The highly ranked Malvern pulled into Penn Charter seeking not only a win, but to remain unbeaten in the Inter-Ac, overall, and to sweep all the first match-ups against their league opponents.  The small gym was packed with fans, including many having to stand because of lack of bleacher space.  PC had a nice student section going, which outmatched the group of 20 or so Friarnation’ers 4-1 at least.

It became relavent early that this was not going to be the Friars’ night when Penn Charter’s 6’ 9” 250lb sharpshooter made a three early on in the 1st. They lit it up from three all game long, and that one was a trendsetter.  If one of theirs had bounced out and one of ours had bounced in in that 1st quarter, confidence would’ve shifted and a whole new outcome could’ve occurred.  Also in that quarter, sloppy play in the paint by both sides and a lot of leniency by the refs for both teams set the stage for a tough time to get inside buckets throughout. Chater led 12-9 after 1.

Despite the Charter’s sharpshooter being out of the whole quarter due to foul trouble, Malvern lost ground in the 2nd. It should be noted that throughout the 1st half, the Friars were making every free-throw they had, and Charter wasn’t.  So while this may have been a night the 3’s weren’t falling, our boys’ mental toughness kept us in the game.  At half the score was 24-20 Charter.

The Nation was doing their best to keep up with Penn Charter’s student section, but because of its small size, it needed constant chants to have its presence felt.  In the second half the repetition of these chants became evident, and it seems as though everyone in the Nation needs some “old old wooden ship, used in the Civil War era” in their cheers.  Malvern did make a great push in the 3rd quarter, capped by a huge 3 made by Steve Perpiglia to tie the game at 35 going into the 4th.

The final quarter, in summary, was a bunch of contested Malvern inside shots that didn’t fall and a bunch of deep three’s by PC that did.  Just wasn’t our night. Penn Charter’s section was “loud” throughout the game because of their sheer size, but their final chant of I Believe, which of course is a Malvern-owned chant, did get the gym pretty noisy.  The game ended PC 56, Malvern 44.  The students celebrated the win by storming the court.

Yeah, we’ll see you at home.