Perkiomen's Julian Gentile leaps towards the basket as he takes a shot during the semifinal round of the Tri-County League playoffs last Thursday night  against Mercy Vocational Technical School at Perkiomen.

                Talk about peaking at the right time.

                Perkiomen School’s boys’ basketball team, which has mustered as good as a season as any in Pennsburg, has turned up their play even more in the playoffs.

                The Indians advanced to the semifinal round of the Tri-County League playoffs last Thursday night after an 83-65 home victory over Mercy Vocational Technical School. From there, the team kept up the momentum in the semifinals. The team’s latest win came over Delaware Valley Friends School, 56-44 in a fourth-quarter thriller.

                The semifinal win vaulted Perk into the championship game that was held Wednesday in a game too late for this paper’s deadline. Perkiomen faced off against fellow No. 1 seeded Phelps School. Both teams split their previous two meetings earlier in the year with Phelps winning 62-46 in the opener and Perk getting the best in the second meeting 74-59, albeit without some of Phelps’ starters.

                Sophomore Bruce Brittingham led Perk with 23 points as junior Jesus Colon notched 13 and senior O.C. Hightower finished in double figures with 12.

                Both teams headed into the fourth quarter tied 35-35. But Perkiomen, which has shown it can rally and score quick with the best of teams, went on a 21-9 run in that pivotal fourth quarter to earn a shot in the final.

                And as has been the case all season, Brittingham had a lot to do with it. With Hightower, fellow senior PJ Daniels and Colon notching four points apiece in the opening quarter, Brittingham got into the swing of things in the second. In that frame, Brittingham scored 16 of his team’s 28 second-period points en route to a game-high 23 points.

                That lead at the break only got bigger in the second half. Behind a big quarter from Colon, who scored 20 points, 12 of which came off of four treys, Perk bolted out to a 19-point lead after three quarters. Perk cruised from there, putting up a season-high 83 points.

                “I figured it would be a high scoring game, but not to the extent that it was,” said Perkiomen head coach Mark Longstreth. “I think fatigue was a factor for them, but I thought we moved the ball well and kept up the intensity.”

                Besides the 20-point efforts from Brittingham and Colon, Perkiomen got 19 points from Hightower and 13 from Daniels in a total team effort. Mercy, a team known for its fast-break style, simply couldn’t keep up with Perk’s speed.

                Mercy sure made it interesting in the second quarter, though, taking the lead early in the quarter. The back-and-forth affair continued as the lead traded hands three times until the four-minute mark when Perk went on a seven-point run that snowballed from there.

NOTES:

                Brittingham led his team in rebounding (seven) and steals (four) against Mercy. Hightower pulled down six boards and Colon had five rebounds. Julian Gentile and Charlie Xi both blocked shots, as did Colon.