Plymouth Whitemarsh defeated Lower Merion to earn a date with Ridley in a District One AAAA semifinal game at Temple University on Wednesday. To view photos of the PW/Lower Merion game, please visit the Photo Gallery.
Coach Jim Donofrio apparently said all the right things at halftime of Friday night’s District One AAAA quarterfinal game against Lower Merion. How else can you explain the complete turnaround by the Colonials, who trailed 19-11 at the intermission but rallied for a 47-36 win over the Aces in front of a raucous crowd that packed Colonial Elementary School.
So what exactly did the veteran coach tell his squad?
“It was just a little advice that if you want to continue to not do what you are trained to do, then you’re going to be in the consolation game on Tuesday night, so let’s just start thinking of where that game’s going to be,” Donofrio said.
The Colonials next game is not going to be a consolation game but rather the district semifinal at Temple University’s Liacouras Center. It is the program’s first trip to the district semifinals since 2011 when PW fell to Council Rock North but then went on to the state semifinals.
“It’s been three years, and this group hears a lot about that stuff, but this crowd here was one of the biggest we’ve ever had,” Donofrio said. “We had about 600 students here, the biggest we’ve ever had. It was just a great high school environment.
“Lower Merion had a lot of student support and fan support. It was two highly successful programs going at it, and it was fun.”
The first half wasn’t all that much fun for the Colonials or their fans. The Aces intentions were obvious from the outset, and they executed their game plan to perfection, forcing the Colonials settle for an 8-8 tie after one quarter.
“The first half we came out a little timid,” senior Andre Mitchell said. “When they started to hold the ball, we didn’t know what to do.
“It was a very, very smart move by their coach. We were totally unprepared for it. We got up 5-3 at one point, and they went into a delay, which was beautiful, and the next thing you know – they held the ball for like a minute and then got a layup. We knew if the game kept going like that – they would take like 12 minutes off of the game, and we wouldn’t even know it.”
Things only got worse in a second quarter that saw the Colonials score just three points while the Aces opened up an eight-point halftime lead (19-11).
“We kind of got away from playing our style of defense that we like to play, so at halftime, coach D just reminded us that we’re here for a reason, we have the four seed for a reason, and he reminded us to play our style of defense, and that’s what got us here,” Mitchell said.
“What Lower Merion is tremendous at is ball control,” Donofrio said. “(Coach Gregg Downer) went to his spread offense immediately in the first half. Basically, PW-Lower Merion is the immovable object against the irresistible force.
“They won the first half with that strategy, and what we had to do was decide this has got to be an 85-foot game. We’ve got to engage the ball handler at the 80-foot or the 70-foot mark. Once they got over half court, they would just spread and hold and cut backdoor on you. I watched him win three state titles doing that. Our kids weren’t quite trusting it in the first half, and we were sitting back. Some of that has to do is we’ve never really been this far with this group.”
The Colonials came out of halftime and wasted little time before seizing control, outscoring the Aces 20-8 in the third quarter to take a 31-27 lead into the final quarter. They closed it out with a 16-9 fourth quarter.
Defense was the name of the game for the Colonials in the second half.
“If we don’t get them before they get over half court, the game is over,” Donofrio said. “For some reason, our guys decided to believe it.
“Jimmy (Murray), X (Xzavier Malone) and Andre (Mitchell) were just terrific in terms of guard play in the different presses, and they just turned this thing around 180. I didn’t know if we could do it. This is Lower Merion – they have such great confidence and prestige. I think our kids were just dumbfounded that they actually were that disciplined to hold the ball that long, and they spaced so beautifully.
“It took them a half to understand that if you want this game, you’re going to have to literally go get this game at the base line, but that’s what we do. For some reason, we just hesitated being us for a half. I don’t know why.”
“We’re a team that thrives off our defense,” Mitchell added. “We know if our offense isn’t there then our defense will help us out in transition to get easy baskets, easy layups.
“We had to remind ourselves that we wanted to play our style. Lower Merion – for the whole first half – controlled the game beautifully. They played their style, so at halftime, we had to tell ourselves that – all right, we’ve got to speed this game up, we’ve got to try to rattle them, we’ve got to try to get this game back in our style.”
The Aces scored 17 points in the second half, but three of those came from the foul line with time wounding down when a Lower Merion player was fouled taking a shot from beyond the arc.
“We kept our starting five in the entire second half, and they were all terrific,” Donofrio said. “You can’t press and trap like that with just three guys.
“Cameron Johnson and Devon Monteiro-Gray, in particular, who covered (Jule) Brown, just did a terrific job and was very solid defensively. He (Monteiro-Gray) has replaced Mike Lotito since he got hurt, and he’s been great. The energy – these kids really defend. It was such a defensive performance in the second half. It was amazing how the kids locked down, and as long as we do that, we have a shot going forward to be in the game.”
A driving force for the Colonials has been the memory of last year’s early exit from districts that saw PW upset by Central Bucks West in the second round. Their season ended with a loss to Wissahickon in a playback game.
“Our loss last year to CB West in the second round really motivated us throughout the playoffs,” Mitchell said. “It knocked us out after Wissahickon, and we were kind of down, so we knew coming into this year that we were going to use that loss as fuel, so every time we got too high on ourselves, we all just reminded ourselves it could be over in the blink of an eye if one team is more hungry than we are.
“This means the world to us right now. We came into the season setting goals along the way. Our first goal was a top four seed in the district, which we accomplished. Our second goal was to make it to states, which we accomplished, and our third goal was to make it to the final four. Hopefully, we get to work on our other goal which is to actually win the district for the first time since 1997.”
Making Friday’s win even sweeter was the fact that the Colonials did it on their home court in front of a packed house.
“It was crazy,” Mitchell said. “You play basketball just to play in games like that. It was a complete sellout, over capacity crowd, and you just feed off that energy.”
Malone led a balanced PW attack with 15 points while Mitchell added 13 and Murray, 11 points. Monteiro-Gray had six points and Johnson, two points.
The Colonials will face the winner of Monday’s Methacton-Pennsbury game in Wednesday’s semifinal.
“There’s something special about these guys,” Donofrio said. “They’re starting to buy in.
“Last year’s heartache is paying dividends this year. It’s fascinating how much energy and mileage they’re getting out of being disappointed, and we’ll use that as long as we can. I was so happy for them.”
Lower Merion 8-11-8-9 36
Plymouth Whitemarsh 8-3-20-15 47
Lower Merion (36) – Corey Sherman 9, Steve Pendleton 15, Eli needle 2, KJ Helton 4, Jule Brown 6.
Plymouth Whitemarsh (47) – Jimmy Murray 11, Cameron Johnson 2, Xzavier Malone 15, Andre Mitchell 13, Devon Monteiro-Gray 6.
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