No. 1 seed Quaker Valley holds off Valley to reach WPIAL semifinals

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, February 24, 2018 | 8:06 PM

After falling behind early, Valley stayed within striking distance of top-seeded Quaker Valley, eventually dropping a 53-47 decision in a WPIAL Class 4A boys basketball quarterfinal at Geneva College.

Though the Quakers (22-0) stormed out to a 10-0 lead, the Vikings were able to hang in after that, even taking a brief lead in the second quarter.

Following football and soccer titles in the fall, however, Quaker Valley would like to add basketball gold to this school year's accomplishments.

The Quakers stayed undefeated with a strong defense and used of their height advantage.

Valley (14-5) was outrebounded and rarely got any second-chance baskets.

“I was moved by our effort today,” Vikings coach Mark Faulx said. “You don't want to celebrate losing, but my goodness, I don't think I've ever seen our guys play that hard. We're going to ride home sad but also pretty proud of one another after playing so hard.”

The Vikings can't get too downhearted. After all, a Quaker Valley win Tuesday against Indiana would put Valley into the PIAA playoffs, which begin March 9.

Most coaches would be happy jumping to a 10-0 start after a 12-day layoff, but Quaker Valley coach Mike Mastroianni felt otherwise.

“Actually, we talked about being off for a while and getting off to that great start worked in reverse,” he said. “We probably thought everything was OK. But you have to be ready, we almost had a similar situation last year.”

The Quakers knocked off South Fayette, 56-44, in last year's quarterfinals.

After missing their first five shots of the game, the Vikings collected themselves and scored nine unanswered points to get back into the game.

Roman Flenory's jumper with 3 minutes, 58 seconds left in the second quarter gave Valley a 17-16 lead.

But a steal and basket by Danny Conlin gave the Quakers a lead they never relinquished.

The Vikings trailed 23-19 at the half, but could never get into a shooting groove, particularly from the outside. Deonte Ross scored eight points in the first half, mostly on drives.

Ryan Stowers, who led Quaker Valley with 18 points, scored five in the first 68 seconds of the third quarter to put the Quakers in the driver's seat.

Getting just one try at the basket caught up with Valley. Quaker Valley had four starters taller than Valley's tallest starter.

“I thought we did a good job containing them,” Mastroianni said. “We needed the extra possessions today because I thought they did a good job of dictating the tempo.”

The Vikings got to within five twice in the fourth quarter, but turnovers on four of five Vikings possessions down the stretch allowed the Quakers to move on.

“We kind of treated it like it was going to be a heavyweight fight,” Faulx said. “We knew we were the underdog, but we thought if we could stay in it, and at the end we hoped we could throw a knockout punch.”

Ross finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out with 1:21 to go.

Dru Stokes scored 11 points, though Quaker Valley limited the Vikings' top scorer to one first-half field goal.

Coltrane Washington, a Drexel recruit, and Conlin scored 10 each for the Quakers.

George Guido is a freelance writer.

Tags: Quaker Valley, Valley