District 1 6A playback game (11th place)
#15 DOWNINGTOWN WEST 58, #8 BENSALEM 45
The Owls fell behind early and spent the rest of the game playing catchup but never could dig their way out of their early hole.
“Downingtown West is a really good team – they’re really big,” Bensalem coach Ron Morris said. “They’re probably the biggest team we’ve played all year. The point guard is 6-1, another guy is 6-3, 6-5, 6-5 and 6-8, so they gave us trouble on defense.
“They pressed us early. It wasn’t like a trapping press, but it disrupted us, and we got down early 12-2, but we battled back. Our second quarter was amazing, our defensive effort stepped up. We held them to four points in the second quarter.”
“Jahmir Chatman came in and gave us some big minutes defensively. We got in a hole, but we kept it close. Noah is battling illness, so he played sick. He defended their point guard, who’s young, but he’s really good. Jaidyn Moffitt was really good underneath against their big kid.”
The Owls, who trailed 22-12 after one quarter, outscored the visiting Whippets 7-4 in the second quarter but still trailed 26-19 at the break. They still found themselves on the short end of a 39-31 heading into the fourth quarter.
“In the second half, Antonio (Morris) caught fire,” Morris said. “He had three 3s in the fourth and kept us in the game. We cut it to five. They called a charge as we scored, and it would have gone to three, so we were right there. Then we had to foul, and they made their foul shots – a credit to them.”
The Whippets connected on 7 of 11 from the foul line in the fourth quarter. Donovan Fromhartz scored eight of his game-high 27 points in the fourth quarter.
“Their kid 23 (Donovan Fromhartz) is really good,” Morris said. ‘He killed us on the glass, had a lot of putbacks and scored in transition. I think we did a really good job defensively on him – Micah White, Nate Cooper, Jahmir Chatman did a good job in their sets against him. He’s a really good basketball player. He’s a junior that already scored a thousand points, but he earned all the points he got.”
Antonio Morris and Jaidyn Moffitt both scored 13 points to lead the Owls. Morris scored all 13 of his points in the second half. Moffitt was 7-for-10 from the foul line. Noah Morris added nine points on three 3-pointers.
“Overall, it was a good team effort,” Morris said. “We battled. It’s tough this time of year. We’re a small team, and everyone we go against is big, so we have to be perfect. A couple of times it didn’t go our way, and we came up on the short end.
“At the end of the day, it’s really hard to make the state tournament, and we’re in it, so have have another game next Saturday. We’ll travel two hours to Cumberland Valley and be ready for war.”
Bensalem (19-8, 14-2 SOL) will face District 3 champion Cumberland Valley in Saturday’s opening round of the PIAA 6A State Tournament.
Downingtown West 22-4-13-19 58
Bensalem 12-7-12-14 45
Downingtown West (58) – Isaiah Hicklen 1 3-4 5; Antonio Lewis 1 5-6 7; Brady Moore 2 0-0 4; Jase Lasher 1 0-0 2; Ryan Barker 1 0-2 2; Donovan Fromhartz 10 6-7 27; Bob Coup 1 0-0 2; Zeke Staz 4 0-2 9; TOTALS 21 14-21 58.
Bensalem (45) – Antonio Morris 5 0-0 13; Noah Morris 3 0-0 9; Micah White 1 0-0 2; Amir Drummond 1 0-0 3; Nate Cooper 1 0-0 2; Jahmir Chatman 0 3-4 3; Jaidyn Moffitt 3 7-11 13; TOTALS 14 10-15 45.
3-point goals: Downingtown West – Donovan Fromhartz, Zeke Stoz; Bensalem – Antonio Morris 3, Noah Morris 3, Amir Drummond.
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