Plymouth Whitemarsh pulls away from Haverford in District 1-6A second round
WHITEMARSH >> Haverford hung with Plymouth Whitemarsh for a little more than a half Wednesday night before the top seed in the District 1-6A playoffs pulled away.
The No. 1 Colonials scored nine straight points in the third quarter to extend a six-point lead to 15 and never looked back, cruising to a 51-29 win over the No. 16 Fords in the second round of the playoffs at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School
PW sophomore Jordyn Thomas was dominant in the third quarter as the Colonials opened up their lead. She had seven points, three rebounds and a block in the eight-minute stretch.
“We just let our defense turn into offense,” she said. “We pushed the ball up the court and we just find the open person and make our layups.”
The top seed’s defense played much better after the first quarter. After allowing 13 points on five made field goals in the first, the unit allowed 16 points on six made field goals over the final 24 minutes.
“In the second half we turned the ball over way too much,” Haverford coach Lauren Pellicane said. “Offensively, (PW is) gifted, so when we turn the ball over they’re going to take advantage and I think they did that. This season specifically we’re a team that needs to defend and keep games at low scores in order to compete. We were rushed offensively at times and unfortunately we go through slumps where we can’t score. In the second half specifically that hurt us.”
PW took a 15-point lead, 39-24, into the fourth quarter and remained comfortably ahead until the final whistle.
The Colonials got off to a fast start. They opened the game with a 9-0 run in the first 1:22. Haverford responded, getting within two points two times, 13-11 and 15-13, before PW ended the quarter with a 19-13 lead.
Both teams struggled offensively in the second quarter. Until the final minute, the teams combined for one made field goal – a three from PW’s Anna McTamney – and a free throw from Haverford’s Chiara MacGillivray. Each side converted a couple of baskets in the final minute to go to halftime with PW ahead, 26-18.
Haverford made the first basket of the third to get within six, 26-20, before PW went on its game-changing run.
“It’s a four-quarter game of us running,” PW assistant coach TJ DeLucia said. “It doesn’t pay off all the time in the first and second quarter. We’re looking to run for four quarters and hope that we can wear somebody out in the fourth. I told the kids if it’s close at halftime, that’s OK. I don’t think they want to play this way for four quarters and we’re going to keep doing that.”
Gabby Cooper led PW with 14 points, Kaitlyn Flanagan added 12 and McTamney and Thomas each had nine.
Caroline Dotsey led Haverford with 10 points and Addison Brodnik added eight.
Round 4
Plymouth Whitemarsh advances to the D1-6A quarterfinals, where it will host No. 8 Upper Dublin Saturday.
The Suburban One League American Conference rivals have already played three times this season. They split the regular season matchups and Upper Dublin won in the SOL Challenge semifinals.
“We are under no illusions about how good Upper Dublin is,” DeLucia said. “We know they’re not an actual eight seed. They’re one of the best teams in the state. We’ll see them for the fourth time. There’s not a lot of scouting that needs to go into it. We know what to expect. Our kids relish the opportunity. I thought we played really, really well in the league semis. I thought we were right there with them for four quarters. The kids are excited. If the kids are excited we will put the work in and see what happens. It’s not a true 1-8 matchup.”
“We know what we have to do and we just have to execute,” Thomas added. “We know that we need to score the ball, we need to take care of the ball and run our offenses through.”
States bound
The win clinches a state playoff berth for Plymouth Whitemarsh. It’s the first time in program history that the team will go to states for four straight years.
“It’s a huge deal,” DeLucia said. “The team that qualified for states four years ago – no one remains from that team. It is a completely different group and they’ve kept it going after Taylor O’Brien and Lauren Fortescue. They’ve kept it going. They’re not stopping. They’ve taken that mantle and they’re going to keep PW girls basketball rolling.”
DeLucia’s debut
DeLucia stepped in for head coach Dan Dougherty, who was out after getting two technical fouls in their last game against Upper Dublin.
“We had nine days to prepare,” DeLucia, who is also the assistant coach for the girls soccer team and sponsors the class of 2023, said, “so we were super prepared as a team. These kids are outstanding with understanding scouting reports. We have a wonderful scout team, who watches six different films of Haverford and learns all their stuff and runs it for three practices this week. The scout team did a great job preparing and our kids just dive into these scouting reports and these gameplans. They were excellent.
“I enjoyed it. This group is really fun to coach. We play super fast. It’s very enjoyable to coach a fast team, where I can just get out of the way and I tell them to run and press and press and run. It makes it easy to coach. They worked their butts off, these kids. It’s not a difficult job. Just let them go out there and play.”
The players didn’t seem to notice a difference with DeLucia walking the sideline and yelling out instructions.
“It’s the same,” Thomas said. “(Dougherty and DeLucia) both call the same plays. It’s nothing new because we have it in practice. We really knew what we were doing and we were fine.”
Not done yet
Haverford’s season isn’t over yet. The Fords enter the playback bracket and will need to win two games to earn a spot in the state playoffs. The road starts Saturday against No. 9 Downingtown East.
“We’re not done yet,” Pellicane said. “We’re going to continue and prepare for Downingtown East. We’ll show up and compete again.”
