Norristown locks down Spring-Ford to earn PAC’s final playoff spot

NORRISTOWN >> The Norristown and Spring-Ford boys basketball teams came into this winter with little to no postseason experience on both sides.

Over the past two weeks, the two teams  got a taste of what postseason basketball entails as they attempted to play their way into the Pioneer Athletic Conference playoff picture.

The culmination of the two teams’ late season playoff pushes came Saturday at Norristown when the Eagles and Rams met up in a Liberty Division matchup to decide the final team in next week’s PAC Final Six.

In a game defined by defense, Norristown’s offense got enough going in the second half to run away with a 47-28 win and get back to the PAC postseason for the first time since 2019.

“We prayed about this. We dreamed about this,” Norristown senior guard D.J. Johnson said. “We were just like, ‘We’re not going out the way we did in 2020 not making playoffs.’ We dreamed about this. We were like, ‘We’re going to work hard every day. We’re going to stay after practice. We’re going to stay at night.’ Ten, eleven o’clock at night we’re at the gym, our rec gym, hooping. We just knew we had to put in the work to get where we wanted to get.”

.@town_hoop seniors DJ Johnson, left, and John DiNolfi helped Norristown secured a PAC Final Six spot with a win over Spring-Ford on Saturday. (Part 1/2) pic.twitter.com/W5QMQQqIwr

— Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) February 5, 2022

 

Norristown (16-6 overall, 9-4 PAC, 6-4 Liberty) relied on its seniors to come up with the big plays in Saturday’s win. Forward John DiNolfi led the way with 12 points — knocking down a pair of game-changing threes in the second half — and guards Righteous Mitchell and Johnson both scored nine.

The Eagles’ senior class, which also includes Zaki Gomez, Nasir Williams, Greg Mobley, Rayshawn Stinson, Daryl Smith and Alex DiMichele, entered 2021-22 without a lot of varsity experience after Norristown saw its 2020-21 season cancelled due to the district’s COVID-19 protocols. Only Johnson and Gomez saw limited minutes as sophomores.

Many members of the Class of 2022 played AAU together this summer and often worked out together.

The group waited two years to bring Norristown, which has made the PAC postseason four of a possible five times since joining the league in 2016-17, back to the playoffs.

“Our leadership is tremendous on this team, and that’s the only way to get where we’re at right now,” Norristown coach Binky Johnson said. “With their leadership, they believe. They’re some of the most unselfish leaders I’ve had and most committed. Not only that, they are some great young men to have around the locker room, and they make coaching fun.”

Both teams struggled offensively in the first half Saturday. After Norrristown led 9-6 following the first quarter, Spring-Ford held the Eagles to just two points in the second quarter to take a 13-11 halftime lead.

The two defenses showed a few more cracks in the third quarter before Norristown closed the period with six unanswered points to go up 27-20. The Eagles continued with six more  to start the fourth, going up 32-20 on a DiNolfi three that deflated the Rams’ comeback chances.

“I felt the momentum,” said DiNofli, who scored seven points in the third quarter. “My teammates just gave me open shots. (D.J.), Righteous, Zaki when they all drive they draw a lot of people, so I get a lot of open shots from that.”

Norristown led 21-20 with 2:41 left in the third quarter and closed the game on a 26-7 run.

“We sticked to what we were told to do,” D.J. Johnson said of the second-half adjustment. “We went into halftime and talked about it. We kept them to 13 points too, so we knew we were in the game. We just had to start letting our offense go. Spring-Ford played good defense, but once we started clicking … we just went on a run.”

Spring-Ford had four straight league wins to set up Saturday’s win-and-in scenario, including a 53-36 victory over Norristown on Jan. 27 and a 51-48 victory over previously unbeaten Methacton on Tuesday.

The late push ran out of steam as no Ram sustained any success at the offensive end on Saturday. Sophomore guard E.J. Campbell was the top scorer with five points.

“I just think they were more physical than us,” Spring-Ford coach Joe Dempsey said.

“They’re a strong team. Their 10 seniors, there’s a lot of dog in them. We missed a lot of shots and nothing came easy. Credit to their defense too.”

The Rams, currently ranked No. 11 in the District 1-6A power rankings, will likely host a first round game when the playoffs begin Feb. 18.

They potentially have a non-league game scheduled against Wilson next Saturday, pending on the Bulldogs’ league playoffs, but will have 13 days to attempt to prep for a bounce back run in the District 1 tournament.

“The key for them is going to be to stick together and regroup,” Dempsey said. “The kids are just really disappointed we didn’t make the PAC playoffs. Unfortunately we coughed a couple games up coming off the COVID break, so we played a couple games where we weren’t our full team. If we get one of those games, maybe we’re not playing for our lives.

“Every game for the last two weeks has been a playoff game really, and that’s a lot to ask high school kids. Today, it finally just reared its head.”

Norristown will play rival Upper Merion, who they defeated 43-37 on Jan. 20, in the first round of the PAC Final Six on Wednesday at Spring-Ford.

For all of its regular season success since joining the league, including a Liberty Division championship in 2017-18, Norristown has yet to win a PAC playoff game since an overtime win over Methacton in its league postseason debut, dropping three straight since. Two of the Eagles’ three PAC playoff defeats came in overtime.

This group is playing its best basketball down the stretch, winning seven of its last eight games. The stretch runs include wins against some of District 1-6A’s top teams in Perkiomen Valley (No. 20), Spring-Ford (No. 13) and Bensalem (No. 6).

“We’ve been away from basketball for 21 months and no offseason,” Binky Johnson said. “These things are impactful on your season. These guys in that locker room just bought into what we said. We said it’s a long season. We went through COVID, we went through injuries, etcetera — it really feels good that they bought into what we talked about.

“They bought into our mission: We play for those who played before us. They bought into our philosophy: Proper preparation prevents before performance. And they bought into the fact that hard work pays off.”