Downingtown West upended by Plymouth Whitemarsh
DOWNINGTOWN >> The Plymouth Whitemarsh boys basketball team has come a long way this season. The young Colonials had some growing pains early, but Tuesday night at Wagner Gymnasium, they put it all together to qualify for the 6A tournament and keep their District 1 championship hopes alive with a 63-56 win over the host Downingtown West in the second round of the District 1 6A playoffs.
PW will travel to No. 3 Cheltenham on Friday night, while the Whippets go into the playback bracket and will host Perkiomen Valley.
Plymouth Whitemarsh (17-7) drained 11 3-pointers and moved the ball around to the open shooter with precision all night and forced the Whippets (17-7) into 16 turnovers, four in the fourth period to come away with the hard-fought win.
“It just has been a season when we have grown up,” Colonials coach Jim Donofrio said. “When we were 4-5 on the season, I think we were a little naive to what it takes to get to this level. We had some film sessions and it was a fun message for the kids and we just kept playing and coming back all season. We had to beat Wissahickon to get into this playoffs, and the other night we were in foul trouble against CB South and we came through it. We lost some heartbreakers due to missed foul shots early in the year and we learned from those mistakes
“We just decided if you lose enough and it bothers you, you have to do something about it. In the past, we have had some highly rated teams and things are different. But, we play fast and with discipline and I am so proud of these kids. They worked really hard to get to this point and it all came back to us tonight. It’s nice to be backing the conversation.”
Downingtown West had a 31-29 lead at halftime, but the Colonials took over the game in the fourth, outscoring the Whippets, 18-12, in the final eight minutes. The game was a tight affair the entire second half, and when Jaden Colzie scored off a nice pass from Marshall Baker, the Colonials took a 53-51 lead with 5:02 to play. It was a lead they would never lose.
The Whippets tried to come back with Dylan Blair leading the way. The junior led Downingtown West with 20 points and was the main focus of the Plymouth Whitemarsh defense.
Quidre Bennett led all scorers with 26 points to go along with eight rebounds and said the focus of the Colonials coming into the game was to slow down Blair.
“We wanted to tire him out and I thought we did a good job of putting pressure on him,” Bennett said. “And we did a good job defensively on the other players. On offense, we moved the ball well and we shot well tonight.”
The Colonials shot 10-for-22 in the second half. When Trey Jones scored off a turnover it was a 55-51 lead with 3:05 to play. After Colzie hit three free throws for a 58-51 lead,
Blair stole an inbounds pass, drove the floor, scored and completed the three-point play to make it a 58-54 game with 2:14 left.
But the Whippets’ rally was stunted by two costly turnovers in the final two minutes and missed a one-and-one with 31 seconds to play to clinch PW victory.
“In playoff basketball, you have to keep your intensity the entire 32 minutes,” Downingtown West coach Stu Ross said. “And we had some uncharacteristic turnovers and did not get some key rebounds tonight.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh 63, Downingtown West 56
PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH: Colzie 5 4-5 18, Hubbard 0 0-0 0, Baker 4 1-2 12, Vinson 0 0-0 0, Jones 3 0-0 7, Bennett 10 3-4 26. Totals 22 8-11 63.
DOWNINGTOWN WEST: Blair 7 3-4 20, Fromhartz 3 0-0 7, Hardin 3 0-0 7, Warren 3 2-2 10, Shelton 1 2-2 4, Primanti 4 0-0 8. Totals 21 7-8 56.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 10 19 16 18-63
Downingtown West 16 15 13 12-56
3-pointgoals: Colzie 4, Baker 3, Jones, Bennett 3, Blair 3, Hardin, Fromhartz, Warren 2.
