Let’s be frank, without Markus Frank and Adou Thiero, few outside of the Quaker Valley basketball program expected the Quakers to be very good this season.
“Worst Quaker Valley team in years” is among the lines longtime coach Mike Mastroianni remembers hearing.
Quaker Valley’s winning ways, yeah, it looked as if it might be time to bid adieu to those this winter. Thiero now now plays at Kentucky and Frank at Shippensburg. They were among the four starters Quaker Valley lost from last year’s magical ride that saw the Quakers win the WPIAL Class 4A championship with an undefeated record before going on to advance to the PIAA title game.
“I think what’s helped us is that the expectations were really low,” Mastroianni said. “There was a lot of talk about all the guys we were losing instead of the guys that were coming back.”
Well, guess what? Quaker Valley is back. And in all actuality, the Quakers never left in the first place.
First place? Yeah, Quaker Valley is going to finish at the top of its section again this season, this after claiming a 46-43 win against visiting South Allegheny Tuesday in a game in which the winner was guaranteed at least a split of the Class 4A Section 4 title.
By avenging its lone section loss, Quaker Valley improved to 14-5 overall and 8-1 in section play, while South Allegheny fell to 16-4 overall and 7-2 in section. Each team will play its final section game Friday: Quaker Valley plays at Montour (4-5 in section) and South Allegheny plays host to East Allegheny (1-8).
Unlike last season when Frank averaged 28 points a game and Thiero 23, there are no big scorers on this Quaker Valley team. Junior Joey Coyle, the team’s sixth man last season, scored 14 points Tuesday and is averaging a team-high 17 this season.
“In the summer, we weren’t that good and everybody said we were going to suck,” Coyle said. “We just used that as fuel. We just want to prove everybody wrong. We know what we are and we know what we can do.”
Tuesday, Quaker Valley beat a talented South Allegheny team whose only previous losses were to Class 6A New Castle (in two overtimes), section rival Avonworth (by five points) and Class 4A Laurel Highlands (by one point). When the Gladiators played host Jan. 13 to Quaker Valley, they raced to an 18-1 first-quarter lead before coasting to a 68-42 win.
“We’re a much better team than we were then,” said Mastroianni, whose latest victory was the 570th of his storied career. “We’ve figured out a style of play to be successful. Our defense continues to improve. Our defense half court has gotten really good and we have sort of figured it out on offense.”
Quaker Valley won Tuesday despite losing second-leading scorer Troy Kozar (11.3 ppg) to an ankle injury less than three minutes into the second quarter. Kozar was on crutches after the game.
The Quakers didn’t have a Thiero nor a Frank, but they did have a Jordan, and that was huge. Senior guard Noah Jordan came up big Tuesday. With the score tied, 36-36, midway through the fourth, Jordan connected on 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to put the Quakers ahead, 42-36. He scored 10 of his team-high 17 points in the fourth. It was the sixth game in a row in which Jordan scored in double figures.
“His contributions the entire season have been really good,” Coyle said. “He started off a little rough, but he’s been one of our best scorers, if not our best scorer, the past few games. He’s been shooting the ball at a very high percentage and he’s an amazing defender.”
But with Bryce Epps, the program’s all-time leading scorer, on its side, South Allegheny is always within striking distance. Epps scored 7 of his game-high 22 points in the fourth for the Gladiators, who pulled within 44-43 on Jeston Beatty’s steal and layup with 1:21 remaining. Dan Bartels, Quaker Valley’s only returning starter from last season, then was fouled with 1:03 left. He missed the front end of a 1-and-1, but teammate Dana Kromah grabbed the rebound and the Quakers called timeout. Jordan then extended the lead to three after Bartels found him with a nice pass with 39 seconds left. Epps, who sank four 3-pointers in the game, had several chances to tie the score in the final 30 seconds, but could not convert.
Beatty (11 points) was the only other player to score in double figures for South Allegheny, which was held to its lowest point total this season. Its previous low was 48 in a win against Blackhawk. All four of South Allegheny’s losses have come in its past seven games.
“You’re not going to stop a player like Epps,” Mastroianni said. “He’s such an outstanding player, but we thought that if we could contain some of their other guys that we could keep the score at the right place.”
Quaker Valley continues to lean on its defense. The Quakers give up just 47.4 points per game, which ranks fourth in Class 4A. They have surrendered only 42.4 a game in what is now a five-game win streak. A season ago, the Quakers gave up 51.3 per game.
This Quakers team might not have any big names (outside of its highly successful coach) and it doesn’t have anybody averaging gaudy numbers, but this bunch plays together, plays hard and plays well. And they could just play their way to another long postseason run.
“What I say is, ‘Hungry dogs run faster,’” Coyle said. “We’re starving for this. We’re going to prove everybody wrong. We’re going to make a deep run.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.