year.”
Phelps was seeking its second PAISAA crown, and first since 2015. Riley ended up with 16 points, while Onyx Nnani posted a team-high 19 points and 13 rebounds. Jacob Hudson (11 points) and Justin Houser (10) also reached double digits for the Lions.
Perkiomen is the fifth school to win multiple PAISAA titles since the tournament was created in 2007, joining Academy of the New Church, Friends’ Central, Westtown School and Hill School. A three-peat in 2025 would be a first since Friends’ Central won four in a row from 2009-12.
But first, both Perkiomen and Phelps will head to Worcester, Mass., this week for the 16-team National Prep School Championship tournament. It will be Phelps’ first go-round and Perk’s third straight appearance, though the Panthers are looking to win their first game after bowing out in the first round in each of the last two years.
“We’d like to get a win in the National tournament — that’s the next step forward for this group,” Baudinet said. “But this [PAISAA] title means a lot. Being able to win a state championship matters a lot for us, especially locally. Just really proud of our group to be able to get to this point after not returning much from last year’s state title team. Tonight we played a very clean game on both sides of the ball. That’s how Perkiomen basketball should be played, and I’m really proud of that whole locker room for winning back-to-back titles. It’s something that’s very hard to do.”
Perkiomen School 77, Phelps School 67
Perkiomen 15 20 23 19 – 77
Phelps 13 16 19 19 – 67
Perkiomen: Zakheim 3 4 0-0 18, Emory 4 1 2-2 13, Addesa 2 0 0-0 4, Cochran 1 0 2-2 4, Bosch 3 0 4-6 10, Orchard 1 0 0-0 2, Johns 3 0 1-1 7, Tanner 3 3 4-6 19. Totals 20 8 13-17 77
Phelps: Hudson 4 0 3-5 11, Nnani 6 1 4-5 19, Rogers 1 2 0-0 8, Riley 5 1 3-5 16, Houser 3 0 4-4 10, Vaughn Jr. 0 0 1-2 1, Johnson 0 0 2-4 2. Totals 19 4 17-25 67
