Downingtown West pulls away from Garnet Valley

DOWNINGTOWN >> The Downingtown West boys basketball team had a distinct height advantage Friday night at Wagner Gymnasium. 

But it was the fight in the third-seeded Whippets that moved them to the victory over No. 30 Garnet Valley, 69-52, in the first round of the District 1 Class AAAA playoffs.

A dominant fourth quarter put Downingtown West into Tuesday’s second round, where the Whippets will host Conestoga at 7 p.m. The Whippets broke open a three-point game with a 22-8 advantage in the fourth period.

The big three of Dom Guerrera, Josh Warren and Ryan Betley scored 59 of the Whippets’ (22-3) 69 points with Guerrera leading all scorers with 26, while Betley had 17 and Warren chipped in with 16 points and nine rebounds. Guerrera carried West in the first half, scoring 17 points as the Whippets forged a 35-27 halftime edge.

“We felt we were really disrespected by people before the Coatesville game for the Ches-Mont championship,” Guerrera said. “We had to hear stuff this year just like last year and we just wanted to come out and blow this team out on our home court and get a good feeling again.”

Well, Garnet Valley was anything but blown out as the pesky Jaguars drained 11 3-pointers and came back from the halftime deficit to trail just 47-44 after three quarters. Austin Laughlin and Brandon Starr led the way for Garnet Valley with 14 points each. Andrew Louden added 12 points for the up-tempo, fearless Jaguars.

“It was really nice to have our three best players all have good games,” Downingtown West coach Jason Ritter said. “It makes my job a whole lot easier when they are all scoring and playing well on the same night. Garnet Valley hit a lot of shots and they are very good. In fact, they are a big man away from making this a tighter ball game. In the fourth period, with their careers on the line, our guys scratched and clawed and turned up the defense.”

The third period saw the Jaguars drain three 3-pointers after having seven at halftime. Every time it looked like Downingtown West was ready to pull away, the Jaguars would hit a bomb from downtown. But, if you live by the three-pointer you can eventually die by it, and in the fourth period, the Jaguars’ dream of an upset died.

Garnet missed its first seven shots of the final period, as the Jaguars were outscored, 10-0. Louden ended the drought with a layup off a Whippet turnover to make it a 57-46 game with 4:02 to play. Garnet shot just five for 18 in the final frame, dooming the Jaguars to the district loss.

“We were so much smaller than them we had to expend so much energy and we play at a fast pace,” said Garnet Valley coach Mike Brown. “I think we got tired in the fourth period and that is because we had to play so hard to compensate for their height advantage.”

Downingtown West got going in the fourth period when Guerrera scored from in tight. After a Jaguars miss, Betley took a nice feed from Warren to score in tight to make it a 51-44 game. The misses kept coming for Garnet Valley and the Whippets could smell blood in the water.

Warren scored in tight and then Guerrera strolled down the lane, got fouled and completed the three-point play. A Betley foul shot gave the Whippets a 10-0 run and Garnet Valley called a timeout, down 57-44. But it was too late to help the Jaguars.

Downingtown West only turned the ball over five times on the night and shot a torrid 29 for 45 from the field. Warren had nine rebounds, Betley had seven while Guerrera and George Gordon had five apiece against the smaller Jaguars.

“You cannot go into the game thinking this may be the last game you play in high school,” Betley said. “You just have to play your game the best you can and I feel if we do that we are going to be all right.”