Penn Wood boys basketball powers past Pennsbury in District 1 playoff (VIDEO)
FALLS TWP. – Together, Penn Wood senior reserves Javon Lindsey-Terrell and Sharif Goff accounted for just three points in the first quarter of the Patriots’ District 1 Class 6A second-round matchup against Pennsbury.
The duo finished with 33 points for the game, however, as visiting No. 11 seed Penn Wood upset the sixth-seeded Falcons, 71-55, Tuesday night to advance to states and a D-1 quarterfinal Friday at No. 3 seed Abington, a 41-32 winner over 19th-seeded Norristown.
“Their two guys off the bench – number 30 and 5 – they came in and coach said they put up 33 points. That kills a team like us,” admitted Pennsbury senior Mark Flagg, who led all scorers with 22 points.
“We didn’t really prepare for them as much because they weren’t starters. But they came in and they played great.”
“We identified three shooters that they have – solid shooters – 15 (Jay Fitzgerald, 5 (Lindsey-Terrell) and 30 (Goff),” added Falcons head coach Bill Coleman. “And it seemed that our guys just missed the rotation on it.”
With his team’s second consecutive loss in a District 1 opener – Pennsbury dropped a first-round game last year to CB East – the coach was in no mood for excuses.
“They just outplayed us tonight, overall,” added Coleman. “No matter what defense we played, no matter what offense we ran, they just outplayed us.”
After taking a 35-27 lead into the locker room, Penn Wood expanded its lead to 19 by the end of the third quarter.
PW senior Pernell Ghee got an early putback basket and a reverse layup to put the Patriots up 39-29 less than three minutes into the second half. Later on in the third period, classmate Kairi Jones hit a 3-point play and Goff canned back-to-back 3-point jumpers, expanding the visitors’ edge to 50-33.
The Falcons never drew within single digits again.
Pennsbury was able to stay with the Patriots for the first 12 minutes, but that’s all. A one-hander off the glass by Flagg and a putback basket by classmate Joey Monaghan deadlocked the score at 19-all midway through the second period.
After a 3-pointer by junior Raylil Winton-Law cut a 5-point deficit down to two, Penn Wood went on tear, recording a 10-2 run highlighted by a pair of treys by Lindsey-Terrell in the last 90 seconds of the first half.
An eight-point shortfall became 19 by the end of the third period as the Patriots posted up with seven shots made from the floor in the quarter, with Goff coming through for the visitors with a putback basket and two-3-pointers in the stanza. Penn Wood also got a pair of field goals from Ghee in the quarter and solo shots from Jones and senior Rashaad Anderson.
Flagg started the final frame with a steal then followed by going coast-to-coast with a layup. Later on in the fourth quarter, he hit his second 3-pointer in the game then added a driving layup. None of those efforts got his team closer than 16 points in the contest, however.
“They were packing it in and we just couldn’t hit the threes tonight like we usually do,” said Flagg. “They were putting bodies on big guys and they just out-physicaled us.”
When the Patriots weren’t driving the lane, they made shots – six 3-pointers and five jumpers accounted for 28 Penn Wood points.
“We thought they were more of a team that got to the basket more – slashers,” said Flagg. “But they shot the ball really well.”
Conversely, it was a difficult shooting night for the Falcons. Senior Addison Howard made his first 3-point shot but he missed his next five.
“I felt like I was getting a lot of good looks, a lot of looks that teams usually don’t give me,” stated Howard. “I was wide open the whole game, I just couldn’t get it in. I was leaving it short.”
Howard was a freshman on the Pennsbury team that had a fourth-quarter lead on Chester in the District 1 championship three years ago. He was a starter on the team that lost to two-time PIAA champion Roman Catholic by the slimmest of margins two years ago.
“Our first two years, it just looked like it was so easy to get to Temple, to get to Villanova,” We just thought for us it was going to be the exact same route. We thought it was easy to get to districts but it’s not.
“We took how good (2015 grads) Cameron (Jones), Mekhi (Bryant) and Derrick (Woods) were for granted.
“We didn’t realize how much effort they put in outside of practice.”
Jones has moved on to Saint Peter’s (N.J.), Woods to Saint Bonaventure and Bryant to Baltimore County Community College.
Meanwhile, Flagg is taking his game to Saint Francis (Loretto, Pa.). But first, there’s a task left at hand at Pennsbury. In order to advance, the Falcons must win District 1 playback battles Friday, Feb. 24 and Tuesday, Feb. 28 in order to make it to a PIAA qualifying round on Friday, March 3.
The first item on the agenda is Norristown Friday night at the Falcons Nest. The 19th-seeded Eagles, now 13-11 on the season, lost to No. 3 seed Abington after a 51-43 opening tournament win over No. 14 Downingtown East.
District 1-Class 6A Tournament
Penn Wood 71, Pennsbury 55
(Feb. 21 at Pennsbury)
Pennsbury 11 16 8 20 – 55
Penn Wood 13 22 19 17 – 71
PENN WOOD (17-7) — Rashaad Anderson 7, Kairi Jones 8, Vincent Smalls 2, Javon Lindsey-Terrell 15, Pernell Ghee 10, Jay Fitzgerald 7, Keith Farmer 4, Kenny Ngaima 1, Sharif Goff 18. TOTALS: 26 13-23 71.
PENNSBURY (15-9) — Raylil Winton-Law 3, Addison Howard 7, Billy Warren 6, Tyler Sessa-Reeves 2, Joey Monaghan 6, Chad Weldon 2, Mark Flagg 22, Jake Martell 3, Corey Dea 1, Andre Burch 3. TOTALS: 20 11-20 55.
3-POINT GOALS: PW — Lindsey-Terrell 3, Goff 2, Fitzgerald; P — Winton-Law, Howard, Flagg 2.
