Boyertown deals Perkiomen Valley first loss of season
BOYERTOWN >> Perkiomen Valley fell from unbeaten status Tuesday night because Boyertown’s defense stood up at a championship level.
That’s goal one of these teams, a PAC-10 title. The Liberty Division clubs came in as the top two in the PAC-10 – Perk Valley 7-0 (14-0 overall), Boyertown 6-1. Boyertown, which had come the closest (eight points) to defeating PV this season, got the job done this time, 47-40, before a large and vocal home crowd, largely because its mix of defenses greatly limited PV star KT Armstrong, who was held to 11 points, about 8 under her average.
“We put a lot of emphasis on defense,” added Kapp. “We get in people’s faces and we feel a lot of people can’t handle that. It leads to our transition offense, and defense is one reason we’ve been so successful.”
“They had a really dynamic zone,” Armstrong said. “Whenever I put the ball down there were two girls on me. They were really long and it was hard to make skip passes when they show you that much length.”
“They played a 2-3 and then an offset 1-3-1,” PV coach John Strawoet said. “And then we made some bad decisions with the basketball, particularly late after we had fought back and gutted it out. I’m proud of my team for getting back in it, but a couple of possessions we came up empty because of bad decisions.”
Strawoet said his team didn’t match Boyertown’s intensity in the early going; it was uphill battle for the Lady Vikings from the first quarter on.
Boyertown (12-3 overall) rocked to a 16-9 first-quarter lead, with impressive Abby Kapp, continuing to establish herself as one of the district’s top players, scoring 11 of her game-high 20 in the first eight minutes. PV could never get the lead over the last three quarters, finally working back to a tie at 37 with 3:21 left in the game on a floater from Hanan Richmond (14 points)
From there, Maria Garofolo, who provided solid support for Kapp with 11 points, defensive help on Armstrong and timely plays, put back a rebound after a Kapp steal to regain the lead for good at 39-37. PV had three turnovers in its next four possessions over the final two minutes, and Kapp, Garofolo and Sarafina Valenti provided important free throws to ice it.
“Boyertown plays great defense,” said Armstrong, who scored only three the first half as PV trailed at the break 25-18. “It’s tough to get baskets.”
“We were ready to go,” Boyertown coach Jason Bieber said. “We just talked about protecting our home court and jumping on them early.
“We knew where KT was in the zone, and Maria (Garofolo) is tall enough and athletic enough to kind of bother KT a little bit.”
Kapp had some foul trouble but dealt with it well and Boyertown showed good depth, getting contributions from nine players.
The Lady Bears built an 11-point lead early in the third quarter and continued to clutter up PV’s half court. It was an eight-point margin after three. Armstrong, Megan Jonassen, and Richmond led the mini-rally but it wouldn’t be quite enough.
