Penns Valley boys basketball closes strong to edge Philipsburg-Osceola in playoffs
The quarterfinals of the District 6 Class 3A playoffs featured two familiar opponents in the form of Philipsburg-Osceola and Penns Valley.
Both teams traded blows during the regular season in back-to-back matchups on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. The Rams won the first game 56-45 and the Mounties won the second 56-42. Penns Valley reigned supreme on Tuesday night with a 51-40 victory over their Mountain League rivals to advance to the semifinals.
The game came down to the final three minutes with the teams tied at 40.
Philipsburg-Osceola senior Jeremy Whitehead took a fadeaway jumper on the left wing and it bounced off of the rim. Penns Valley senior Zach Braucht rebounded the ball, driving through the teeth of the defense and laying the ball in for a 42-40 lead with 2:46 remaining. The Rams never looked back, finishing the game on an 11-0 run.
“It means everything to us,” Braucht said. “We wanted to beat these guys more than anyone. We could’ve gone to Mount Union and we think that could’ve been an easier game, but we think that these guys (Philipsburg-Osceola) are a higher quality of opponent. We had to go through them last year, they beat us twice, we split with them this year and we really wanted to beat these guys. We were really hungry to beat these guys.”
Penns Valley is a team that began the season in dire straits. They had five consecutive losses to Jersey Shore, Huntingdon, Tyrone, United and Bellefonte. Their first win came against Hamburg in a 60-21 victory to take control of their year. Now, the Rams are headed to the PIAA 3A state playoffs. The fortitude the team showed early on to dig themselves out was the topic of discussion for head coach Rob Irwin.
“To start the year 0-5, to climb back and finish .500 and to get a win tonight for these guys — I’m just so proud of them,” Irwin said. “It’s just a testament to how hard they’ve worked and their fight to not give up. I’m just so proud of them. All of them — all 15 players.”
Philipsburg-Osceola controlled the game early with five points from Nick Johnson and four from Whitehead as a part of their 14-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. Penns Valley stormed back in the second quarter with Aidan Culver scoring seven points and Logan Crater two buckets of his own to narrow the Mounties’ lead to 25-21.
The Rams continued to creep into the game with a 3-pointer by Braucht and an additional four points scored by Kyle Niewinski to trail 34-32 at the close of the third quarter.
Finally, their moment in the sun came. They played a suffocating defense, only allowing six points in the quarter from Whitehead’s two 3-point buckets and outscored the Mounties 19-6 to finish off the 11-point victory.
TJ Anderson’s Philipsburg-Osceola team battled all season for a 15-8 record. They outscored opponents 1,332 to 1,106 on the year, displaying a tough defense and a fast-paced offense. As the team came down to its waning minutes of the 2021-2022 campaign, Anderson made a defensive adjustment that led him to wins earlier on in the season with the box and one defense to contain Braucht.
“That was my fault,” Anderson said. “We tried to over-coach the game down the stretch. We tried to make some adjustments that didn’t work this time that worked all season. I’ll take that one. Again, I feel bad for our seniors. I hoped that we could send them out the right way, but we’re just trying to turn that corner.”
Penns Valley 51, Philipsburg-Osceola 40
PV (12-11): Braucht 15, Welshans 11, Culver 11, Crater 8, Niewinski 4, Romig 2
PO (15-8): Whitehead 16, Johnson 9, Desimone 6, Harpster 5, Doyle 4
This story was originally published February 22, 2022 at 10:58 PM.
