PW was edged by Conestoga in the District 1 6A title game. Photos provided courtesy of Michael Rice Photography, Greg Lindsay & Larry Small. Check back for a gallery of photos. CLICK HERE to go directly to Suburban One Sports' BOYS' BASKETBALL GALLERIES.
District 1 6A championship game
#3 Conetoga 54, #5 Plymouth Whitemarsh 50 (OT)
By Todd Thorpe
PHILADELPHIA - It was not the type of game Plymouth Whitemarsh coach Jim Donofrio wanted.
Third-seeded Conestoga - itself coming off an upset road win at Coatesville to earn a date in Friday’s District One Class 6A championship game at Saint Joseph’s Hagan Arena - was dictating the tempo. The Pioneers were minimizing turnovers, playing a disciplined matchup zone defense and were executing their half-court offense well. And they were shooting it to the tune of six first-half 3-pointers by five
different players.
Three minutes into the second half, the sixth-seeded Colonials found themselves trailing by 13.
PW got back into the game in a hurry, however, rallying to tie it and then force overtime. But in the extra period, Conestoga just executed better, especially on the free throw line where the Pioneers went 9-for-10 to win by a 54-50 final score.
“Hey, I told the kids, I’ve been through this time of year - this is what competition is,” Donofrio said. “Everyone is good. If you’re going to dare to dream greatly, dare to dream big, and try to want to do great things in life. It comes with joy, but it also comes with the risk of heartache. That’s way better than the people who are scared to have their hearts broken, so they don’t try anything.
“I’ve been through this a number of times. You’ve got a choice now. You’ve got a week (until the start of the state playoffs). You can let this make your heart strong, or you can let this get your chin to drop and go into next Saturday and regress more. Or you can find a way to get to the state semifinals, right?”
PW didn’t come out playing its game early, and as a result, thanks to hot shooting, Conestoga went up 26-17 at halftime and 30-17 in the third.
At that point, Donofrio decided to go small for defensive purposes, and it worked. With 6-foot junior Terron Davis and 6-3 senior Caleb Bridgeman inserted to replace 6-9 Michael Pereira and 6-6 Micah Thompson, the Colonials started to force turnovers and that led to easy buckets.
They went on a 13-2 run, and by the end of the quarter, Conestoga’s lead was down to 33-32.
“That’s an interesting matchup with Michael against (Conestoga’s Corey Hagan),” Donofrio said. “You know, the last three games, Michael and Micah, the two bigs, have been very elastic, covering smaller guys. That’s where their money went in our half-court defense.
“You look at Lower Merion, you look at Garnet Valley - all similar in the Central League, all three teams. Hoping we should be able to contest 3s, contest shots. We just kind of went back to just absentmindedness. And then what these kids have to grow up on is the fight and stuff. Taking balls out of your hands kind of stuff. That has to stop.
“At what point do you realize that the other guy wants to rip the ball out of your hands stronger and more than you do. That stuff, that was a regress tonight. I thought we had that figured out.
“There were crucial moments, I thought we had the right looks. You go fast, what a great effort and heart to not only tie the game but take a quick lead.”
In that key stretch, PW standout junior guard Mani Sajid heated up, scoring nine points in a row late on the way to a game-high 20 points.
“Coach Donofrio is a tremendous coach,” said Conestoga coach Sean Forcine. “Give them credit. We were taking advantage of their size with our speed, and he made the right call. They changed the tempo, but our boys were prepared. We never lost our composure. This isn’t the first game we’ve been pressured.”
The fourth quarter turned into a classic district final, as the teams battled back and forth. Back in the lineup, Pereira hit a bucket down low, and Thompson had four points in the paint. Sajid hit a deep 3-pointer with a minute left to tie the game at 41.
Conestoga’s Hagan took the ball strong to the basket to put his team in front with 32 seconds remaining. PW got the ball down low to Pereira, who put back his own miss to tie it up with 12 seconds left on the clock. The Pioneers couldn’t get a bucket to fall late, and the game went to overtime.
There, both teams had chances, but in the end it came down to protecting the ball and making free throws, and Conestoga did the job necessary to win the school’s first boys basketball district title since 1987.
PW (20-8) will play District Three’s fifth-place team, Wilson, in the opening round of the state playoffs next Saturday.
“You just need an edginess about you,” Donofrio said. “I think there was plenty of warning about it, but I just think the kids got a little bit regressed
from earlier in the season. Losing just about five percent edginess, not understanding that if I’m Conestoga and I just beat Coatesville at Coatesville, they’re going to be in the same mindset we’re in. We’re going to beat the world.
“We said that in the beginning of the week, prepping for this. I said, ‘I know we want to win this game in a great environment, we all do, but we also have to keep getting better.’
“I’ve made mistakes in years past where we want to win a District One title, but if you don’t win it, there’s actually a bigger event in seven days. How do you maintain - it’s kind of a coach’s job - the big vision? How do you maintain that?
“That’s why the speech was - that’s why the message was more about, ‘I know we want to win the district title, but you’ve never been here. You’ve got to understand how to play it, how you’re not going to be able to hear, how the other team’s going to play. So you hope the ball bounces in the right direction, you hope you learn and win ugly if you can.
“That’s what the message was. No matter what, I don’t think we’ve come close to peaking.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh 9 8 15 11 7 - 50
Conestoga 16 10 7 10 11 - 54
PW (50) - Mani Sajid 9 0-0 20; Michael Pereira 5 0-2 10; Buddy Denard 3 0-0 8; Micah Thompson 2 2-3 6; Terron Davis 2 2-2 6. Totals 21 4-7 50.
Conestoga (54) - Rowan Miller 3 5-6 13; Sam Gibbs 2 0-0 5; Ben Robinson 2 5-6 10; Shane O’Brien 2 4-4 9; Corey Hagan 8 0-0 17. Totals 17 14-16 54.
3-point goals: PW-Sajid 2, Denard 2; C-Miller 2, Gibbs, Robinson, O’Brien, Hagan
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