Boys Basketball: Ridley turns it on late to top Perkiomen Valley

RIDLEY >> Two consecutive slow starts, two consecutive blazing finishes. Not quite what Ridley may have drawn up, but hey, it’s working. Julian Wing and Ryan Bollinger sparked another fourth quarter surge while Ridley’s defensive pressure turned it up in the waning moments as the Green Raiders overcame a pedestrian first three quarters to pull away from visiting Perkiomen Valley with a 45-31 victory in the District 1-AAAA second round Tuesday night.

Wing finished with a game-high 21 points, 15 in a tide-turning fourth quarter while Bollinger added 14, including two critical 3-pointers that sparked an 18-3 run to close out the game that earns the Green Raiders a PIAA berth. Ridley, which topped North Penn by a narrow 51-49 margin in the opening round, will host Spring-Ford Friday night, a win securing the team’s second consecutive district semifinal appearance.

“We seem to play in runs, we go in a little bit of a slump and then we have a run and then another little slump and then another run,” Ridley head coach Mike Snyder said. “It’s been like that the whole year. I was just hoping that we had another run in us and that we could get some stops.”

Perkiomen Valley’s Justin Jaworski finished with a team-high 12 points in the loss, which pits the Vikings against Pennridge in the district 9-10 playback round Friday night at Pennridge. The 12 points is the least for the Viking junior since he scored 13 in a 39-36 loss to Methacton nearly a month ago. That was due in large part to a swarming man-to-man defense executed by Ridley that left Brett Foster (eight points) in the shooter’s face the majority of the night.

“Our goal was to keep him (Jaworski) under 15, that was our goal for the game, which we did,” Snyder said. “We knew he could score from all over the place.” “Last game against North Penn we didn’t play good team defense,” Bollinger said. “This game we wanted to focus on team defense, key in on their shooters and not let them get open looks.”

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