McGlone, Moore help Cheltenham roll past Plymouth Whitemarsh

WHITEMARSH >> Cheltenham had already built a double-digit advantage on Plymouth Whitemarsh in the second quarter Friday night. But Jaelen McGlone made sure to put an emphatic stamp on the SOL American Conference matchup.

The senior Rider University commit threw down a pair of dunks in recording a personal 8-0 run, stretching the Panthers boys basketball team advantage for a dozen to 20 with a little over three minutes left in the first half.

“Once I feel like he started to be more aggressive and he got the two dunks, that really changed the momentum in the game,” Cheltenham sophomore guard Justin Moore said. “That’s when they really started to fall apart and we just kept pushing and kept scoring, keep the ball moving and get out on transition and scoring and that’s when they fell apart and we just took over the game.”

 

McGlone posted 11 points in the second quarter and finished with game-high 22 points while Moore added 18 points as the Panthers cruised past the host Colonials 68-39.

“This is the first time I think that he’s had to be the best player but also lead,” said Cheltenham coach Patrick Fleury of McGlone. “I think last year he was like a talent that kind of not went unnoticed, but  wasn’t one of the ones that had to lead cause we had Ky Healey and Tim Myarick, you had Zah (Harrison), who were in that position before. And I think this year, just with Jaelen committing to Rider and just seeing everything for the most part coming together for him in terms of just basketball, his teammates, they rally around him, they love him.”

Cheltenham was once again without St. Francis (Pa.) commit Harrison — sidelined with a knee injury sustained in the season opener — but the Panthers had little trouble improving to 7-0 (3-0 conference) after a slow start to the first quarter.

“Coach Pat had a talk with us, telling us like lock in, just letting us know we’re a better team than them and just focus, run through the plays full speed, hard,” said Moore, who collected seven of his points in the opening eight minutes. “Mainly, step up our defense, we lost a lot of scoring in Zahree so as team we had to come together and play defense.”

Sam Emfinger chipped in 10 points for Cheltenham, which trailed 7-6 before blowing open the game with a 25-4 run, scoring the last nine points of the first quarter while McGlone capped it with his eight-point burst — his two free throws with 3:06 before the break putting the Panthers up 20 for the first time.

“It’s not like we lost ball 12 times on 12 straight steals, we’re advancing the ball, getting open looks and we can’t finish,” PW coach Jim Donofrio said. “That to me, is performance anxiety — period. How long that takes to develop, I’ve had kids in the past who it took three games as freshmen and sophomores and they’ve developed. Players are players and they perform — from birth — so I’m not sure.”

Zuri Jerman and Luke DiCianno both scored six points to lead the Colonials (2-4, 2-1), who have had a tough time during a challenging early schedule — losing to Lincoln, Simon Gratz, Archbishop Ryan and now Cheltenham — the last three all by double digits.

“You’ve been thrown in the deep end fast,” Donofrio said. “If you can survive and come out of it and somehow a light bulb goes on eight games in, 10 games in and then hey it was bad-tasting medicine but it worked. But you also got to hold yourself accountable.

“See this a dangerous time for the team because if you make excuses and justifications right now and I go soft on them and you make excuses and justifications you get used to losing and when you get used to losing, you’re a different culture and you’re different program. I’m trying to protect that right now. We have to figure it out.”

Plymouth Whitemarsh hosts Sankofa Freedom 7 p.m. Monday then plays in the Blue Star Invitational in Rock Hill, South Carolina beginning Friday. The Colonials open against South Carolina’s Manning High School.

Cheltenham has a pair of games in the Pete and Jameer Nelson Classic at Widener University — facing Bishop McDevitt 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 28 then taking on Coatesville 6:45 p.m. Monday, Dec. 30.

Fleury said Harrison’s return probably comes in January but the Panthers coach has no plans on rushing the talented senior back to the court.

“Just want to be very cautious with the kid, with a young man like that because of how much is actually riding on that,” Fleury said. “I don’t want to send him to Saint Francis trying to do anything that isn’t in his best interest or in their best interest at this point. High school is just that platform to get you to that next level and we’ve been able to do that with two and we want to do that with the rest of our seniors. So I’m not really looking at a timetable.”

PW struggled to connect from long range, its lone 3-pointer coming from David Harris for a 7-6 lead. Moore, however, found Emfinger to put the Panthers up 8-7. A McGlone 3-pointer made it 12-7 and in the final seconds of the quarter Moore drained a triple for a 15-7 lead. 

“Even through the mistakes, he’s very steady as a sophomore,” said Fleury of Moore. “He’s very heady. I think he’s going to be a Division I player for sure. He controls us. He plays well beyond his years.”

Cheltenham pushed its run to 12-0 for a 18-7 lead early in the second quarter before a Jerman putback. But Emfinger scored inside and McGlone drained a corner three to make it 23-9. After a DiCianno basket got PW within 23-11, McGlone slammed in a putback then got inside for another dunk for a 29-11 lead.

Two McGlone free throws made it 31-11 with the Panthers leading by 20 twice more in the first half, the last at 35-15 before PW collected the half’s last four points to make it 35-19.

But the closest the Colonials could get in the second half was 14 at 46-32 late in the third. Saleem Payne hit a three to put Cheltenham up 49-32 entering the fourth and the Panthers pushed their lead to as high as 30 in the final quarter at 68-38.

Cheltenham 68, Plymouth Whitemarsh 39
Cheltenham       15 20 14 19 — 68
Plymouth Whitemarsh  7 12 13   7 — 39
Cheltenham: Jaelen McGlone 7 6-9 22; Justin Moore 6 5-6 18; Sean Emfinger 4 2-3 10; Saleem Payne 3 0-0 7; David Pope 1 3-4 6; Travis Coleman 1 0-0 2; Mike McClain 1 0-0 2; Brandon Scott 0 1-2 1; Rasheem Deary 0 0-1 0; Totals 23 17-25 68.
Plymouth Whitemarsh: Luke DiCianno 3 0-0 6; Zuri Jerman 3 0-2 6; Jayden Glover 1 3-3 5; Qudire Bennett 1 2-4 4; Zende Hubbard 2 0-3 4; Jayden Pryce 2 0-0 4; David Harris 1 0-0 3; Ray Tomasetti 1 1-2 3; Taji Hubbard 1 0-0 2; Caelin Peters 1 0-2 2; Totals 16 6-16 39.
3-pointers: C-McGlone 2, Moore, Payne, Pope; PW-Harris.