Perkiomen Valley locks down Wissahickon to continue win streak

GRATERFORD >> Perkiomen Valley essentially had to hit the reboot button this offseason.

After graduating a large class of seniors who had seen the program make three Pioneer Athletic Conference championship appearances, two district quarterfinals and two state playoff appearances during their careers, the Vikings returned just one starter and one senior for the 2019-20 campaign.

A difficult schedule paired with the inexperience led to an 0-5 start for the Vikings. They started to correct that trend with two PAC crossover wins before Christmas and have since followed with two more victories at their Perkiomen Valley Shootout, including a 45-36 win over Wissahickon on Saturday to send themselves into the new year on a four-game win streak.

“Now we’re on a streak, we’re getting back into the flow of things, and we’re starting to find ourselves,” said junior Kameron Parks, the lone returning starter from last year’s team. “Everybody’s working the ball. We’re doing great on offense and coming back on defense and playing great defensively. I think we’re starting to get into gear, and it’s really important for us.”

Tyler Lapetina finds Ethan Kohler underneath for and-one. 41-33 PV with a little more than two to play. pic.twitter.com/gfXJJaXwCy

— Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) December 28, 2019

 

Perkiomen Valley coach Mike Poysden has always preached ball control and defense, but having consecutive 1,000-point scorers in Justin Jaworski and Tyler Strechay allowed the Vikings to hang in some higher scoring games at times. That is not the case with this year’s group, which doesn’t yet have an established “scorer” at the varsity level. Perkiomen Valley (4-5) has had to rely even more on a stout defense.

The strength of this Vikings team was on display Saturday as they held Wissahickon (3-7) to five points in the third quarter to take control of the game then clamped down once again late, holding the Trojans to three points in the final 3:42 to secure the victory.

Parks led PV with 17 points, Tyler Lapetina followed with nine, and Aidan Gansz added eight. Harrison Williams had 10 and Matt Compas had eight for Wissahickon.

“This team is growing comfortable down in the 40s instead of trying to get to the 70s,” Poysden said. “The way they’re guarding is going to be able to help with that. We’ve gotta be a little more efficient with the ball and some of our decision making.

“But overall I thought coming off a back-to-back, Saturday afternoon, the second game it’s always tough to find that energy and manufacture that. I thought we went on enough runs there, got enough stops and came out with a win.”

After Will Kunzier’s late bucket tied the game at 20 at halftime, Perk Valley scored the first nine points of the second half to build a 29-20 lead with 4:10 left in the third quarter. Stefan Lowry scored Wissahickon’s first points of the second half with 2:13 left in the third, and Williams knocked down a three to pull the Trojans within four, 29-25, after three quarters.

Another Williams bucket pulled Wissahickon within two a minute into the fourth. Two buckets by Parks and a three by Lapetina on the fastbreak extended the PV lead to 36-27 with 4:48 to go, its largest of the game to that point. Williams helped the Trojans cut the lead once again before Kunzier, who scored four of his six points in the fourth, made the score 36-33 PV with 3:42 left in the game.

“We just had to start moving the ball more,” Williams said. “We were doing too many one-on-ones and isos, and we weren’t really working with each other. Once we started moving the ball, it kind of opened up shots for everyone, and I was able to find mine and start hitting them.

“I feel like that started to create momentum and allowed us to close the lead a little bit. We just struggled on defense.”

Kameron Parks drive regives PV the lead. pic.twitter.com/rFZ2Xkgkuv

— Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) December 28, 2019

 

With Wissahickon threatening, Perkiomen Valley’s defense was once again called upon to finish off the victory. A Parks steal led to a Vikings fastbreak, swinging the momentum back toward PV. Ethan Kohler, who had seven points in the game, converted an and-one off a pass from Lapetina to give the Vikings a 41-33 edge with a little more than two minutes to play.

Shortly after coming up with a block on the defensive end, Parks went to the line with 56.3 seconds and PV up 43-36. He missed both shots but came up with the offensive rebound and putback to all but seal the win.

While Parks’ offensive presence was important in a game featuring very few points, his defense from the start — blocking shots in the lane and using his long arms to poke away passes and dribbles — was a major factor in keeping Wissahickon’s offense uncomfortable throughout Saturday’s game.

“It comes with our team,” Parks said of his defense. “Our team is very prideful on defense. We love playing defense. When we go out there and control the pace of the game, defense is a big part of that.”

“We don’t need to score,” he added. “We just need to play great on defense. Honestly, that’s the way we win games. That’s the way PV has won games in the past and that’s the way we’ll continue to win in the future.”

Wissahickon has lost two one-possession games and three others by single digits after Saturday’s loss, which the Trojans had a good opportunity to win until late.

They return to play Jan. 3 with a tough test at Cheltenham and then will have to start reeling off some wins quickly to work their way into the playoff picture.

“It’s just the ability to control possessions and take smart shots,” Williams said of the team’s lack of success in close games.“I feel like once we play down, we start to struggle and start to play against each other instead of with each other. That kind of causes problems and doesn’t allow us to score the way we need to and make the right stops.”

“Being 3-7, we kind of have to get as many wins as we can,” Williams added. “Cheltenham’s obviously tough, so that will probably be a hard game, but besides that we probably have to win out if we want any shot at the playoffs.”

When PV jumps back into Liberty Division action against Boyertown on Jan. 3, the Vikings will do so riding a four-game win streak. Poysden has coached this team with a mindset for the future, hoping to get the best basketball out of his squad in late January and carry that over into next season when all but one player returns.

That doesn’t mean the Vikings feel like they can’t accomplish some things this season, and at the moment there aren’t many teams hotter than PV.

“Our goal is to keep that streak going, of course,” Parks said.