In heated crosstown hoops rivalry, Whippets blast Cougars

DOWNINGTOWN >> In the grand scheme of things, the Downingtown West boys could have eased their way through Tuesday’s basketball action. After all, the Whippets have already won the Ches-Mont National regular season crown.

But the opponent was archrival Downingtown East, and that always ups the ante. Add to the mix two large and vocal student sections, going back and forth, and you have an electric atmosphere that usually spurs on maximum effort. And that’s exactly what head coach Stu Ross got out of his West squad, who went on to blast the visiting Cougars 76-53.

“We knew (East) would come out with a little extra juice, so we wanted to not only match their energy but take it a little higher,” Ross said.

“Rivalry games are always huge for us, and it doesn’t matter what the records are,” added 6-foot-11 junior center Jake Warren. “Even though this game didn’t technically mean a lot to our standings, you have to be ready to go against East.”

The Whippets (11-0 in the league, 16-4 overall) forced seven quick turnovers to kick start an early onslaught, raced ahead by 20 and then never allowed the Cougars to get back into it. East falls to 3-9, 5-15 overall.

“I think this is one of the best – if not the best – rivalries for basketball in our county,” Cougars’ head coach Brian Grasshof said. “I would obviously have liked to win, but (West) seemed focused and ready. I would favor them going into the Ches-Mont final four.”

The four-team league tournament get underway on Friday at West Chester’s Hollinger Field House. The top seed from the National Division, West will take on Sun Valley, the two seed from the American Division, at 8 p.m. The winner will advance to the final on Feb. 15.

“You always have a little bit extra motivation for rivalry games, but playing hard is a non-negotiable for us,” Ross pointed out.

“It’s about us doing the right things on the court and continuing to get better so that we are playing our best basketball at the right time.”

It didn’t take long for the Whippets to take command thanks to a 17-3 first quarter surge. And then junior standout Dylan Blair nailed two long 3-pointers in the closing seconds to make it 26-10 through the first eight minutes.

With senior forward George Bousum leading the way, East sliced the deficit to 10 early in the second period with nine straight point of their own, but then he was whistled for his third foul at the 3:45 mark. With Bousum on the bench, West proceeded to score the final dozen points to take a 41-19 edge into the break.

“(Bousum) is probably the best big man I’ve ever coached. So when he is out of the game, it hurts us big-time,” Grashof said.

“When you get out to a start like that it just propels you the rest of the game,” Warren explained. “We are a very competitive team and we just want to win games. No matter who you are playing against, you can’t play down.”

Despite substituting freely in the second half, the Whippets still managed to maintain a lead of about 20 points the rest of the way. Blair finished with a game-high 19 points, which included four 3-pointers. Warren scored 13 of his 16 in the first half, and senior guard Cooper Hardin chipped in 15 for West.

“Blair is a phenomenal player,” Grashof said. “And Warren was hitting his shots, and that was the difference. When they are both on, and the rest of their role players contributing, they are very tough. They could make some (postseason) noise.”

Bousum wound up with 16 points, Carl McClatchy added 11 and junior guard Connor Shanahan finished with 15 points despite drawing lots of defensive attention from the Whippets.

“(West) took away (Connor) Shanahan, which was smart, and we just adjusted too slow,” Grahsof said.

“The game plan was to get the ball out of (Shanahan’s) hand and it worked,” Ross added. “He is a very good player and we wanted to do our best to make him uncomfortable.”

West will conclude the regular season on Thursday against West Chester Henderson, looking to finish unbeaten in the division.

“We’ve been preaching in practice that the next two weeks are going to be games we need to have,” Warren said. “We want to be a top-five team heading into districts, and in order to do that we have to win out.”

Downingtown West 76, Downingtown East 53

Downingtown East                         10 9 12 22 — 53

Downingtown West                       26 15 14 21 — 76

DOWNINGTOWN EAST – Datil 1 0-2 2; Shanahan 5 2-3 15; D’Addezio 1 0-0 3; Bousum 3 9-12 16; McClatchy 3 4-7 11; Hill 3 0-0 6. Totals 16 14-24 53.

DOWNINGTOWN WEST – Hardin 6 1-2 15; Blair 7 1-2 19; Gage 1 1-3 4; Bell 2 0-0 4; Owsik 1 0-0 3; Poluch 2 0-0 5; Warren 6 1-1 16; Suarez 1 0-0 3; Fromhartz 2 1-2 6; Shelton 0 1-2 1. Totals 28 6-12 76.

Three pointers: Shanahan 3, Bousum, D’Addezio, McClatchy, Hardin 2, Blair 4, Gage, Owsik, Poluch, Warren 3, Suarez, Fromhartz.