Boyertown stifles Perkiomen Valley in PAC final rematch

BOYERTOWN >> Perkiomen Valley’s offensive bread-and-butter isn’t all that complicated.

Feed the bigs and let the outside-shot opportunities develop themselves.

On Tuesday night, Perk Valley’s offense looked uncharacteristically stale – thanks in part to a motivated bunch of Bears – during a 55-34 loss against Boyertown in a repeat of the previous two Pioneer Athletic Conference championship games.

Senior guard Alli Marcus paced Boyertown with a game-high 18 points while Abby Kapp — tasked with sticking Jonassen — followed with 12 points and eight boards.

“We were definitely a little bit extra fired up for this one,” said Marcus, “because they took the title from us last year.”

“We’re gonna treat every game like that,” chipped in Kapp. “Every time there’s a team that wants to beat us, we’ve got to come out and get on them right from the start.”

With standout junior forward Taylor Hamm sidelined battling a lower leg injury, the Bears were able to contain forward Megan Jonassen on defense and penetrated the paint throughout most of the win.

“We’re dealing with some injuries,” said PV head coach John Strawoet, “but that’s certainly no excuse for how we played tonight.”

The Bears (1-1 PAC Liberty, 3-2 overall) utilized the press right from the start, forcing PV’s offense into four turnovers during the first three minutes and wearing down the Vikings (1-1, 1-3) as the game drew on.

“We thought we could get after them a little bit and pressure,” said Boyertown head coach Jason Bieber. “It definitely worked for us. Our girls worked really hard and clogged the passing lanes.”

Perk Valley’s offense never quite found an offensive rhythm on their half of the court. With half of their twin towers sidelined and PV still trying to fill the void left by KT Armstrong’s graduation (now playing at Saint Joe’s) last season, Strawoet says the Vikings simply need to regroup.

“We knew we’d be up against their press (defense), and we still didn’t do a good job against it,” he said. “We just didn’t match their intensity.

“They beat us in every phase of the game. We’ve got to move on from this one, regroup and start over again. It’s a long season.”

Junior guard Alex Blomstrom led PV with 11 points while Jonassen and Bridgette Bonjo followed with six points apiece.

Shooters Shoot

Less than a week after their PAC season-opening loss against Methacton where they shot 1-for-24 from 3-point land, Boyertown played much more conservative on offense.

“We came out really flat and got away from our game,” said Bieber of Boyertown’s game against Methacton last Tuesday. “Now we’re back to the way that we know we always can play. This is the team we expect to see the rest of the year.”

The Bears hit 3-of-12 3-point attempts and did plenty of damage at the free-throw line (13-for-15).

It’s two straight strong performances from Boyertown after Saturday’s non-league rout of Gov. Mifflin, last year’s District 3-AAAA runner-up.

Bright Beginnings

Blomstrom, a sharpshooting transfer from Agnes Irwin, finished with a team-high 11 points for Perkiomen Valley. She finished 3-for-7 from beyond the arc, including back-to-back 3-pointers early in the first quarter.

“We’ll have to find ways to get her some more open looks,” said Strawoet. “When you don’t move the ball well and penetrate against a zone (defense), it makes it hard for a shooter to get open.”