Boys Basketball: WC East rallies past Downingtown West in 6A playback

DOWNINGTOWN. Tuesday night at Wagner Gymnasium the West Chester East boys basketball team used a ferocious third period push to come back and take over the game and defeat Downingtown West, 61-53 in a District 1 6A playback game. West Chester East will now play the winner of the Penn Wood vs. Haverford game Friday night while Downingtown West will get the loser of that game, also on Friday night.

West Chester East (20-7) outscored the host Whippets (18-8) 17-6 in the decisive third period, going a 14-0 run to take control of the game and put the Whippets on ice the rest of the tight affair. the Vikings held Whippets star Dylan blair to 13 points, below his average of 21 points per game by using a variety of defenses on the Whippets star.

“We just really turned things up,” Said freshman KJ Cochran. “We really want to win all three of these playback games and go into states on a roll. Our defense picked up in the third period and we hit all of our foul shots. When I was injured this season I really worked on my form shooting fouls and it came through tonight.”

West Chester East went 23 for 27 from the free throw line while Downingtown West shot just five free throws, making just one from the charity stripe, a fact that triggered a technical foul on the Whippet bench late in the second period.

With Downingtown West up 33-28 early in the third period, the Vikings went on quite a roll. Cochran, who led all scorers with 20 points, scored on a follow to start the run. After a Whippet miss, Jack Kushner scored inside and after a Downingtown West turnover, Jose Ramos scored in the lane for a 34-33 West Chester East lead, its first of the night.

“We knew we had to turn things up in the third period,” Ramos said. “Our defense really picked things up and that is what drove us top the get the lead on them.”

Before the 14-0 run was over Ramos drained a long three-ball and Cochran drained two more free throws. Cochran was a perfect nine for nine from the free throw line. Downingtown West shot a putrid two for 13 in the third period and turned the ball over five times in the third period.

Only the play of Jake Warren kept the Whippets close. Warren scored 16 points to go along with nine rebounds and was very effective inside for the Whippets.

The Vikings forged a 43-36 lead after three periods but Downingtown West was not done. The Whippets battled back from an awful third period to take the lead at 50-49 when Cooper Hardin drained a three-ball from the corner. But that was it for the Whippets.

Cochran scored again on a follow and then Jack Gallagher scored inside and West Chester East took a 53-50 lead with 2:32 to play in the fourth period. The Whippets then hurt themselves by turning the ball over four times in the last 2:32 and Warren missed two free throws and the Vikings downed their free ones and it was West Chester East who was going on to play for ninth place in the district in the 9-10 game while Downingtown West was relegated to the 11th-12th game.

“Even as a spectator you have to admire how hard our kids play,” West Chester East coach Tom Durant said. “They just play so hard and they had too. Dylan blair is a great player and we tried to slow him down by throwing the kitchen sink at him and I thought our kids did a great job.”

WC East 61, Downingtown West 53.

WC EAST (61) Ramos 5 7-8 18, Kushner 3 5-7 11, Cochran 5 9-9 20, Gallagher 4 2-3 10, Price 1 0-0 2, Cox 0 0-0 0, Puchalla 0 0-0 0, Sherlock 0 0-00. Totals 18 23-27 61.

DOWNINGTOWN WEST (53) Bell 2 1-2 5, Blair 5 0-0 13, Fromhartz 1 0-0 3, Hardin 4 0-0 10, Owsik 0 0-0 0, Poluch 0 0-0 0, Suarez 0 0-0 0, Primanti 2 0-0 4, Shelton 1 0-0 2, warren 7 0-3 16. Totals 22 1-5 53.

WC East                   9 17 17 18-61
Downingtown West  19 11 6 17-53
3-point goals: Ramos, Cochran, Blair 3, Fromhartz, Hardin 2, Warren 2.
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