Garnet Valley bracing for vertical challenge of Downingtown West
By way of praise, Mike Brown is quick to admit his team’s, um, shortcomings.
It’s an obvious point of pride for Brown that his Garnet Valley team compiled a 14-8 record and qualified for the District One Class AAAA Tournament for the first time in the school’s Central League epoch, snapping an eight-year drought.
But even more gratifying is how the Jaguars earned Friday’s trip to No. 3 seed Downingtown West (21-3), against some tall odds.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find a smaller team physically in the area,” Brown said Sunday. “But we’re a very tough team. Looks can be deceiving.”
That toughness will be required in spades Friday.
The Whippets made mincemeat of their division (albeit a ridiculously top-heavy Ches-Mont National represented in the postseason by two of the top three AAAA seeds, one AAA entrant and nothing else).Two of the three losses have come to top-seeded Coatesville – a 47-42 loss at home Feb. 2 and a 38-37 setback last week in the Ches-Mont final. Seeds as they are, West would have to wait for the final to renew acquaintances with the Red Raiders. The only other loss is to Phoenixville early in the season.
As a 10 seed, Downingtown West made states last year via playbacks.
Now for the measurables: The Whippets’ front line is high scoring and runs 6-foot-6 (Dom Guerrera), 6-foot-7 (George Gordon) and 6-foot-8 (Cornell-bound Josh Warren). From the backcourt comes Ryan Betler, the 6-foot-5 Penn commit.
The Garnet Valley roster, meanwhile, tops out at 6-foot-4 (reserve forward Keith Morey, averaging 1.7 points in 20 games). The starting lineup is all under 6-foot-1, Ryan McCrossan the presumptive post player.
Seeing as how that diminutive starting lineup provides 88.6 percent of the Jags’ points, it seems an intractable problem. But there’s a glimmer of hope. The West backcourt is young, and Garnet Valley is capable of causing turnovers and converting them to easy baskets. They’ll have to do a lot of that Friday.
The bright side is that the Jaguars haven’t been blow out in many games, which is one of the first and most important things Brown instilled in his group as it’s grown over the last few years.
“We’ve become more consistent,” Brown said. “Most every night, we’re competitive, we’re in the game and we have a chance to win. We can’t ask much more than that.”
Garnet Valley’s key to victory: Live by the 3-pointer. The Jags average 7.8 made triples per game and they need it to be the great equalizer Friday. They have five players who have hit more than 26 this season, led by Andrew Louden’s 58. Garnet Valley is 9-4 when its hits eight or more 3s in a game and 6-2 when it cans nine or more. Those have to come in the flow of the offense, the right looks rather than forcing up shots just to shoot. With Downingtown West’s explosive potential, a nearly flawless day from Austin Laughlin, Carl Tienabeso, Brandon Starr and company will be required from deep.
