Panthers playing for D-11 title

It had been a while for Panther Valley. Twenty-eight years to be exact.

The Panthers had not reached the PIAA state playoffs since 1990. They ended that drought with a win over Marian on Tuesday.

It’s been even longer since Panther Valley has won a District 11 boys basketball championship. Thirty-two years to be exact.

The Panthers will have a chance to end that long dryspell Saturday when they dance with top-seeded Moravian Academy in the District 11 Class 2A championship at 6 p.m. at Bethlehem Freedom High School.

“It’s great to be in this position for our kids, the school, and the community,” said Panther Valley head coach Patrick Crampsie. We’ve had great support all year and the hard work has paid off.”

As far as the challenge that Colonial League member Moravian Academy presents, Crampsie said, “Our best is when we’ve been pressing and using our depth, Moravian is tough and we want to play our game, but be ready to adjust as well.

“They can get up and down the court and they have some good ball handlers and that can break it.

The Panthers will have a few obstacles in the way of cutting down the nets.

For starters, they’ll have to contain a few dangerous Lion scorers.

“Jordan Holmqvist (who is averaging over 17 points a game this season) already scored about 1,200 points in his career,” said Crampsie. “He’s a flat-out scorer. He can get to the rim and shoot three’s, he’s very, very tough. We definitely need to focus containing him.

“They also have a good big guy (Peter Chiaradia), who reminds me a little bit of Tristan Blasko’s game. He scores around the basket and can also hit that intermediate jumper.”

Crampsie mentioned that this team has battled adversity all season. They’ll have to overcome a little more tomorrow as leading scorer Rene Figueroa (19.22 ppg.) and fellow starter Allan Perez (6.39 ppg.) will not play.

“It’s an internal matter, but Rene Figueroa and Alan Perez will be unavailable,” Crampsie said. “We’ve been using our depth a lot over the last few weeks so I don’t think chemistry on the court will be an issue.

“We’ve been running guys in and out a lot, and they’re used to different combinations a lot. I still like our mix and I think we have some nice pieces.”

Blake White, Ronnie Distler, and Mark Sanchez, who combine to average about six points per game, will be relied upon for more run and to play larger roles. They’ll join Blasko, Trey Turner, Brandon Stilitino, and Erick Machorro in the rotation.

“We’re going down there to win and there’s no excuses,” said Crampsie. “We have guys that are 100 percent dialed in against Moravian Academy.”

Moravian Academy cruised by fourth-seeded Schuylkill Haven, 65-50, to earn a spot in the title game. Panther Valley won a tight contest against rival Marian Catholic to advance, 52-49.

“This team has completely bought in to playing together and playing with passion, being a family and playing tough,” said Crampsie.

“We’ve talked about that consistently throughout the year.”