On Friday night, CB East senior Anna Barry surpassed the 1,000-point mark (Photos provided by CB East girls' BB)
#1 PERKIOMEN VALLEY 54, #8 CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 25
It was a mixed bag for Anna Barry and her East teammates Friday night.
The Patriots faced the daunting task of taking on the district’s top team on their home court. They also knew that Barry was just four points away from the 1,000-point milestone.
And while the Vikings did what they’ve done to every team before them except one (their only loss in 26 games was to Gill St. Bernard’s School back in December), Barry did score her milestone basket, connecting on the second of two foul shots in the fourth quarter.
It turns out that it’s not only next to impossible to keep the top-seeded Vikings from scoring, it’s also difficult to score against them.
“They’re all super, super long,” said Barry. They can give you a step and still are able to block your shot, especially Grace Galbavy – she’s really long. It’s crazy that they’re all just juniors mostly. I can’t see anybody beating them.”
Barry reached the milestone on her sixth of six foul shots in the game, and even foul shots didn’t come easily Friday for the always reliable foul shooter.
“In the first half, I had four, and I made the first three and then I missed the last one,” Barry said. “Then I drove to the basket in the fourth quarter, and I got fouled. I missed the first one and then made the second one. I was just like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to get this.’”
Reaching the milestone was always secondary to the Patriots’ point guard, who needed four points and scored four points to put her name in the program’s record books.
“When you look back at her career, her freshman year – we won the league, it was the COVID year, it was a shortened season, and she had a big role for us off the bench, but she played maybe 10 minutes a game,” East coach Liz Potash said. “I looked it up. She scored 57 points her freshman year – that’s it, so this is a kid who as soon as she was a sophomore, she played pretty much 32 minutes a game for me for the next three years.
“Every team defended her so tough especially her sophomore and junior year because there weren’t a lot of shooters around her. This year she actually has a little bit more space because with Nat (Berndt), Jess (Lockwood) and Syd (Ralph), people have to play kids differently. It’s amazing to me how she has expanded her game from someone who could come in and hit some 3s to having to be our point guard and pretty much do everything we need her to do and be so selfless and so team oriented. It’s incredibly special.”
And special is what Friday night turned out to be for Barry despite the outcome.
“It’s just really great,” the East senior said. ”I’m super grateful for all of my support with my team, my coaches and my family and my friends.
“My friends drove out there to watch me play, and it’s a pretty long hike, and they came to watch it. I’m really grateful for all the support. It just feels really great.”
Barry also had high praise for the Vikings.
“They’re just a special team,” Barry said. “It’s really rare to have a team that has all five players that can (shoot), and you can’t really help off one because they all can hit shots, they all can drive, and then they have that big girl in the middle. They’re just a really well-rounded team.
“So, we knew there wasn’t going to be someone who you could just sit off and help right away, so everyone had to be on their best game. I feel like to win against a team like that – you have to catch them on an off day, and you have to have your best day. We knew going into it that it was going to be a really, really tough game and that they’re just a really amazing team. We obviously tried to play as hard as we could, but sometimes you just come up short.”
Jess Lockwood’s eight points led the Patriots. The Vikings were led by Galbavy (16 points) and Quinn Boettinger (15 points).
Central Bucks East 6-9-4-6 25
Perkiomen Valley 14-18-16-6 54
Central Bucks East (39) – Marley Metz 1 0-0 3; Haley 0 1-2 1; Natalie Berndt 2 0-0 5; Anna Barry 0 4-6 4; Jess Lockwood 3 0-0 8; Chantal van Longeren 2 0-0 4; TOTALS 8 5-8 54.
Perkiomen Valley (54) – Anna Stein 2 2-2 6; Bella Bacani 3 1-1 7; Julia smith 3 0-0 6; Lena Stein 0 2-2 2; Grace Miley 1 0-0 2; Quinn Boettinger 6 3-3 15; Grace Galbavy 7 2-2 16; TOTALS 22 10-10 54.
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