Senior quartet keys Sun Valley victory in district opener

Aston >> Sun Valley’s four senior starters stood tall in the Vanguards’ 82-65 win against No. 11 seed Phoenixville in the opening round of the PIAA District 1 5A boys basketball tournament Thursday evening.

Vinny Deangelo lit up the scoreboard with 31 points, and fellow seniors Isaac Kennon and Marvin Freeman chipped in with 14 each. The trio was tough on the boards Thursday night, too.

“DeAngelo, Freeman and Kennon have been our top rebounders for the last three years, but our unsung rebounding hero is [senior] Lance Stone,” said Sun Valley head coach Steve Maloney. “He’s barely 6-foot, and he pulled down some big ones in the second half tonight.”

Sun Valley (16-7) maintained a small lead against Phoenixville (11-12) most of the night, then exploded for 31 points in the final quarter.

“We’ve scored the ball pretty well this season, but we spent the last two weeks working on defensive assignments,” said Maloney. “I thought our defense was good tonight. Dom Valente had a good defensive game, he’s taken about 20 charges for us this year.”

With Deangelo and Kennon (nine first-quarter points) leading the way, the Vanguards got off to a 21-10 lead at the end of the first period.

Phoenixville converted 11 treys Thursday night, and began to hit from the outside late in the second quarter, cutting the Vanguards’ lead to 34-29 by halftime.

“At the end of the first half, we gave up a couple of uncontested shots, but our defense was solid tonight for the rest of the game,” said Maloney.

In the third quarter, Valente found a favorite shooting spot in the left corner, from where he hit a trio of treys. He added a fourth trey midway through the fourth quarter to give the hosts a 65-54 lead. Meanwhile, Deangelo kept driving inside for scores.

“My teammates were making shots when I passed them the ball, and that kind of opened things up for me,” said Deangelo, who is averaging more than 22 ppg this season. “Phoenixville was playing up-pace, and I thrive off that. When they were playing full court defense, I was getting to the basket when I had odd man breaks.

“We got off to a good start in the first quarter, and all of our starters have three years of varsity experience, so I don’t think our confidence ever wavered tonight, we were calm, cool and collected.”

With the win, the sixth-seeded Vanguards (16-7) will head to Unionville to play the No. 3 seed Indians in the second round.

“It will be important for us to handle the crowd up there – Unionville has a good student section,” said Maloney. “Just like tonight, we’ll try to pride ourselves on defense, and see where we’re at in the fourth quarter.”

For Phoenixville, the loss meant the end of the season.

“This has been a fun season – we had five seniors who really played with their hearts out, and we would have never made it this far without them,” said Phoenixville head coach Eric Burnett. “If there’s anything we learned from this season, it was the leadership those seniors provided us with. And we have a good young core coming back.”
One of those underclassmen is sophomore Mike Memmo, who started his first game Thursday, and finished with 14 points, including four treys. Phoenixville converted 11 treys on the night.
“We had a couple of times when we were down by 11 points early, and we could have caved in, but we kept coming back,” said Burnett. “Rebounding has been our Achilles heel all season, we have maybe two guys over six foot. We try to play with passion and grit and go as far as we can with that.”

Sun Valley 82, Phoenixville 65

Phoenixville     10    19    16    20    –       65

Sun Valley       21    13    17    31    –       82

Phoenixville (65): Weiah 1 1-2 3, Johnson 2 1-2 6, Palcko 2 2-5 8, Allain 2 0-0 6, Memmo 5 2-2 14, Hamilton 1 4-4 6, Quinn 3 0-0 7, Clark 3 6-8 13, Totals 19 16-23 65.

Sun Valley (82): Fisher 0 2-2 2, Valente 4 0-0 12, Stone 2 5-5 9, Giankopolis 0 0-0 0, DeAngelo 11 8-10 31, Kennon 6 1-2 14, Freeman 4 4-4 14, Totals 27 20-24 82.

Three-point field goals: Phoenixville – Johnson, Palcko 2, Allain 2, Memmo 4, Quinn, Clark; Sun Valley – Valente 4, DeAngelo, Kennon, Freeman 2.