Malone scores 29, Plymouth Whitemarsh tops Chester for District 1-AAAA title
PHILADELPHIA >> The Plymouth Whitemarsh boys basketball team never blinked. They trailed district power Chester by six points in the third quarter and four at the beginning of the fourth and stood their ground.
The second-seeded Colonials dominated the fourth quarter – outscoring the ninth-seeded Clippers by 15 points – and won the District One Class AAAA championship, 68-57, Friday night at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia.
“You can’t change what you are,” PW coach Jim Donofrio said of his team playing a fast-paced game with Chester. “We know how to defend. You never blink. You’re going to go in and do what you’re supposed to do. They are Chester. They are proud and they are talented and they are tough-minded and they are the best in the state in history. You want that challenge.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh’s Xzavier Malone, right, tries to outrun Chester’s Stanley Davis to the basket in the District 1-AAAA championship at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia on Friday, Feb. 26, 2016. (Robert Gurecki/Digital First Media)
Junior Matt Walker hit a three in the first 30 seconds of the fourth to bring the Colonials within one and a minute later senior Oakley Spencer hit two free throws to give the Colonials a 50-49 lead that they would never relinquish.
It was senior Xzavier Malone, however, who put the game away. The Rider commit scored 13 of his game-high 29 points in the fourth quarter, including three dunks.
“I wanted the ball – coach was demanding me to get the ball,” Malone said. “A couple times I couldn’t get it because they would faceguard me really hard and double me. It was really hard to get the ball a couple times. I just kept trying to fight through the defenders and the double-teams and all that to try to get the ball and things just went our way tonight. We got the W and I’m really proud of my teammates, they stepped up.”
Malone was 5-for-8 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter and made an impact on defense. After his first dunk, which gave PW a 52-49 lead with 5:47 on the clock, Malone dropped back to the top of his own key and slapped the floor, keeping the PW student section in a frenzy.
The defense maintained that intensity and sealed the game with two minutes left. The Colonials held a four-point lead, 60-56, and Chester’s next three possessions were turnovers – along with 28 in the first 30 minutes of the game.
Spencer grabbed a steal to set up senior Kevin Ashenfelter for a pair of free throws, which he split.
Sophomore Ahmin Williams grabbed the next two steals, which resulted in Spencer going 1-for-2 on free throws and Ashenfelter 2-for-2 to make the score 64-56 with less than 30 seconds left.
“To watch the confidence in Oakley and Ahmin and Ahmad (Williams) on the floor in the fourth quarter,” Donofrio said. “The positioning – they put a lot of work into the specifics of things and their confidence was through the roof. Just something about it this year – it felt like it might work out.”
Malone put a pair of exclamation points on the win with two highlight-reel dunks in the final 10 seconds.
“The end of the game, it was unreal,” Malone said. “When I dunked it, the first person I looked at was my brother in the stands. When I looked at him he just gave me that look like – game over – you got it. It was a very emotional feeling. As soon as I dunked it, they took one more shot and the game was over. I almost wanted to cry, but I tried to hold it in.”
Spencer joined Malone in double figures with 11 points and eight other Colonials scored between two and five points.
The district championship is PW’s sixth and first since 1998.
The Colonials will get a couple of days to enjoy the win before preparing for the state tournament, which begins Saturday.
