Academy Park runs past Upper Merion

UPPER MERION >> It doesn’t matter who the Knights of Academy Park play, they’re going to play their game.

It’s a game that puts the phrase “up tempo” to shame.

Yes, the Knights run, and run and run.

And Friday night, the 18th-seeded Knights ran 15th-seeded Upper Merion right out of the PIAA District One Class AAAA basketball playoffs.

Oh, it took some time. The Vikings were not going to go out without a scrap.

But ultimately, the Knights wore them down, and advanced to Round Two via a 53-51 victory, and will take on No. 2 seed Plymouth Whitemarsh, a 49-36 winner over Radnor, next Tuesday.

To be fair, the Vikings hung around, and actually had a chance to force overtime when Aidan Newell was fouled taking a 3-point shot with .04 seconds left in the fourth quarter. But after making the first and missing the second, Newell missed the third attempt on purpose. And when Teddy Wright snatched his 11th rebound of the night, the Knights were in Round Two.

“This one means a lot,” said Knights guard Jawan Collins, who led all scorers with 17 points, “mostly because there are so many young people here.

“I think I was the only one here from last year (when the Knights came up a loss to Penncrest short of the state tournament), so this is a team that can go far, and is young.”

And how did the Knights pull it off?

“We played our game, and our game is to run and keep running,” Collins said. “Upper Merion was bigger than us, but that didn’t take us out of our game. We just keep on running.”

“We played hard and kept our composure,” added Teddy Wright, the self-described “scrapper” on the team, whose responsibility was taking first crack at Vikings center Matt Faw, and did so well that Knights head coach Allen Brydges kept him leaning on the Upper Merion big man.

“When we were coming in here at halftime, I thought Upper Merion was a little winded then,” Brydges said, “so we kept Teddy on (Faw). Teddy was awesome.”

The Knights took command early, leading by as much as seven points in the first quarter.

But the Vikings got their feet under them, answered the Knights’ run with one of their own, and actually took a 17-15 lead when Chris Carita hit a baseline jumper 2:00 into the second period.

From then on, it was nail-biting time – for both sides.

The Vikings got an off-balance, clock-beating 3-pointer by Newell to forge a 24-all tie at halftime.

And from that point on, the two teams took turns making mini-runs, with no side leading by more than seven points, the rest of the way.

The Knights kept up the defensive pressure, and ultimately it paid off.

By the latter stages of the third quarter and into the fourth, Academy Park’s full-court pressure finally began paying dividends.

The Vikings were twice whistled for not getting the ball past half-court, and threw the ball away a half-dozen more times.

“(Point guard) Aidan was exhausted,” said Upper Merion head coach Jason Quenzer. “They came and got us. They picked up their intensity and we couldn’t match it.

“They went on that six-point run, and it was tough for us to come back.”

Down the stretch, the Knights came up huge. Nakim Stokes made a long three and a driving layup to keep the Vikings at bay, and Collins nailed a pair of free throws to put the visitors up six with a minute-and-a-half left.

It didn’t help that Faw fouled out halfway through the fourth quarter.

But to their credit, the Vikings kept coming. Ethan Miller had eight of his team-high 16 points in the fourth, and Upper Merion had a chance to tie with Newell on the line with under a second left.

But it wasn’t to be.

“We like where we’re at,” Bridges said. “We don’t know much about Plymouth Whitemarsh, but we know we have to get past them to get to states, and our goal all year has been to get to states.”

“We were there,” Quenzer said. “This loss was bittersweet because this was a heckuva year. We went from three wins last year to 16 this year, so we’ve had a big turnaround.

“Plus, we bring back most of the team, so this was a good experience for us.”

And how will Academy Park go after PW in Round Two?

“We’re just,” Collins said cooly, “going to play our game.”

DRIBBLES AND DRABS: Knights forward Kyree Temple corraled 13 rebounds while Ethan Miller secured 10 caroms for Upper Merion.