Plymouth Whitemarsh & CB West earned wins in Saturday’s PIAA Quad-A opening round on Saturday.
[1-1] Plymouth Whitemarsh Colonials 81, [3-8] Lebanon Cedars 41.
Plymouth Whitemarsh head coach Jim Donofrio felt that one of two things could happen to his PIAA Quad-A District One champions in the first round of the state playoffs.
“You can come into a game like this either flat or with a lot of adrenalin,” said Donofrio. “We played for 32 minutes with a lot of adrenalin and the way that a No.1 seed should play out of District One.”
And the No. 1 player – Colonial senior Xzavier Malone – from the No. 1 team from District One – PW – played a magnificent game with a 30-point scoring performance.
“Xzavier was very, very good,” understated Donofrio of his Rider-bound tri-captain. “It wasn’t like he was scoring easy baskets on breakaway dunks.
“His jumper was going good from the perimeter,” added Donofrio. “And he scored a lot of baskets on some slashing moves to the rim.”
Lebanon – who earned the final seed from District Three – kept the game close on the scoreboard for the first period and trailed the Colonials 16-11. However, PW outscored the Cedars 46-12 over the second and third periods to coast to the win.
“It was great to be up by 20 points and halftime and to be able to come out in the third period and extend the lead,” said Donofrio, whose team led 38-18 at halftime. “When you can get a game like this – especially in the state playoffs – it is great to be able to have 13 players get touches.”
The final numbers had 12 of those 13 Colonials get points next to their respective names in the scorebook. Sophomore Ahim Williams was the lone player – other than Malone – to reach double figures with 12 points.
“There are a lot of teams that don’t see the pressure that we bring and don’t have the experience to handle it,” said Donofrio. “I think that it what happened today.”
And the result was a scathing 40-point victory for PW over its District 3 opponent and a date with [11-2] Bangor (26-2) next Wednesday (3/9/16) in a PIAA Quad-A state tournament game.
Lebanon Cedars 11-7-5-18 * 41
Plymouth Whitemarsh 16-22-24-19 * 81
L: Shaquell Ortiz 11, Dante Vargas 10, Daniel Caricabeur 6, Camryn Shaak 5, Luis Aquino-Rios 4, Justin Baker 3, Khalique Washington 2.
PW: Xzavier Malone 30, Ahim Williams 12, Oakley Spencer 9, Ahmad Williams 8, Mike Lotito 4, Matt Walker 4, Davon Burrell 3, Danny Cooper 3, Alan Glover 2, Devon Lawrence 2, Naheem McCleod 2, Grady Minick 2.
[1-6] CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 60, [3-2] CENTRAL YORK 55
The Bucks put on a dazzling display of shooting from beyond the arc, connecting on 11-of-17 shots from three-point range. The result was an impressive win over District 3 runner-up Central York in what amounted to a home game for the Panthers in front of a sell-out crowd at West York High School.
“We’re pretty excited to still be playing and one of the 16 teams still left,” said coach Adam Sherman. “We’re happy with the result, and we’re excited to go on to the next round.”
Luke Irons led the Bucks with 18 points while Bill Power added 14. Cal Reichwein (13 points) and Connor Lynch (12 points) had the hot hands from the outside – both connected on four three-pointers.
The Bucks served early notice that they were not intimidated by the ‘home’ crowd, opening up a 20-15 lead after one quarter.
“We shot the ball well from the perimeter, we shot well from the free-throw line,” Sherman said. “I thought that was very important going in, and that worked out well for us in the beginning.
“They played a defensive style that we were familiar with. They really tried to give a lot of help, and we were able to take advantage of it. We hit a lot of open shots, which was huge.”
West took a 32-23 lead into halftime, but Central York cut into that, outscoring the Bucks 10-5 in the third quarter to make it a 37-33 game heading into the final quarter. Reichwein connected on back-to-back-to-back threes to put the Bucks on top by 13 early in the fourth quarter, but the Panthers came roaring back, pulling to within 53-50.
“Their two big guns are Jared Wagner and Nathan Markey, and they hit some tough shots,” Sherman said. “We had a couple of empty possessions, and they hit some huge shots to get it close.”
A layup by Bill Power stretched that lead back to five, and Irons sank clutch foul shots down the stretch to seal the win.
“It’s a great group of kids that really bought into it and put the time in and invested,” Sherman said. “You try and teach kids from day one that if you work hard good things will happen.
“You want to see that come true for this group. To see them work so hard and to see them have the success they’re having, we’re hoping that we’ll see this feed into some of our younger guys.”
Irons and Erich Hohenleitner contributed four rebounds and three assists while Reichwein also had three assists.
With the win, the Bucks improved to 24-6 on the season – they broke the school record for wins in a season, which was previously held by Sherman’s 2011-12 squad with 23.
Central Bucks West will face defending state champion Roman Catholic – the District 12 champion – in Wednesday’s second round of the PIAA Quad-A Tournament.
Central Bucks West 20-12-5-23 60
Central York 15-8-10-22 55
CB West: Bill Power 14, Luke Irons 18, Connor Lynch 12, Cal Reichwein 13, Erich Hohenleitner 2, Jake Reichwein 1.
Central York: Onterio Edmonds 2, Tommy O’Neill 4, Nathan Markey 6, Jared Wagner 18, Niko Sobestanovich 7, Courtney Betts 6.
[11-2] BANGOR 57, [1-7] CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 37
By Scott Huff
Bethlehem – Moments after Central Bucks East was jettisoned from the PIAA Quad-A state basketball playoffs with a deceiving 57-37 opening round loss to Bangor – a trio of Patriot seniors were asked to reflect on the still very successful season in an almost empty corridor outside the Freedom High School locker room.
“Even though we lost today, we know that we accomplished something,” said CB East senior Justin O’Neil. “We had a bad year last year with all the injuries, and we knew we would have the experience this year to be a good team.”
“There was a lot of camaraderie on this team,” added CB East senior Tommy Strasburger. “But when we look back at the season we will know it was a good one. But this loss is still very disappointing.”
“We came together as a team this year,” said CB East senior Blake Peterson. “But we all knew that we could have beaten this team.”
In fact, the Patriots did have the Slaters beat on the scoreboard in the third period. O’Neil – who scored a team-high 11 points – had given CBE a 25-22 lead with 4:12 left in the third quarter.
That was the good news – the bad news was that Bangor went on an 18-2 run over the next 8:50 to take control of the game at 40-27.
“We needed to get stops defensively, and we didn’t get them,” said CB East head coach Erik Henrysen. “And we needed to attack offensively, and we didn’t do that either.
“They are very long and athletic and they sagged back in that 2-3 zone,” added Henrysen. “We settled for some jump shots – for some reason we were reluctant to get the ball into the paint.”
The contest was close after three periods with the District 11 runner-up leading by just 31-27 going into the final frame. However, the Slaters erupted for 26 points in the final period – most coming on trips to the free throw line late in the quarter when the Patriots were forced to foul – and now Bangor will meet the No. 1 seed from District One – Plymouth Whitemarsh – in a second round game next Wednesday (3/9/16).
There is no tomorrow, though, for this fine CB East team.
“We were the first CB East team in 32 years to get to states,” said Henrysen. “We accomplished quite a lot this season – but this loss is still very disappointing.”
The disappointment of being highly competitive for 24 minutes grew into painful frustration in the final eight minutes. It proved to be a miserable end to a very joyous season.
Central Bucks East Patriots 8-10-9-10 * 37
Bangor Slaters 10-10-11-26 * 57
CBE: Justin O’Neil 11, Tommy Strasburger 8, Matt Pattyson 6, Tiemo Fenner 3, Blake Peterson 2, Sean Dann 2, Cooper Fink 2, Elijah Seger 2, Ryan Plack 1.
B: Michael Martino 15, Dylan Benton 14, Reece Jones 11, Seth Benton 11, Ben Holland 2, Josh Field 2, Isaiah Jones 1, Cam Strohe 1.
[3-1] READING 61, [1-10] HATBORO-HORSHAM 44
The seeding suggested this wasn’t supposed to be much of a game, but apparently nobody told the Hatters, who stunned the Red Knights with a 19-1 second quarter tear to go into halftime with a 30-20 lead over the District 3 champions. Reading came to life in the second half, outscoring the Hatters 19-7 in the third quarter to go on top 39-37. Reading buried the Hatters with a 22-7 fourth quarter to close out the game.
Jay Davis led the Hatters with 10 points while Brian McEachern added nine. Brandon Crews had seven and Clifton Moore and Joe Russell both had six.
Hatboro-Horsham (7-7 SOL) closed its season with a 14-14 record.
Hatboro-Horsham 11-19-7-7 44
Reading 19-1-19-22 61
Hatboro-Horsham: Brandon Crews 7, Brian McEachern 9, Joseph Russell 6, Clifton moore 6, Jay Davis 10, Ryan Black 2, Chris Edwards 4.
Reading: Khary Maura 6, Lonnie Walker 19, Keyon McCutchen 10, Damon Stern 19, Oenis Medina 1, Isaiah Cook 6.
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