CB West, Abington and Pennsbury advanced to Friday’s district quarterfinals. The three teams also clinched berths in the state tournament. To view photos of the CB West/PW game, please visit the Photo Gallery.
#22 Central Bucks West 37, #6 Plymouth Whitemarsh 35
It’s not every day that Plymouth Whitemarsh gets shut out in a quarter. It’s also not every day that the Colonials get beat on their home court. But on Tuesday night, both of those things happened – against a team with a significantly lower seed than PW.
Central Bucks West, the No. 22 seed, outscored the Colonials 8-0 in the second quarter, took a seven-point lead into the half and hung up for a two-point win in a District One Class AAAA second round playoff at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.
The win vaulted CB West (15-9) to the quarterfinals for a Friday night meeting with the winner of Wednesday’s West Chester Rustin – Wissahickon game, while sending PW to the state playoff playback round.
More importantly, the Bucks punched their ticket into the state tournament with Tuesday’s upset.
“I’m really happy for my team,” CB West coach Adam Sherman said. “I told them I was proud of them and the kids did a great job. They played great defense and they did a great job of controlling the tempo and they found a way to win.”
The sixth-seeded Colonials (20-4) tried climbing their way back in the second half, outscoring the Bucks in each of the final two quarters, but CB West’s defense stepped up as well as it has all year when it needed to the most.
“Coach Sherman really prepared us,” said Jared Kelly, who scored 13 of his team-high 16 points in the first half. “He has been watching a lot of film and he knew what they’d throw at us and when. He prepared us so well in practice and they put a ton of energy into practice for us for what we were going to face.”
With Kelly putting up points, PW was forced to double-team the point guard, but that didn’t stop him.
“They were throwing 2-3 guys at him and he just did a fantastic job of controlling the game,” Sherman said of Kelly. “The defense was a team effort and the guys did a great job of communicating and it was just an all-around nice effort.”
Regarding the second quarter shutout, Sherman said, “I didn’t even realize it was while it was happening. I was so focused on the game and the next possession the whole time.”
CB West’s Kyle Salvitti, who finished with six points, hit a three-pointer from the corner in the final minute to put the Bucks up by two. The Colonials unsuccessfully attempted a game-tying jumper at the buzzer.
Pat Kelley added 12 points for the Bucks, who will wait until Wednesday night to see who their next opponent is.
“We’re going to go into our next game with confidence and believe in everything to get a win,” Kelly said. “We’ll just do our stuff in practice and find out who we play and Coach Sherman will give us what we need to know about that team.”
In the loss, the Colonials were led by Jimmy Murray’s 16 points.
Central Bucks West 11 8 6 12—37
Plymouth Whitemarsh 12 0 10 13—35
#5 Pennsbury 67, #12 Oxford 50
A balanced scoring attack is good for any team. For Pennsbury, 19, 17 and 16-point efforts from its top three scorers, respectively, were the difference in Tuesday night’s game.
Mekhi Bryant, Cameron Jones and Steve Ciotti all stepped up on the offensive side of the ball and helped the fifth-seeded Falcons to a 17-point victory over Oxford in a District One Class AAAA second round playoff at Pennsbury High School.
“It was a good win,” Pennsbury coach Bill Coleman said. “We knew that coming in, Oxford was a senior-dominated team that would not quit. They’ve been together for a long time and regardless of that, we were going to cut into it. Our guys responded and were able to fight back and take the punch and move on, so that was good.”
No. 12 Oxford (19-7) went down by seven after one quarter and Pennsbury never allowed the Chargers to come back, taking a 10-point lead into the half before eventually closing things out in the fourth quarter.
Regarding the team’s balanced scoring, Jones, a junior who finished with 17 points, said: “It’s huge when you have three guards scoring in high double-digits. It helps us out a lot. That’s where most of our points came from tonight and it really keeps us up with winning.”
The win puts Pennsbury into the district quarterfinals, where the Falcons will visit No. 4 Spring-Ford, which beat No. 20 Harriton on Tuesday night. Earlier this season, Pennsbury beat Spring-Ford, but Coleman and Jones both know that this is a much different team they will be facing.
“I think it’s going to help us playing them before since we know how they are on the court,” Jones said, “but we’re going to go into the game like we’ve never beaten them and play hard like any other playoff game.”
“We ended up winning last time, but it’s a very different team, and they have what we want – the No. 4 spot – and we want to take that away from them,” Coleman said. “We are going to expect a battle. We’re going to have our hands full on Friday night.”
Bryant’s 19 points led Pennsbury on Tuesday night. Ciotti added 16, while Lewis Troh finished with eight. Musty Mahumd paced Oxford with 19.
Any playoff win is big, but Tuesday’s win marked the 900th victory for Pennsbury in the program’s 61-year history. And this win gave the Falcons a coveted state playoff berth.
Oxford 9 16 14 11—50
Pennsbury 16 19 14 18—67
#7 Abington 53, #23 Haverford 34
Alas, after an undefeated conference season and a favorable No. 7 seed in the District One tournament, Abington finally has its rematch with Chester set.
One year after losing to the Clippers in a district semifinal, the Ghosts find themselves preparing to face Chester again, thanks to a 19-point win over visiting Haverford in a District One Class AAAA second round playoff on Tuesday night. They also ensured themselves a return trip to the state tournament.
Junior Matt Penecale led Abington with 16 points, six rebounds, two steals and zero turnovers while playing all 32 minutes in the convincing victory over the 23rd-seeded Fords (14-10).
“Once we got some easy baskets, we got going,” Abington coach Charles Grasty said.
The Ghosts and Fords played to a 7-7 tie after one quarter, but a 6-0 run to end the first half helped Abington to a 20-15 halftime lead. The Ghosts stretched that to a 12-0 run with six consecutive free throw makes by Amir Hinton in the third quarter, allowing Abington (21-3) to run away with the win.
Senior Anthony Lee had a big game for the Ghosts, tallying 13 points on 6-for-13 shooting while also adding five steals, four assists and three rebounds.
“Tonight was a big win. In the beginning, we played slow, but when we switched up to 2-3 defense, that helped,” Lee said.
The Ghosts, who will visit Chester Friday night at 7, know that while this may not be the same powerhouse Chester team as last year (or the previous few years), it’s still Chester – and it’s still going to be in the Clippers’ gym.
“We’re going up to Chester and they’re still Chester. You could talk about them not being as good this year, but they’re a No. 2 seed for a reason,” Grasty said. “We have to prepare.”
The Ghosts also received 10 points from Hinton, while Jordan Neely added six. Scott Brown added a nice fourth-quarter spark with a pair of baskets.
As the fourth quarter clock wound down, the Abington student section, as it did last year, chanted “We want Chester!” over and over again.
The Ghosts are hoping for a much different result this time.
Haverford 7 8 5 14—34
Abington 7 13 14 19—53
#2 Chester 64, #18 Souderton 33
Chester went on a 12-0 run in the second quarter and pulled away from Souderton, eventually defeating the Indians by 31 points in a District One Class AAAA second round playoff at Chester High School on Tuesday night.
The second-seeded Clippers (19-5) were led by Mahir Johnson’s 15 points. Chester went up 15-6 after one quarter before Souderton, the No. 18 seed, fought back early in the second. Chester pulled away with a 17-4 third quarter advantage.
The Indians, who now sit at 14-10 overall, will face Haverford in a play-back game on Friday night. The Fords lost in another second round playoff to Abington, which will visit Chester on Friday night in the quarterfinals.
Souderton was led by Carter Knight’s 13 points in the losing effort. Tracy Simsick and Steve Shaffer added six apiece for the Indians.
Souderton 6 14 4 9—33
Chester 15 17 17 15—64
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