ORWIGSBURG — Travis Blankenhorn picked a great time to turn in his best offensive game of the postseason.
It was just one of the many things that went right for Pottsville in its PIAA Class AAA boys’ basketball playoff opener Friday.
Blankenhorn poured in a game-high 28 points and Eli Nabholz added 16 to back a solid defensive night in the Crimson Tide’s 63-37 victory over Valley View at Blue Mountain High School.
Blankenhorn finished two points shy of his season-high of 30 points scored against Williamsport on Jan. 5. The 6-foot-2 forward had 10 field goals and was 7-for-8 from the foul line.
Blankenhorn had only one 3-pointer, instead opting to take the ball aggressively to the hoop. His night also included a trio of three-point plays, while he missed a free throw on another that would have given him four.
“I think their kids were a little smaller,” Blankenhorn said. “I tried to go inside and post up and see if my teammates could give me a lob pass or score a layup.”
Blankenhorn was especially big early in the fourth quarter, when he scored the Crimson Tide’s first seven points to turn a 43-32 Pottsville lead into a 50-34 advantage and finally put the game away.
The District 11 champion Crimson Tide (28-0) remained perfect on the season with the win and advance to the second round of states for the second consecutive year. Next up is a rematch with Susquehanna Township (21-6), the third-place finisher out of District 3.
Susquehanna Township beat District 1 runner-up Glen Mills 73-53 in a first-round game Friday. The Indians knocked the Crimson Tide out of the state playoffs in second round last year.
“It’s a great feeling to win a state game,” Blankenhorn said. “We do it as a team as always and we hope to keep going.”
Nabholz scored nine of his points in the first quarter as Pottsville opened the game on a 15-3 run and led 15-5 after one quarter. The Crimson Tide were up 30-18 at halftime and 43-32 after three frames.
“It is just doing what we always do,” Nabholz said of the Friday’s quick start. “We move the ball, set a lot of ball screens throughout the game. We try to work a lot inside-out. It pretty much doing what we always do.”
Alec Rodway led Valley View (15-12), the third-place finisher out of District 2, with 16 points. Rodway scored 11 of those in the third quarter as Cougars hung around but were never able to cut the deficit to single digits.
Valley View couldn’t overcome its slow start as it was 2-of-12 from the floor in the first quarter against Pottsville’s tough man-to-man defense.
“We got off to a slow start and against a team like that, you are not just putting ourself into a hole, but making it hard to battle back,” Cougars coach Mike Kurpis said. “I don’t know if it was the big stage that got to us, or their intense, man-to-man pressure, which really takes you out of what you want to do. I will give them the credit for that.
“They have five guys that overplay, their help defense is tremendous and they rebound the heck out of the ball.”
The Crimson Tide forced 13 Valley View turnovers and held the Cougars to 13-of-39 (33 percent) from the floor in the game. Pottsville’s defense was especially strong in the fourth quarter, when the Crimson Tide held Valley View to 0-of-7 from the floor.
“I was disappointed in some of the things we were doing defensively,” Pottsville coach Dave Mullaney said. “But to hold a team as good as Valley View to 37, you have to be happy with that. Overall, the effort must have been there. Maybe some of the design or game-plan wasn’t great, but our guys came through.”
Pottsville finished the night hitting 18-of-40 (45 percent). The Crimson Tide felt they had an advantage inside and pushed the ball down low the entire game.
Nabholz scored Pottsville’s first points of the night on a 3-pointer, while Blankenhorn followed with a 3-point play off a baseline drive. After Rodway knocked down a 3-pointer from the wing, Nabholz scored on back-to-back layups on a cut inside and then hit two foul shots to make it 12-3 at 3:09.
Blankenhorn hit 1-of-2 from the free-throw line after he was fouled after an offensive rebound, and then made it 15-3, going coast-to-coast after a defensive rebound.
Pottsville led 22-9 with 4:47 left in the first half when Christian Witman hit 1-of-2 from the line. But the Cougars got the deficit down to 30-18 after Rodway knocked down a 3 with 1:36 remaining in the first half.
Game Summary
PIAA Class AAA Boys’ First Round
At Blue Mountain High School
VALLEY VIEW (37) — Rodway 5 4-8 16, Homish 1 1-2 3, Gallagher 3 0-0 8, Cruz 1 1-2 3, Halloran 3 1-2 7, Thomas 0 0-0 0, Ziminskas 0 0-0 0, Peters 0 0-0 0, Bailleau 0 0-0 0, Cwalinski 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 7-14 37.
POTTSVILLE (63) — Hinchliffe 0 4-4 4, Painter 0 2-2 2, Blankenhorn 10 7-8 28, Thomas 1 0-0 2, Melochick 2 1-3 6, Shuman 0 0-0 0, Witman 1 3-4 5, Abdo 0 0-0 0, Nabholz 4 6-7 16, Coyle 0 0-0 0, Renninger 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 23-28 63.
VV (15-12) 5 13 14 5 — 37 Pot (28-0) 15 15 13 20 — 63
3-point FGs: Rodway 2, Gallagher 2, Blankehnorn, Melochick, Nabholz 2