PIAA Class 6A Boys Basketball: Spring-Ford’s active zone defense keeps Springfield at bay

NORRISTOWN — Spring-Ford did not have the District 1 Class 6A tournament it had anticipated this year.

A state semifinalist last year with most of its squad back, winner of 17 games in the regular season and the third seed from district – a quarterfinal exit was not what a team harboring title aspirations had hoped for.

The results in states are better, if the basketball remains laborious given the Rams’ talent.

Against a Springfield team that had battled tooth and nail in de facto elimination games since the end of January, Spring-Ford rode the brake pedal in neutral to a 45-32 win in a PIAA Class 6A quarterfinal game at Norristown High School Wednesday night.

Springfield (14-15) stuck within single digits until early in the fourth quarter despite not scoring in double figures in any quarter until the fourth. Spring-Ford got zero made field goals from Jacob Nguyen, one of two Rams with Division I offers, and Springfield hustled to the tune of 15 offensive rebounds out of sheer determination.

Spring-Ford’s length and an active zone defense held the Cougars to just 5-for-21 in the first half, 12-for-42 on the day. But Springfield dictated pace until two second-half runs helped the Rams attain separation.

“They’re very long and they play a lot of different zones, they mix it up,” Springfield forward Ryan Johnston said. “They don’t sit in man or in one zone. It kind of throws the other team off. You don’t know what team you’re going to go up against on every possession.”

The Cougars have faced long odds the entire postseason but persevered at every turn. It was the last team in the District 1 field, the 24th seed. By Wednesday, it was among 16 teams state-wide not to have collected the jerseys yet. Their districts wins brought them into contact with seeds 9, 8, 1, 5 and 7 in the district. Third-seeded Spring-Ford completed some kind of underdog bingo, even if as the District 1 eighth seed they wore home white Wednesday against the ninth seed.

“Any game we went from districts on, it kind of felt we were the underdogs,” Johnston said, “even if we were the higher seed in the game.”

Spring-Ford lost to Plymouth Whitemarsh in the District 1 final last year and to Reading in a state semifinal, and is one round short of that point this year. There was no doubt that Springfield would battle. Eight first-half offensive rebounds kept them in touch, and a talented Spring-Ford offense prone to blinking out for long stretches didn’t punish them.

Part of that was Nguyen shooting 0-for-7, all eight of his points at the free throw line. Tommy Kelly was stuck in foul trouble early.

Springfield made the Rams work, with long, deliberate and physically taxing possessions. Matt Zollers bailed Spring-Ford out with a pair of massive 3-pointers on a night when any jump shot made was worth its weight in gold. He finished with 11 points. EJ Campbell led the way with 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Springfield resisted the Rams’ first run, going down 11 at 4:57 of the third but answering with six straight points. A Zollers and-1 and a Kelly deuce made it 31-21 after three quarters. The back-breaker was a second-chance basket by Kelly, who had four points, to make it 37-23 with six minutes to play.

Colin Treude led Springfield with 11 points, eight rebounds and three assists. Johnston bullied his way to eight points.

“It was fun,” Johnston said. “Starting from Abington (in the districts opener) to now, even this game, it was a fun game to play. Obviously Springfield has had a tough couple of years recently, but bringing a winning culture is going to help for years to come.”