Glover’s hustle leads Plymouth Whitemarsh over Archbishop Carroll

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WARMINSTER >> Plymouth Whitemarsh senior Alan Glover just wants to be the hustle guy.

It’s a job he does well, grabbing boards, playing defense, taking charges and all that, but he’s also a very talented basketball player. PW coach Jim Donofrio knows Glover is more than just a grinder and the 6-foot-4 senior showed it Saturday against Archbishop Carroll.

Glover posted a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds as PW topped the Patriots 66-53 at Archbishop Wood’s Diane Mosco Foundation Shootout Against Cancer.

“I was feeling pretty good,” Glover said. “I came out of warm-ups feeling good.”

Glover cashed in on the early attention Carroll was paying PW’s 7-foot-2 center Naheem McLeod down low and hit a pair of 3-pointers on his way to eight first-quarter points. Carroll cut the lead down to one point late in the frame before twins Ahmin and Ahmad Williams buried treys to put PW up seven after one.

While Glover only scored eight points the rest of the way, his energy was infectious and he also provided an assist and four steals to go with his rebounding. The senior also took a charge in the second quarter, an accomplishment that had him grinning as he talked about filling his role.

“I’m not worried about scoring, I’m out there with four other guys who can do that,” Glover said. “I worry about boxing out, being the hustle guy, trying to be that heart and soul for the team. I just focus on the hustle.”

Carroll played from behind most of the game, but never seemed out of the game, something Donofrio noted as part of the reason he wanted to schedule the Philadelphia Catholic League squad. It was a chance for his experienced team to show some poise.

The Patriots played without sophomore point guard AJ Hoggard, who was with the team on the bench. Carroll coach Paul Romaczuk said it was academics related.

“We just wanted to get control of it,” Romanczuk said. “It’s better for him to sit out a couple games here rather than later in the year.”

Carroll (3-1) was led by 14 points each from Luke House and Justin Anderson. The Patriots made a late charge in the fourth quarter, but PW was able to make enough plays to prevent the lead from falling below double digits.

Like PW (3-0) set up its schedule to test itself, the Patriots have done the same, with games against Cheltenham and Coatesville already under its belt going into Saturday.

“Out of our first four games, we’ve played four teams that press,” Romanczuk said. “We’re pretty comfortable now if teams want to pressure us going forward. We set up the non-league schedule the way we did so it would prepare us for the Catholic League, because you have tough games every single night. There’s no reason for me to search out wins in the non-league, a   game like this makes us better.”

McLeod did get plenty of attention defensively, but he still put in work on Saturday, scoring 14 points with 15 boards and five blocks. The junior, who remains far from a finished product, is still a much-improved player from last season.

Donofrio wants his team to play like a poised and experienced group and live up to its preseason ranking but also play as a group of motivated individuals. Fiery and aggressive, the Colonials play hard and thrive on getting in opponents’ faces the entire length of the floor. They are a uniquely dynamic group.

“That’s what we’re trying to accomplish, a feeling of ‘we’ve got this,’ and that’s where they have to forgive each other a little more, get each other’s backs a little more instead of pointing fingers,” Donofrio said. “We’re certainly as dysfunctional as any team around. You say ‘let’s just embrace the dysfunction.’ Embrace but at the same time, be confident with each other.”

Ahmin Williams led PW with 17 points while Ahmad had seven with both twins also doing their usual work on the glass, passing and hounding ballhandlers on defense. The Colonials led 33-22 at the half and they managed to score the final points of the first, second and third quarters, keeping their momentum rolling from one frame into the next.

“It’s a big deal being able to take that momentum into the next period,” Glover said. “We focus on the first three minutes, press them, get them exhausted and then we take over the game after that.”

Danny Cooper was a good spark off the bench for PW, scoring eight points and getting the Colonials close to Donofrio’s goal of four scorers in double-figures.

Carroll’s Keyon Butler scored nine with nine rebounds and while Romanczuk said the forward forced a few shots, Butler always battles hard and he’ll live with some of those. Romanczuk added that teams are going to collapse on Butler down low and he believes Butler will become more of a playmaker as the season goes on.

PW’s schedule doesn’t get any easier with games against Archbishop Wood, Bonner and Prendergast and Neumann-Goretti all on tap before the new year. It’s the challenge the Colonials want and they’d also like to turn a few heads along the way.

“I know we’ve been respected and ranked a bit, but there’s a whole of individuals being mentioned out there and they’re not the guys being mentioned,” Donofrio said. “It’s a compliment to their team ability but in this is day and age, it’s about scholarships too and you have to be able to use that, remind them ‘nobody’s talking about you.’”

PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 66, ARCHBISHOP CARROLL 53
PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 20 13 18 15 – 66
ARCHBISHOP CARROLL 13 9 15 16 – 53
PW: Ahmin Williams 4 7-8 17, Alan Glover 4 6-8 16, Naheem McLeod 7 0-5 14, Ahmad Williams 3 0-1 7, Danny Cooper 3 0-0 8, Ish Horn 2 0-1 4, Jason Paul 0 0-2 0. Totals: 23 13-25 66.
AC: Keyon Butler 4 1-2 9, Justin Anderson 6 1-2 14, Kiyl Mack 0 2-2 2, Luke House 6 0-0 14, Ny’Mire Little 3 4-4 11, Derrell Jones 1 0-0 3. Nonscoring: Devon Ferraro, Tairi Ketner. Totals: 20 8-10 53.
3-pointers: PW – Glover 2, Ahmin Williams 2, Cooper 2, Ahmad Williams; AC – House 2, Jones, Little, Anderson.

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Andrew Robinson

Andrew Robinson
Montgomery Media/Lansdale Reporter sports writer.

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