Phoenixville grinds out win over Pottsgrove

PHOENIXVILLE » Phoenixville and Pottsgrove staged a full-scale war on the boys basketball court Tuesday night.

A nip-and-tuck battle continued from start to finish in the Pioneer Athletic Conference Frontier Division contest.

In the end, Phoenixville squeezed past Pottsgrove, 65-59.

KJ Quinn fired in 22 points and Quinn Danna added 14 to pace the Phantoms.

Mike Ziegler finished with a game-high 30 points for the Falcons and Justin Robinson totaled 18.

“Every conference game is going to be a barnburner,” said Brendan Jenkins, Phoenixville’s 6-foot-6 senior center. “We have to get it done on defense. We struggled a little bit, but no one got down. We felt we could get it done.”

The Phantoms got contributions up and down their lineup.

“We have a lot of confidence,” said Jenkins. “Anyone on the court can make big plays. The third quarter we made big plays.”

“It’s a big dogfight every game,” said Danna. “At halftime we got fired up.”

Pottsgrove led 13-8 at the end of the first quarter and 27-25 at halftime.

Phoenixville was ahead 47-45 after three periods on a Quinn foul shot and then his 3-pointer from the top of the key with 54 seconds showing in the stanza.

The game was deadlocked at 47 on a turnaround jumper by Ziegler. But Colton Brown fed Jenkins for a go-ahead basket at 5:35 to make it 49-47.

Then Jenkins blocked a shot that was rebounded by Steven Hamilton that led to Brown’s driving layup to make it 51-47 with 5:03 left in regulation time.

Pottsgrove came right back on three foul shots by Robinson and a rebound by Jayden Blakey.

The game was tied at 51 and 55. Hamilton’s free throw put the Phantoms up by one, but Ziegler’s drive put the Falcons up 57-56 with 1:26 left.

“We were up one with 1:30 left,” said Pottsgrove coach Jack Flanagan. “Then we didn’t make plays. Hats off to coach Eric (Burnett). They made the plays. They are a real good team and they are very wellcoached. It was one of those games you thought whoever had the ball last would win.”

He said Ziegler “played his heart out on offense and defense. I am proud of the effort. We just had to make one or two more plays.”

Dylan Clark’s basket off an assist by Quinn at 1:09 put the Phantoms in front to stay. Then Jenkins corralled a key rebound that led to two Danna free throws out of a one-and-one with 51 seconds remaining. Clark grabbed a big rebound with 39 seconds left and Quinn got a floor board five seconds later.

Danna’s rebound led to two Quinn free throws that made it 62-57 with 25 seconds left.

“We’ve shown that when we’re making threes, our guards are making threes, then we look inside to Brendan Jenkins and Quinn Danna,” said Burnett. “All our guards get looks from the outside and that helps our shooting percentage.

“It is a credit to Pottsgrove for not quitting. They were able to hurt us by making foul shots and they got a lot of offensive rebounds.”