PAYING BACK PENNRIDGE
Jeff Woodward is a bit of a Methacton basketball historian — at least when it comes to the program’s recent decade of success.
The senior forward has followed the program closely, becoming particularly invested as he watched his brother and the 2015 team advance to the District 1 quarterfinals and win the program’s first state playoff game.
It was fitting that several members from that historic 2015 group, dubbed the ‘Fab Five’ by Woodward, sat behind the Warriors’ bench Friday night as the senior big man and top-seeded Methacton defeated eighth-seeded Pennridge, 69-46, in the District 1-6A Methacton 69, Pennridge 46 Up next for Methacton: The Warriors will face Chester in the District 1-6A semifinals at Temple on Tuesday night.
Up next for Pennridge: The Rams will visit Lower Merion in a District 1-6A playback contest on Tuesday night. quarterfinals.
Once a fan in the stands, Woodward, who finished with a teamhigh 16 points and 21 rebounds, drew admiration from his former role models as he helped Methacton clinch the program’s first ever spot in the district semifinals.
“It’s a little wild,” Woodward said. “Those are the guys I grew up watching... Tuesdays, Fridays, Wednesdays whatever, I would come out and watch Methacton
basketball games...To see them in the crowd, not just tonight, but throughout the season last year and throughout the season this year, it’s really showing how much of a good culture we have at Methacton.”
Pennridge’s Trent Fisher led all scorers with 18 points, including 14 in the first half. For Methacton, Brett Eberly scored 15 and senior Erik Timko netted 13 points, reaching the 1,000-point milestone in his career on his final 3-point make of the night.
The Warriors will face third-seeded Chester (54-46 winners over fourth-seeded Lower Merion) on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Temple University, hoping to continue their historic district playoff run all the way to the championship game. Pennridge, a district semifinalist last season, will face the Aces at Lower Merion on Tuesday for state playoff seeding.
“We wanted to go to Temple,” Eberly said. “It’s never been done at Methacton. It was exciting. I think it was better than our threepeat (in the Pioneer Athletic Conference). Erik had 1,000 points, he said, ‘I don’t care if I don’t get it. I want to go to Temple.’ That’s what we were looking for, and that’s how we played.”
ENERGIZER EBERLY » Helped by 14-first half points for Fisher, who hit four threes, Pennridge led 16-13 after one quarter and went into halftime within one possession, trailing 26-23.
Pennridge cut Methacton’s lead to one, 3332, with 3:35 to go in the third quarter on a bucket by Fisher, but Eberly, who ended the first half with a floater to beat the buzzer, drilled three triples in the third to give the Warriors a 44-37 lead heading to the fourth.
“He really brought a lot of energy,” Timko said of Eberly.
Eberly became a distributor in the final period. He had a hockey assist on a Timko corner three to put the Warriors ahead 49-37 with 6:34 to play. Eberly later found sophomore Cole Hargrove for a corner three and the next time down found Hargrove again, this time down low, to put Methacton in front 58-41 with just four minutes to play.
“I knew sooner or later we were going to hit shots because we never shoot like that,” Eberly said. “Once I hit my first shot, I went into the huddle after a timeout and said, ‘This is our court. We need to settle down and own this game, make ourselves go to Temple.’ After that we just had our own tempo. We made the pace, and made them play our ball. That’s how I think we got the win.”
THREES PLEASE » After hitting five threes in the first half, Pennridge made four threes in the second half, including a last-second shot by Paul Croyle (eight points) at the end of the third to cut Methacton’s lead to single digits heading into the fourth. Christian Guldin, who finished with seven, also had five points in the third.
The Rams’ success from deep paled in comparison to the sharpshooting of the Warriors in the second half. Methacton, which went 3-for-9 from deep in the first half, caught fire in the final two quarters, knocking down eight threes from five different players.
“At the end of the third quarter, beginning of the fourth quarter they shot, I mean wow,” Pennridge coach Dean Behrens said. “Woodward is so big, and I thought the officials were letting him camp in the lane, and he’s so big you just can’t get him out of there... Then he was able to kick it out, and they hit great shots.”
“Hargrove hits a three, and I was like. ‘Oh boy,’” Behrens added.
The biggest Warriors’ three of the game came from Timko with 2:51 to play. Not only did the shot wrap up the victory by putting Methacton ahead 6341, but it also gave the senior 1,000 points for his career, all of which came over the past two seasons.
Methacton coach Jeff Derstine called a timeout after Timko hit the milestone to give his senior a chance to celebrate with his teammates.
“It was special being able to absorb it and realize what I’ve done,” Timko said. “I couldn’t have done it without my teammates. Over the past four years they’ve been so supportive of me and confident in my ability and helped me drive and work hard everyday.” HIGH-FLYING HARGROVE »
Hargrove finished with 10 points for the Warriors, his second-highest scoring total this season, and he was also a factor on the defensive end, tallying quite a few blocks and tough rebounds.
Hargrove’s dunk off a designed play in the thirdquarter helped ignite the Warriors’ student section and their blistering run down the stretch.
“That kid has grown up so much, not just since last year, but throughout the season this year,” Woodward said. “He’s been able to dunk since last year, but he refused to dunk in practice. We tried everything we could, we incentivised with money to dunk in practice, everything we could.
To come out and dunk here, that dunk changed everything in that game. That really was just a spark that changed the game.” PACKED HOUSE » The bleachers at Methacton were nearly full with about 40 minutes until tip-off on Friday as Methacton students filled up about a fourth of the bleachers and Pennridge brought a large student contingent of its own. Many fans who wanted to buy a ticket at the door were denied entrance as the gym was at capacity well before tip-off and filled in with nearly 1,000 spectators.
“It was a great atmosphere wasn’t it?” Behrens said. “I thought it was tremendous atmosphere. We were excited to play here. Obviously they were excited. Both teams had the opportunity to go to Temple. You can’t beat that right? It’s really cool.
“I was so fortunate last year I got the opportunity to do that, and I’m happy for coach Derstine and his staff for getting the opportunity to go to Temple.”
FAMILIAR FOES » The two teams met in last year’s PIAA Class 6A quarterfinals with Pennridge ending Methacton’s season on a buzzer beater before advancing to the state championship game. Woodward admitted that fact was not lost upon him and his teammates.
“I want to say no, but yea it definitely was,” Woodward said of having last year’s game on his mind. “We all knew, especially the four seniors, what happened last year.”