By Jack McCaffery
Marvin Freeman took his first deep warmup shot Friday at Plymouth Whitemarsh and watched it twist and spin cleanly into the net. He did the same with his second. And his third. And he knew.“For 20 minutes, I was feeling it,” Freeman said. “So I said to my teammates, ‘Do you have a good shot on these courts? Because I am feeling it right now. I don’t know. They might be in trouble.’”
The Sun Valley senior was right. For as it would happen, Garden Spot would be in trouble early and late in a PIAA Class 5A opening-round boys basketball game. With Freeman dropping three 3-pointers in the first quarter, five overall, 17 of his 22 points in the first half and his first career in-game dunk just before the horn, the Vanguards advanced with a rugged 65-44 victory.
In a game so rough that Sun Valley would take 31 free throws and win despite not making a third-quarter field goal, Freeman was able to spring to the perimeter and do what he always has done best, if with his own style. His unorthodox shot twirling sideways rather that with the traditional spiral, his outside play was the difference on a night when everything else was happening inside.
“I’ve been shooting like that my whole life, since I was so young,” Freeman said. “And I tried to fix it, but it didn’t work. My dad (Marvin) told me if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. So I’ve got to just keep shooting like that.