Obarow’s steal, score helps Bears survive
GRATERFORD >> Boyertown’s 2-3 zone defense can lull teams to sleep.
As soon as opponents start finding pockets of space, the Bears’ length inside and athletes on the perimeter collapse for a trap to force a turnover and head the other way.
“We try to tire them out, and eventually they’ll make a bad pass or something, and we’ll get the steal, take it down and build our lead,” Boyertown junior guard Alex Obarow said.
Boyertown’s zone was active throughout and forced three turnovers in the final two minutes of a critical 43-40 win over Pioneer Athletic Conference Liberty rival Perkiomen Valley on Tuesday.
One of them was an Obarow steal with just more than a minute to go. On his team’s next possession, he grabbed the dribble handoff from Aarick Salata in the right corner, took two dribbles to his left and swished a midrange jumper to give Boyertown (5-3 Liberty, 8-4 PAC, 135) a lead with 53.3 seconds left.
The basket proved to be the game-winner as the Bears improved their standing in the PAC playoff picture. They are trying to make their second PAC playoff appearance in 10 years and break a league postseason drought that dates back to the 2014-15 season.
“I like that midrange shot,” Obarow said. “Aarick set me up pretty well with the handoff, and I took the shot and it went in. It was a good team play.”
“We needed this one to say in contention for PAC playoffs,” he added. “It was a big one.”
Tre Diguglielmo led Boyertown with 13 points in the victory. Mason Marinello added 12, which was followed by Obarow’s eight points. Tyler Lapetina had 11 to lead Perkiomen Valley (1-8 Liberty, 4-9 PAC, 7-11), and Aidan Gansz joined him in double figures with 10.
The Bears trailed 40-37 with 3:09 left after consecutive threes from PV’s Lapetina and senior Mike Dougherty. Then came a PV turnover and an Obarow pass to Diguglielmo inside to pull Boyertown within one, 40-39, with 1:23 left in the game.
Obarow’s steal and score were followed by another Perk Valley miscue to give the Bears the ball with 38 seconds to go. Marinello missed the front end of the one-and-one with 25.3 seconds left, giving PV a chance to win the game, but Ethan Kohler’s midrange jumper did not fall.
Diguglielmo grabbed the rebound with 1.4 seconds to go and knocked down two free throws before a PV heave fell well short to finish the game.
“We’re kind of like a foot in the paint defense,” Marinello said. “If we know teams have shooters, we’re going to press out on them, so tonight we kind of pressed out on (Lapetina) because we knew he was a clutch shooter from the 3-point line.”
“We just follow our principles of our 2-3 defense,” Obarow said, “and I got the steal and it ended up in my hands. The rest is history.”
After starting out 0-5, the Vikings turned their season around with a four-game win streak to end 2019. The inexperienced group has shown improvement over the second half of the season, but Tuesday’s defeat was the third close loss in the past eight days following a 64-60 loss to Upper Merion last Tuesday and a buzzerbeater 49-47 loss to Norristown last Thursday.
The Vikings are eliminated from PAC playoff contention, and they entered Tuesday five spots out of the 24-team District 1-6A playoff field at No. 29. PV ends its season with crossover contests against Upper Perkiomen and Pope John Paul II with a non-league game against Pennridge sandwiched between the season finale against Spring-Ford. “We started off the season slow, but we kind of turned it around, got things going a little bit, ” said Dougherty, the team’s lone senior. “Games like this we’ve gotta win.” “We’re going to need to win every game we can,” he added. “Anyone in the game has just gotta play their heart out because the season’s on the line.” Boyertown is tied with Spring-Ford for second in the Liberty Division and holds the fourth best overall mark in the league behind Methacton, Pope John Paul II and the Rams. The Bears have a tough four-game slate to finish off their season as they try to lock down a playoff spot. They’ll face Frontier foes Phoenixville and Pottstown before finishing with division contests against Spring-Ford and Norristown that could determine their postseason fate. Boyertown has embraced the meaningful basketball it is playing down the stretch after three consecutive seasons finishing at the bottom of the Liberty Division. “We had a lot of injuries heading into last year, so our season didn’t pan out as best as we wanted it to,” Marinello said. “But we knew with our top players coming back this year, we would be on top of a lot of teams.” “It’s awesome,” Obarow said. “The last couple seasons haven’t gone our way. It’s fun winning basketball games.”