Perkiomen Valley comes up big against Boyertown in 58-36 win

GRATERFORD >> Perkiomen Valley’s height advantage will be a major pain for the opposition this winter.

Tuesday night, Boyertown became the latest team calling for the stretcher.

The Vikings’ influential pair of senior forwards, Megan Jonassen and Taylor Hamm, combined for 28 points to lead Perkiomen Valley to a 58-36 win over the defending Pioneer Athletic Conference and PIAA-6A champion Lady Bears.

The win moves Perkiomen Valley to 1-0 in the Pioneer Athletic Conference’s Liberty Division (2-2 overall). Boyertown (0-2 PAC Liberty) drops to 0-5 overall, trying to find its way amid its first five-game losing streak since 2006.

The Vikings had an answer to just about everything the Bears threw their way on the night.

After struggling in the early going against Boyertown’s press-defense, Perk Valley eventually broke loose and broke the game open.

Jonassen scored a game-high 18 points while Hamm added 10 as the pair dominated the paint throughout. Even as the Bears began to cheat inside defensively and were crashing the glass, Perk Valley’s outside game proved lethal off the kick-out as senior guard Alex Blomstrom had 11 points and junior Kelly Owens battled for nine.

“Our height advantage really works for us, because we have the guards who can work the ball at the top of the three,” said Jonassen. “So far, we’ve beat every team inside. Taylor and I are getting good with our chemistry and we’re running the high-low really well.”

By this point, Perk Valley head coach John Strawoet knows what he’s got in the paint. Now the concern is getting his guards to play consistently night in and night out.

“That’s the thing that we’ve been worried about the entire time,” said Strawoet. “Can our guards step up and handle the pressure? They did tonight. Everybody did a great job, not just Meg and Taylor. We came out and executed inside and out.”

Perk Valley never trailed as Jonassen opened up the game with and and-one bucket inside the paint before the Vikings eventually rattled off a 9-0 run late in the quarter.

Boyertown never faded too far, though. The Bears brought it back to 18-17 midway through the second quarter on a layup by Kylie Webb (eight points) but never had enough to pull it even. Perk Valley ended the quarter on a 6-0 advantage, capped by Blomstrom’s hard-fought layup in the paint with less than a minute to go.

“We’ve got some young kids out front and they’re picking up some good experience,” added Strawoet. “(Naiya) Daisey is a freshman, and she’s proving she can beat people off the dribble. Kelly Owens did a great job on Kylie Webb, who is one of their best players. Every game, our kids are picking up good experience. It’s been a real good team effort so far.”

This early in the season and negotiating the turnover from last year’s PAC and state championship run, Boyertown head coach Jason Bieber explains that the team still has plenty of growing to do.

“We’ve got a lot of young kids in there, a lot of kids that don’t have varsity minutes,” he said. “You see in spurts we look good, and then we struggle at times with recognizing some things. So we need to just keep growing as a team.”

Webb and Brynn Schmidt finished with eight points apiece while Jen O’Connor finished with five.

On a night where the Bears couldn’t get much penetration in the paint against Jonassen and Hamm, they found little solace in their outside game. Boyertown shot a collective 1-for-23 from 3-point land, their lone make from O’Connor in the early going of the second quarter.

“We’re struggling to make 40 points yet,” added Bieber, “so there’s a lack of confidence in our shooting right now.”

The bright spot proved to be at the foul line, where Boyertown finished a collective 17-for-23.

Perkiomen Valley turns around with another tough matchup Thursday night as they travel to crosstown rival Spring-Ford. Boyertown, meanwhile, will look to get on the horse as the Lady Bears host Owen J. Roberts.