Plymouth Whitemarsh upends Spring-Ford to capture long-awaited District 1 title

PHILADELPHIA >> Plymouth Whitemarsh set some lofty goals for itself this season but there was one in particular that meant a whole lot to the Colonials.

No defeat in recent years had stung more than last year’s District 1 6A title game, where the Colonials lost to Spring-Ford on the Rams’ home floor and ended their season thanks to the COVID-19-altered playoff format. That loss served as fuel for the Colonials all season, time each practice spent in homage to what lost that game, each win a step closer back to the championship.

That the opportunity to make amends came against the same program that had foiled them a year ago was only a sweetener for the Colonials.

Top-seeded Plymouth Whitemarsh did what it came to do, stopping No. 11 Spring-Ford 49-31 at Temple’s Liacouras Center to win the District 1 6A girls’ basketball title on Saturday.

“It felt even better because we did it right back to them,” PW junior Erin Daley said. “We felt they took it away from us last year and I think that is really what was hard on us, not only did they take the district championship, but they ended our season.

“We did it for all of us here and we did it for last year’s seniors too.”

GIRLS BASKETBALL FINAL: (1) @PWHSGirlsBBall 49, (11) @GbbFord 31
Colonials finish this part of the mission, getting some payback for last season’s loss in District 1 title game with a complete win
Valiant run by Spring-Ford falls short in final but Rams have a lot coming back pic.twitter.com/R5GFEeZUnI

— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) March 5, 2022

Even for a team that starts three college-bound seniors and two juniors fielding Division I interest, there was still an adjustment period to the atmosphere and size of the venue at Temple. Save for a brief 2-2 tie early in the first quarter, PW never trailed but that didn’t mean the Colonials came out firing on all cylinders early either.

Senior point guard Kaitlyn Flanagan, who directed the Colonials brilliantly with 11 points, eight assists and lockdown defense, said the idea was to get any nerves out of their system in warm-ups. Putting words into action, Flanagan also took charge early with a more aggressive approach than usual for a couple baskets plus two assists as PW built an 11-4 lead after eight minutes.

“I have to look for myself sometimes,” Flanagan said. “It did end up helping later on, it got my teammates open when they realized they were going to have to guard me.”

As it has been much of the season, Plymouth Whitemarsh’s defense was the difference maker. Colonials coach Dan Dougherty said Spring-Ford is a difficult team to guard because the Rams do such a good job of orchestrating their offense without many sets, instead moving the ball to set up mismatches.

It was that approach that burned PW in the title game last year, so the Colonials have spent all season sharpening their man-to-man defense as a continual reminder. Between their combination of size, speed and closeouts, it added up to a defensive effort that disrupted a usually fluid Rams offense.

“They take up a lot of space with their size and length and a number of other teams do not have that capability,” Spring-Ford coach Mickey McDaniel said. “They made it a little more difficult for us to get North-South, they forced us more East-West and took us away from attacking the rim. That’s a credit to them and what they are, which is an experience-laden team.”

Plymouth Whitemarsh senior forwards Jordyn Thomas and Lainey Allen noted the importance of their ability to stay in front of guards knowing S-F wanted to try and switch on to either of them defensively.

“We knew whenever they get switched onto a forward, it’s kind of their ‘go-time,’ so we really wanted to keep them in front,” Thomas said. “We couldn’t come off our feet, which we can do by just playing solid defense.”

Allen, who scored 12 points with seven rebounds, cited the importance of every defender closing out hard on the Rams’ spread of good shooters.

“It was a big part of our plan,” the 6-foot-2 forward said. “We drilled in close-outs where you were in their face, they can’t see, they can’t shoot. I think we executed and got in their heads, they were missing shots, we got rebounds and were able to play the way we wanted.”

Still, the Colonials only held a 13-9 lead after Spring-Ford’s Anna Azzara – who led the Rams with 13 points – stuck a three with 5:34 left in the second quarter. With S-F doing a good job defensively of not giving up on cutters or allowing passes into the posts, the Colonials let Abby Sharpe go to work in the midrange.

The junior guard went on a roll, scoring 11 points in the frame that included the last nine for her team capped with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer that gave PW a 24-9 halftime advantage.

“Our bigs set such good screens, my girl got stuck a couple times and the midrange is something we work on,” Sharpe, who led PW with 16 points, said. “I’m confident so when I saw the next girl coming up to help, I told myself ‘just pull it.’ My teammates kept telling me to keep shooting that shot and they kept going in so it was really good momentum.”

No matter the circumstance, Spring-Ford isn’t a team that gives up. It’s part of the reason the Rams, with five sophomores in their top seven rotation players, won a PAC title and got to Temple in the first place.

They fought all second half, getting within 31-17 with 1:36 left in the third before PW responded with another run. The Rams came to Broad Street to win, so they weren’t settling for just the experience of getting to the title game earlier than many would have predicted but their coach believed his competitive team would learn from the setback going into the state tournament next week.

“We are proud of what the girls have accomplished to get to the championship game. It has been an amazing run through the PACs and the Districts. PW is good and has composure that only comes with experience and age,” McDaniel said. “Being in this game with that level of competition against one of the top teams in the state is the best thing we could have earned so far in this 21-22 journey. This group is so resilient which was evident in the second half, so we will learn from this experience and get right back to work to prepare for the final mini season, the state tournament.”

The Colonials came down to Temple on a mission, but the mission didn’t consume them to the point where they couldn’t even enjoy it. As the final seconds waxed off the clock, Daley released the ball and embraced Flanagan, Sharpe soon joining as did the rest of the team off the bench as the buzzer sounded.

Next week brings more work, but the more important task was to celebrate a much-wanted goal getting checked off.

“They’re such a close-knit group, we talk all the time that basketball games don’t define your friendships,” PW coach Dan Dougherty said. “They don’t put that pressure on each other, there’s no cattiness, nobody’s here chasing stats. Sure, 30 years from now, it’s great to say you got to hold a district championship but at the end of the day, you’re still best friends.”