Naheem McLeod powers Plymouth Whitemarsh past Norristown

WHITEMARSH >> The season could not have started any better for Plymouth Whitemarsh senior Naheem McLeod.

The 7-foot-3 center scored 41 points in a 66-61 win over Norristown Friday night at the brand new Gym West at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.

“Just go out there and win,” he said of his mindset. “They kept letting me score. So, just take what the defense gives me. I was passing the ball, getting assists. The defensive end had to come more, I wasn’t playing too much defense, cramping up in the middle of the game slowed me down a little bit, but we came out with the win.”

McLeod was particularly impressive in the second quarter, when he scored 17 points — including a pair of free throws that broke a 23-23 tie to give the Colonials their first lead of the game.

In the second, McLeod carried the ball up the floor a couple times, went 6-for-6 from the foul line and hit a three-pointer.

“Everything is new,” McLeod said. “Bringing the ball up the court, shooting, shooting off the dribble, hooking up with the teammates. I’m thinking we’re going to be a good team this year.”

The Florida State commit was PW’s go-to guy down the stretch. He tied the game at 49 and 51 early in the fourth, made a free throw for a 52-51 lead and finished an alley oop from Caelin Peters to make it 54-51.

“Star players their senior year play like stars,” PW coach Jim Donofrio said. “Naheem knows how to play. He went home downstairs when he had to. He just went downstairs and said give me the ball, give me the ball, give me the ball. There’s plenty we’ll be able to do with him all over the place. I loved him knocking down the three. I said you look like a young Kevin Durant. He’s smart enough to know let’s not experiment with that right now. Let’s do what we have to do. He’s a big-time player.”

He made a layup to extend a 58-57 lead to 60-57 with just over two minutes left and threw down a another dunk in the final 25 seconds out of a timeout to extend a 62-61 lead to 64-61.

McLeod finished the game 8-for-12 from the free throw line.

“I thought we guarded (McLeod) well,” Norristown coach Binky Johnson said. “We stuck to our gameplan. He’s a very good player. Our gameplan — we really followed it through. Our guys did a great job following our gameplan and he made some really great plays tonight. He hit the three, made his free throws.”

Lockdown defense

The biggest moment of the game came with less than two minutes left. PW’s Mark Kalala went 2-for-2 from the free throw line to give the Colonials a 62-59 lead and Norristown took its final timeout.

The Eagles carried the ball up the floor and worked the ball around. And around. And around. They held the ball for more than a full minute before driving to the basket where — you guessed it — McLeod was there to block Marcus Sanford’s shot and grab the rebound.

“What we did at the end there was a concept of changing defenses and they actually did it,” Donofrio said of the minute-long defensive possession. “That’s a huge thing to build on for them.”

“We wanted to really run a set, get a good shot,” Johnson said. “They went through a set and it was good defense, good offense — like the whole night went. It was good defense on their part. We were running our sets we wanted to, looking for the shot. It was good, quality basketball. At the end of the day we didn’t get the shot we wanted, but I did see a positive sign that we actually ran a set all the way through repeatedly — growth on our end — that’s something that we will build on in the future.”

After Peters went 0-for-2 from the stripe to keep the score 62-59, Norristown’s Nazir Kenny made a pair of free throws to cut it back to one, 62-61.

PW responded with McLeod’s dunk and Norristown never attempted a three to tie the game in the final 20 seconds.

Rivalry renewed

The Plymouth Whitemarsh-Norristown basketball rivalry goes back a long ways. Entering Friday night’s matchup, the Eagles held a 52-48 advantage.

Friday’s meeting was their first matchup since 2016, when both schools were members of the Suburban One League American Conference.

Despite Norristown’s move to the Pioneer Athletic Conference and no meetings for a couple seasons, the environment was electric in the first game at PW’s new home.

“It’s like Eagles-Dallas,” Johnson said. “The tradition of Norristown and Plymouth Whitemarsh — there’s so much. When you talk about rivalry — it’s a respect factor that this tradition lives on. It’s like Duke-North Carolina where you’re just the road. It’s not just the fact that it’s competitive nature, it’s a respectful nature and bragging rights for a whole year being a few miles apart.”

“It’s fun to see the power of real basketball rivalries,” Donofrio said. “They go away for a little bit, and this is a 50-year rivalry, a 60-year rivalry and it’s amazing how it’s embedded in the two communities. It’s not going to be easy to sell this place out. It’s a big place and this was all the way around the corner.”

Every seat was filled as additional fans huddling at each entrance, the student sections exchanged chants for 32 minutes and the players looked to the crowd for support after every big play.

“This rivalry has been going on for 30-plus years,” McLeod said. “The last few years we’ve had the upperhand, but overall they have three more wins than us. Wanted to go out there and add another win for our team.”

Notes >> Kenny led Norristown with 19 points — 12 coming in the second half. Aaron Reddish added 13 points and Tyler Lyons had 12… Reddish gave the Eagles a 49-48 lead in the final seconds of the third quarter with an acrobatic layup around McLeod and earned an and-one early in the fourth to make it 51-49 Norristown, but missed the free throw… Plymouth Whitemarsh’s Luke DiCianno joined McLeod in double figured with 11 points. His first basket was a three-pointer midway through the second quarter to tie the game at 23… Peters was the only other Colonial to score more than two points. He had eight — all in the first quarter.