Downingtown West comes back to defeat Unionville and claim Ches-Mont title

WEST CHESTER >> Almost a year ago to the day, the Downingtown West boys basketball team walked off the floor of Hollinger Fieldhouse losers of the Ches-Mont League championship game to West Chester East.

That defeat left a scar on all the Whippets and drove them since that day to claim a league championship they felt should have been theirs a year ago.

Tuesday night, the Whippets fought back from a 10 point halftime deficit, and behind the a superlative individual performance from senior point guard Dylan Blair, came back to defeat Unionville 46-43, to claim the coveted Ches-Mont League title.

Blair was superb as he scored 26 points, including five three-balls and he also scored the winning basket. Blair also dished out four assists and came away with six rebounds to lead the Whippets (19-5) to the championship.

“My will to win is what carried me through what was a very tough game,” Blair said. “I still have the newspaper of the game we lost last year to East and since day one this season that has been our goal to win this championship. My dad told me when I started playing basketball that, ‘What are you going to do to win games.’

“He said you have to have an impact on the game in a lot of ways. Tonight in the first half when some shots were not going down I tried to do other things to impact the game. I want give all glory to God for this game, and to win a championship for a good program like this is a special feeling.”

Unionville (20-4) jumped out to a 27-17 halftime advantage on a 9-for-19 shooting first half. Robbie Logan led the Longhorns with 10 points at halftime and the Longhorns defense held the potent Whippets to just 17 first half points, 13 of those by Blair. The Whippets shot just 7-for-26 from the field in the first half.

But the second half saw the Longhorns shoot just 6-for-21 from the field and score only 16 second half points. Unionville also committed seven costly second half turnovers that led to the defeat.

At the end of three periods the Unionville lead was down to 39-37 and you could just feel the Whippets starting to heat up.The Whippets outscored the Longhorns 20-12 in the third period.

With 1:30 to play in the fourth period, Downingtown West took its first lead since it was 2-0, when Blair drove hard to the basket and scored to make it a 43-41 Whippets lead.

Unionville called time out with 1:11 to go in the fourth period and James Anderson missed a shot, but 6-foot-7 Nick Diehl scored and it was a 43-43 game with 1:02 to play in the fourth period. Diehl finished the night with eight points and six rebounds and his battles inside with the Whippets Kelly Bell were a treat to see with both players going all out. Bell scored six points and hauled down nine rebounds for the Whippets.

With the game tied 43-43, the Whippets found Antonio Lewis open in the corner. But Lewis’ three-ball rimmed out with 29 seconds to play. Diehl grabbed the rebound and fed Anderson who tried to pass the ball back to Diehl, but Blair punched the ball loose at half court and went in for the layup and a 45-43 Whippets lead with just 21 seconds to play as the crowd at Hollinger erupted.

“Me and the big boy for them had a heck of a battle,” Bell said. “It was real tough under the boards tonight and I was going to do whatever I had to do to win this game and the championship. I really wanted this game bad.”

The Longhorns called time out with 11 seconds to play and down two points. Unionville came out and got two good looks inside but the ball did not go down. Lewis came away with the rebound and got fouled with 5.5 seconds to play.

Lewis hit one free throw for a 46-43 lead and the subsequent Longhorns inbounds pass was batted up in the air as Downingtown West finally got its Ches-Mont League title, the first since the 2015 season for the Whippets.

“I mean I really don’t know what to say right now,” Downingtown West coach Stu Ross said. “I played at West Chester and we won a PSAC East title on this same floor. The kids really battled tonight. Dylan is a fierce competitor who never gives in and he was great for us tonight and Kelly and Antonio made some big plays and the kids really wanted this since last year we lost on this floor.

“I think in the first half we let Unionville be a little too comfortable in their offense. They are a very good team and they had a little more energy early than we did. in the second half we turned up the pressure on them and we started to get some turnovers and the kids battled and we got out of here with the win.”

The loss was a bitter one for a young Longhorns team that will begin District 1 5A play next Tuesday as the No. 3 seed, at home against a team to be determined, but Longhorns coach Chris Cowles was not looking that far ahead.

“We had a lead but I don’t think we played really well in the first half either,” Cowles said. “The second half we did not run our offense as sharply and we did not come to the ball as quickly as I would have liked and they came back on us.”

Downingtown West 46, Unionville 43

DOWNINGTOWN WEST (46) Blair 10 1-6 26, Lewis 0 3-5 3, Bell 3 0-0 6, Barker 0 0-0 0, Neuhas 0 0-0 0, Fromhartz 3 2-2 9, Suarez 1 0-0 2. Totals 17 5-13 46.
UNIONVILLE (43) Brenner 0 1-2 1, Anderson 1 1-2 3, Logan 2 6-6 12, Brown 3 0-0 6, Carson 1 0-0 2, Kammeier 4 1-1 11, Diehl 4 0-0 8. Totals 15 9-11 43.
Downingtown West 8 9 20 7-46
Unionville      11 16 12 4-43
3-point goals: Logan 2, Kammeier 2, Blair 5, Fromhartz.