High school boys basketball: Tale of two halves as Vikings rally from 17-point deficit

Perkiomen Valley head Jim Stinger tries to keep emotions out of his halftime strategy chats, actually it’s one of his rules and a promise he made to his wife.

Friday night, after watching his squad present Pottsgrove with a 15-point halftime lead, Stringer broke his own rule by offering his ideas on what to improve with a heartfelt salvo at a decibel level rivaling a rock concert.

The Vikings got the message, loud and clear.

Perkiomen Valley (4-2 league, 7-4 overall) caused 12 second-half turnovers and shot 70 percent from the field, throughout the last 14 minutes, to snatch a 42-38, much-needed Pac-10 win from the jaws of defeat.

“Coach Stinger told us to play for pride,” said Andrew Kenney, who scored 13 of his game high 19 points in the second half. “We know what we are capable and we played about as bad as we can in that first half; it was horrible.”

“I am glad he cleaned it up,” said Stinger when told of Kenney’s comments. “I’ll apologize somewhere down the line. I tell myself not to get emotional, but in a situation like that I just had to let go. I was very proud of the way our guys responded in a game we absolutely needed to win. When I was younger and single I used to do that a lot, but it has been a while.”

Following two straight Pac-10 losses, the Vikings could ill afford another as hopes of a final four appearance, a goal set prior to the season, were starting to fade to black.

“Hopefully this will give us one momentum,” said Kenney. “We were able to take advantage of them turning the ball over, and fortunately our forwards kept their heads in it and we were able to hit some shots.”

Trailing by 17 points early in the forth quarter, the Vikings got a three pointer from Kenney. That ceremoniously removed the seal that had apparently been placed over the Perk Valley rim in the first half, when the Vikings managed just four field goals.

Kenney’s bomb opened the floodgates as Perk Valley, with some help from the Falcons--who fell to 3-4 in league play and 6-7 overall--outscored Pottsgrove 26-4 in a span of 12 minutes, culminating with Steve Conboy taking a feed from Kenney and promptly depositing the ball into the awaiting twine, knotting the game at 33, then Kenney banging it off the glass from beyond the arc posting the Vikings to a 38-33 lead, bringing the less than capacity crowd, who had fired up their Kindles in the first half, to their feet.

“You never know what you’re going to get from us,” said Falcons head coach Scott Palladino. “Everything we did well in the first half, we reversed in the second. We turned it over too much, missed too many shots, we are like Jekyll and Hyde. This one really hurts, because we had it and gave it away.”

Friday night’s comeback may be the “turning point” of which every successful team seems to have during a season, that make a fan look back and say, “That game made or broke our season.”

In a Pac-10 season that has no clear front runner in either division, the next three weeks will be paramount in determining who will square off in the final four on Feb. 11.

Perkiomen Valley ran through the Liberty division early season gauntlet and emerged in second place, which is where they need to stay to punch their ticket to the big dance.

“This was just a bizarre game,” added Stinger. “The kids and I discussed earlier that we need to stay where we are in the standings, as we play the non-division games, we can’t afford to lose ground. So this was huge for us to get this win.”

Perkiomen Valley 52, Pottsgrove 15 – Perkiomen Valley took care of business, jumping out to a 33-7 halftime lead and never looked back as the lady Vikings improved  to 4-2 in Pac 10 play and 5-7 overall. Mikki Guiton led all scorers with 12 points, while junior Erin Hamm and senior Jessica Boyle posted 10 and 8 points respectively. In all, eight players scored for the Vikings, who are beginning to make noise is the standings winning their third league game of their last four.  

Perk Valley         22 11 11   8   52 Pottsgrove          5   2   6   2 – 15    Perk Valley (52) –  Colleen Smith 4, Ali Zajac 3, Tori Marcavage 6, Mikki Guiton 12 points, Erin Hamm 10, Jessica Boyle 8, Julianna Hisington 2, Sam Pagel 7. Totals 18 13-18 52. Pottsgrove (15) – Brandi Dickinson 5, Marisa Kinneer 4, Sally Abbas 2, Amy Cherico 2, Alexis Kehl 2. Totals 6 0-0 15. 3-point field goals:  Jessica Boyle 2, Ali Zajac, Dickinson

Pottsgrove (38) – Harper 1 1-1 3, Antoine 1 0-0 3, Quigley 1 0-0 2, Stiles 4 0-2 8, Marshall 3 0-0 6, Carter 4 2-2 11, Fowler 1 0-2 2. Totals 16 4-9 38.

Perkiomen Valley (42) – Ragusa 1 0-0 3, Schlichter 1 1-2 3, Kenney 7 2-2 19, Rykaczewski 2 2-2 6, Davis 0 1-2 1, Stewart 1 2-3 4, Conboy 3 0-2 6. Totals 15 8-13 42.

Pottsgrove          16 11   6   5 – 38

Perk Valley         5   7 14 16 – 42

3-point goals: Kenney 3, Antoine, Carter, Ragusa.