Matt Faw nets career high in Upper Merion’s win over Jenkintown

UPPER MERION >> One night after dropping a very winnable game against Upper Dublin, the Upper Merion boys basketball team came out on a mission Wednesday night against Jenkintown.

No Viking looked more determined than center Matt Faw. The 6-foot-7 junior scored a career-high 30 points to lift his team to a 61-47 win over the Drakes at Upper Merion Area High School.

Faw used his size advantage over Jenkintown defenders to get high-percentage shots close to the rim, including an exclamation point dunk in the final minute of the game for his last two points.

“I was getting offensive rebounds and post feeds,” Faw said. “I dished at first and once I dished a few times they kind of sagged off me and I just took a layup.”

“That’s what he’s capable of,” Upper Merion head coach Jason Quenzer said of Faw’s 30-point performance. “I think everybody we play knows that. When he gets aggressive and stays out of foul trouble, he’s a dangerous player. He was frustrated (in Tuesday night’s loss to Upper Dublin), but responded well tonight … He had a good night – fantastic night – a great player.”

Another Viking forward with a size advantage, the 6-foot-6 junior Ethan Miller, chipped in 14 points in the win.

Faw, Miller and another big – 6-foot-4 Isaiah Graham-Mobley – all demonstrated unselfish play and set each other up for easy baskets when the Vikings beat Jenkintown’s press and had 3-on-1s and 2-on-1s on the offensive side.

“We’ve been working on that a lot in practice,” Faw said of the passing between the bigs.

Six different Vikings scored in the win. Along with Faw and Miller, Graham-Mobley and Chris Carita added six, Aidan Newell had three and Andrew Persaud two.

“Total team contribution,” Quenzer said. “That’s something we’re trying to stress – a ‘we not me’ thing. They played really well as a team tonight.”

The Drakes came out and drilled three-point baskets on each of their first two possessions of the game. They hit one more three-pointer in first quarter and four over the final three quarters.

“We knew Jenkintown was good coming in,” Quenzer said. “They are a team that likes to shoot. They came out early and hit those three threes … then we switched defenses and the guys responded and they stepped up.”

Jenkintown’s outside shooting is the highlight of its offensive night because Upper Merion’s bigs didn’t let much happen in the paint. Faw, Miller and Graham-Mobley all used their size advantage to either block shots or alter them enough to result in misses and when the ball bounced off the rim, one of those three was coming down with the rebound.

“Teams that like to penetrate, we’re good where we can cover enough ground because we’re so long,” Quenzer said, “that when you play a team that likes to shoot the three you can extend and we also trust our guys to be able to collapse. We are a good blocking team.”

“Our defense has been doing really well this year,” Faw added.

Jameson Kolb led the Drakes in scoring with 19 points, Colin Mulvaney added eight and Frank Sobolewski had seven.