Aaron Tobias sparks Penns Valley boys’ basketball past BEA

Aaron Tobias is looking for his shot more and establishing himself as a much-needed scoring threat for the Penns Valley boys’ basketball team.

It’s paying off for the Rams, who knocked off Bald Eagle Area 52-38 on Friday night behind another productive night from Tobias. The Penns Valley point guard finished with 17 points and sparked his team during a dominant second quarter on its way to building a 13-point halftime lead.

It was his second straight game in double figures, and it was the Rams’ second straight win.

“We need him to score,” Penns Valley coach Terry Glunt said. “If you take a look at the box score last time we played these guys, we were like a one-man team.”

In the first matchup between the Rams and Eagles (4-9) in December, Logan Snyder scored 17 points to pace Penns Valley in a 43-30 loss. Tobias scored just two points that night, and the Rams struggled without other scoring options.

But on Friday night, the Rams were a different team with Tobias and others making plays along with Snyder, who tied Tobias with a team-high 17. Cameron Shaffer and Cole Breon added eight and seven points, respectively. All four scored in the fourth quarter to close out the win for the Rams (5-7).

But it was Tobias who gave his team control with his play in the second quarter.

The Rams point guard scored eight points in the period, including a pair of 3-pointers. After drilling his first shot from beyond the arc, Tobias nodded as he prepared to play on the defensive end. His second 3-pointer pushed Penns Valley ahead 18-11, and the Rams never looked back.

They outscored BEA 20-3 in the second quarter to take a 24-11 lead into halftime.

“I haven’t had my touch in a while, but I felt it a little bit tonight,” Tobias said. “It felt really good.”

The 17-point night followed a 12-point effort in Penns Valley’s 49-47 win over Cambria Heights earlier this week. Glunt said he’s asked his point guard to score more, and Tobias has taken that message to heart.

“I don’t make a federal case out of it, but I do make some polite suggestions,” Glunt said. “We’re going to need it from him. Hey, they left him open. They probably checked box scores. He hasn’t shot 3s and made 3s all year. I think he had one (this season) coming into tonight.”

Tobias burned the Eagles from long range. But he also finished in the paint, getting easy layups off backdoor cuts and driving to the rim.

BEA coach Bill Butterworth said his team focused too much on stopping Snyder.

“We were just losing him,” Butterworth said. “It was like they thought we were playing a box-and-one and chasing Snyder all over the place, and I wasn’t. We were trying to play man-to-man and make everybody else work for their points.”

Tobias also showed off his unique skill set when he wasn’t scoring Friday night.

He took the tip-off for Penns Valley — Tobias is the Rams’ backup center — and showed off his passing ability from the point guard position. He loves getting his teammates involved and seeing them finish easy layups after making a pass. Glunt said he’s “the glue that holds us together.”

Lately, he’s been a threat to score, too.

“He’s just growing like the whole team is,” Glunt said. “Where we were at the beginning of the year, we have a lot more fight in us now. We’re understanding what it takes to win these games. We’re finishing.”

This story was originally published January 19, 2018 at 11:00 PM with the headline "Aaron Tobias sparks Penns Valley boys’ basketball past BEA."