District 1-5A: Allain settles Phoenixville in overtime win over Holy Ghost

The opening minutes of Phoenixville’s District 1-5A quarterfinal against Holy Ghost Prep on Tuesday didn’t go as planned.

With his team out to a nervous start, Phantoms senior Will Allain knew it was his job to calm some of the jitters.

Allain righted Phoenixville with a pair of threes and continued the big shots throughout, scoring a game-high 18 points in Tuesday’s 56-48 overtime win over the Firebirds.

The victory pushed Phoenixville (11-5) into the semifinals against No. 2 Chester (10-1) on Friday after the Clippers’ 56-40 win over Marple Newtown.

“Guys were tense, and as a senior I knew I’d been there before, and I knew you can’t really rely on some of the younger guys, less experienced guys to get going,” Allain said. “So I took a couple quick threes, open threes, and saw them go in. We started to get going.”

Senior Mike Memmo scored 14 and junior Zavier Mayo 12 for Phoenixville. Ryan O’Hara led the way with 13 for Holy Ghost, followed by Shane Reilly and Jack McDermott with 11 apiece.

The win marked the Phantoms’ first district victory since 2015 and 2016 when Phoenixville won district games in consecutive seasons.

“The locker room after the game was crazy,” Memmo said. “Everyone was so hype. We didn’t want this to be our last game.”

Phoenixville dropped its district playoff openers in each of the past two seasons, falling 82-65 to eventual district champ Sun Valley in 2019 and 45-40 to Strath Haven in 2020.

After losing to Pope John Paul II last Thursday with a chance for a Frontier Division title in their regular season finale for the second year in a row, the Phantoms were ready to put a district postseason victory on their resume.

“A lot of us hadn’t really been a part of a district playoff win,” Allain said. “We got a PAC win last year and we’ve had a couple opportunities to play for the division, but that was the first opportunity we had to go out and win a district game. It was a long time coming. We were right there for a lot of years in a row, and it felt really good. It was awesome.”

Phoenixville trailed 9-0 in the first quarter before Allain, an Ursinus College basketball commit, knocked down the first two of his four 3-point shots.

The Phantoms trailed 16-10 after the first quarter and 24-16 at halftime. Mayo scored eight in the third quarter, but Phoenixville still trailed 39-33 entering the fourth.

Memmo, who was scoreless in the first half, scored seven in the fourth as Phoenixville outscored Holy Ghost, 11-5, to tie the game 44-44 and send it into overtime. The Phantoms dominated the overtime period, 10-2.

“We played good defense,” Memmo said of what sparked the comeback. “We didn’t let their shooters get open shots. We stuck together, and then we pushed the ball when they didn’t get back on the fastbreak and got easy layups.”

Allain went scoreless in the loss to PJP last Thursday and didn’t want to go out the same way in possibly his last high school game Tuesday.

Even when the Firebirds’ defenders began targeting him later in the game, he found ways to put points on the board and help guide the Phantoms on offense.

“I didn’t want to take myself out of the game despite the face guard because I let PJP do that and I wanted to make sure I was still involved,” Allain said.

Phoenixville hasn’t been to a district semifinal since winning the Class 3A championship in 2009 when there were only four classifications.

The Phantoms face a historic Chester program that was in the Class 6A semifinals a season ago.

“All we wanted was an opportunity to get in there against a high ranked team, to try and pull out a win and see what we can do,” Allain said. “We’re definitely confident. We’re not ready for our season to end and we’re excited. We’re grateful for the opportunity to play a team that good, but we’re definitely not done.”