Great Valley boys basketball team defeats Harriton

By Peter DiGiovannipdgiovanni07@gmail.com

EAST WHITELAND – Monday night at Great Valley High School, the host Patriots boys basketball team shook off a tough first period and roared back to down Harriton, 49-37, in nonleague action.

Great Valley (7-1) only scored three points in the first period and trailed the Rams (2-4) by nine points after the first period. But, some hot 3-point shooting from Henry Person, who had a game-high 19 points and Noah Metrick, who added eight points, fueled the Patriots rally. Great Valley also turned up the defensive pressure, holding the Rams to just 25 points over the last three periods.

“We lost on Saturday and we came out slow today,” Person said. “But we really picked up the energy after the first period and started hitting shots. And Noah came in and hit a couple of big shots. He is a real good shooter and we needed him tonight.”

The Patriots shot 10 for 22 from three point land and when Metrick threw in a buzzer beater at the end of the second period, the Patriots trailed the Rams by only three points, 21-18, at halftime.

Great Valley came out on fire in the third period, shooting 7-for-14 from the field and outscoring the Rams 19-7 to take a 37-28 lead after three periods. Person, Metrick and Aaarton Levine all drained 3-pointers for the Patriots in the third period.

Meanwhile, the Rams shot just 2-for-8 from the field in the third period, scoring just seven points in the period. The Rams also turned the ball over 13 times for the game, while the Patriots only committed four miscues.

Chris Woodard took a nice feed from Metrick to throw down a slam dunk and the Patriots led 41-31 with 4:34 left in the fourth period. Aaron Levine then scored in tight, got fouled, and he hit the free throw and the Patriots lead was up to 44-31.

The Rams, who were led by Henry Belcher with 10 points, could not cut into the Patriots lead, as they missed on eight of their first nine shots in the fourth period

“They ramped up their defense after the first period and we had some turnovers,” Rams coach Alex Shippen said. “We started to turn the ball over and they were able to capitalize on them, and then they started hitting shots and we were up against it.”

Person, who hit five 3-pointers for the game, drilled a long corner 3-ball with 2:20 left into fourth period to give the Patriots a commanding 47-31 lead. The Rams shot just 3-for-13 in the fourth period, derailing any comeback hopes they might have had.

“That was a tough first period,” Patriots coach C.J. Savage said. “We turned up the energy after that. We got some big shots from Henry, and Noah came in and did a good job for us. And teams see that we are winning games and have a good record, and they are giving us their best shot.

“We have to match that intensity and we have a lot of goals and expectations this year and the guys are working hard. We are a hard team to defend because everybody is contributing for us.”

Great Valley 49, Harriton 37.

HARRITON (37) Belcher 3 3-5 10, Nubick 1 2-2 5, Wurtzel 3 0-0 8, Chadkowski 1 2-2 4, Klein 1 2-2 4, Spatz 1 2-2 4, Shaw 1 0-0 2. Totals 11 11-13 37.

GREAT VALLEY (49) Woodard 3 0-0 7, Markowski 0 0-0 0, Mack 0 0-0 0, Person 7 0-0 19, Metrick 3 0-0 8, Benson 2 0-0 4, Levine 3 1-1 9, Sharma 1 0-0 2, Alexander 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 1-1 49.

Harriton            12 9 7 9-37Great Valley      3 15 19 12-493-point goals: Belcher, Nubick, Wurtzel 2, Person 5, Woodard, Metrick 2, Levine 2.