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A pair of SOL teams made it a double header sweep in District One AAAA quarterfinal action on Saturday night in front of a full house at Norristown High School. Second-seeded Souderton (22-2) notched its first ever win over Chester, downing the Clippers 60-55. Top-seeded Plymouth Whitemarsh defeated an eighth-seeded Penncrest team intent on taking the air out of the basketball, 39-22.
SOUDERTON 60, CHESTER 55
WEST NORRITON – It was a classic confrontation in a contest that had become a battle of wills.
Chester defender Laquan Robinson looked A.J. Picard directly in the eye, all but daring Souderton’s senior captain to try and get by him.
Picard accepted the challenge, spinning to his left as he blew by Robinson and heaving up an off-balance shot as he was leveled on his drive to the basket. “I saw a little opening and made a quick move,” the Indians’ senior captain said. “I was just trying to get to the line. I didn’t expect that to go in.
“When I fell, I heard the crowd going crazy, and I knew it must have gone in. It gave confidence to our team to keep pushing.”
Picard completed the three-point play, giving the Indians a four-point lead early in the fourth quarter of Saturday night’s District One AAAA quarterfinal contest.
The Indians – who trailed by as many as 10 in the opening half – never looked back, earning a 60-55 win over the 11th seeded Clippers in front of a partisan crowd at Norristown High School.
“This is crazy,” Picard said. “Back in November, I kept tell the newspapers that this team is something special.
“This win definitely proves that we’re a good team, and people need to start respecting us.”
The Indians have earned their second trip to Villanova in the last four years. Three years ago, they fell to Chester in the district semis. On Tuesday night, they will take on second-seeded Penn Wood, a 74-52 winner over Neshaminy.
For one night, however, the Indians were enjoying their first ever win over a Chester squad that is a perennial district and state power.
“You can’t say enough about what they just did,” Souderton coach Perry Engard said. “As far as the type of game we played – I don’t think I would put this in our top 10 in terms of quality basketball, but we won it on guts.“You can throw out all the X’s and O’s. They won it on guts, and they won it playing as a team, especially down the stretch defensively.”
Picard scored a game-high 19 points – 12 of those came in a fourth quarter that saw the Indians outscore the Clippers 21-13. Teammate Kyle Connolly added 13 points and 9 rebounds while Jeff Bishop had 11 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots.
Mark Wonderling came off the bench to give the Indians – who lost both Bishop and Nate Lewis down the stretch to fouls - valuable minutes, contributing seven points and nine rebounds. Nate Moyer added five points, which included a perfect 3-for-3 from the foul line.
Anthony Sergio hit a huge three-pointer in the third quarter when the Indians staged their comeback, and Nate Lewis added a bucket and was a presence in the paint.
“Everyone stepped up,” Connolly said. “Especially with Nate and Jeff out of the game - Mark and Serge came in, and they really filled in.”
Things didn’t look all that promising for the Indians when the Clippers – who led 17-10 at the end of one quarter – opened up a double-digit lead in the second quarter (22-12).
“I think we let them dictate the tempo of the game,” Connolly said. “As the game went on, we started to adjust. The way they beat people is just their pressure. They throw pressure at you, and it depends how you respond to it. We did a great job.”
There is no way to simulate at practice the pressure Chester brings at teams for 32 minutes.
“They play on a whole another level,” Connolly said. “They’re very physical. In the beginning, we weren’t ready for it, but I think we did a great job adjusting to it and battled back.”
The Indians trailed 33-28 at the intermission and knotted the score 35-35 after a Sergio three. The Clippers, however, answered with a 5-0 run, but Wonderling scored on a putback to make it a three-point game. Chester’s Robert Pittman answered at the other end. In the closing seconds of the quarter, Connolly found Wonderling for a bucket to make it a 42-39 game.
Picard buried a three off a screen to open the final quarter, knotting the score, and the Indians took their first lead when Wonderling – after pulling down an offensive rebound – connected on one-of-two from the foul line.That set the stage for Picard’s big three-point play that put the Indians on top 46-42.
Twice the Clippers cut the Indians’ lead to one, the first at 48-47 with three minutes remaining after a Kareem Robinson three. Moyer answered by sinking a pair at the foul line.
With 1:17 remaining, the Clippers made it a 52-51 game after Kareem Robinson made one-of-two from the line. This time Picard responded by scoring on a drive. After another Chester miss, Picard connected again, putting the Indians on top 56-51 and sealing the Clippers’ fate.
“Big-time players play big in big-time games,” Engard said of Picard. “These seniors just collectively – one picked it up, then the other and the other. It was just a domino effect.”
According to Connolly, wins don’t get much better than this one.
“This is a 10,” he said. “My freshman year they beat us at Villanova, and they beat us last year in districts.
“To come out my senior year and finally get a win, especially against a program like Chester – it’s a great feeling. They’re obviously not what they have been in the past few years, but Chester is Chester. They play a whole different game.”
NOTES: Chester connected on just 2-of-16 from the foul line. Sophomore Erikk Wright led the Clippers with 16 points. Maurice Nelson – brother of NBA star Jameer Nelson – added 14 points but came up empty on the front end of three one-and-one’s in the fourth quarter.
SOUDERTON 60, CHESTER 55
Chester 17 16 9 13-55
Souderton 10 18 11 21-60
Chester (55) - K.Robinsoon 2 1-2 6; L.Robinson 3 0-3 6; Nelson 5 0-3 14; Pittman 2 0-2 4; Williams 1 0-0 2; Wright 8 0-5 16; Watkins 1 0-0 2; Jefferson 2 1-1 5; D.Robinson 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 24 2-16 5.
Souderton (60) – Bishop 5 1-4 11; Moyer 1 3-3 5; Lewis 1 0-0 2; Picard 6 5-8 19; Connolly 4 5-7 13; M.Wonderling 3 1-2 7; Sergio 1 0-2 3; S.Wonderling 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 21 15-26 60.
3-point goals: Chester – Nelson 4, K.Robinson. Souderton – Picard 2, Sergio.
PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 39, PENNCREST 22
WEST NORRITON – If the final score looks a bit unusual, it was, and so was Saturday’s quarterfinal game pitting a high-flying PW squad against a Penncrest squad that knew its only chance of staying reasonably close was to slow things down.And slow things down the Lions did.
The PW fans – undoubtedly lost without the Colonials’ steady diet of dunks and end-to-end action – entertained themselves by counting the number of passes the Lions threw before taking a shot. Penncrest’s first possession of the second half featured 31 passes before the Lions took a shot.
And missed.
“It was like they were trying to make you go to sleep – just passing and passing,” PW senior Whis Grant said after the Colonials had barely worked up a sweat in their 39-22 win. “We weren’t going up and down the court as much as we’re used to, as much as we like to, but it was a very calm, steady pace.
“We just had to keep playing defense and not lag and forget our positions.”
The Lions actually took a 3-0 lead before C.J. Aiken – despite being fouled – slammed home a dunk and then completed the three-point play to knot things up. Jaylen Bond (10 points) scored on a putback midway through the quarter, and the Colonials had a lead they would not lose (5-3).
By the end of the first quarter, the Colonials led 15-5.
Then came a quarter the likes of which PW has undoubtedly never seen before as the Lions outscored the Colonials 3-2 in the second quarter. The Colonials, who did not so much as manage a field goal, received only a pair of foul shots from Julian Bond, but they still took a 17-8 lead into halftime.
With the outcome never in doubt, the Colonials won the second half 22-14 as they coasted to the easy win.
“That game translated is actually a 40-point win if everybody picks up the pace of the game,” PW coach Jim Donofrio said. “It was like half the possessions.
“What worked to get us the lead was ironically going with the zone traps. I thought we did a phenomenal job covering ground and unsettling their pattern offense.”The win vaulted the Colonials into the Final Four at Villanova University on Tuesday night.
“In the end, if you think about it, we can all get caught up in what the prognosticators (say) and the predictions and the rankings, and one of the things I’m impressed with the kids is – they have been anointed like they’re just going to Villanova on Friday night,” Donofrio said. “I think that’s why a lot of teams find themselves in wars and not even getting there.
“You have to respect everyone. Think about it – it’s still a bunch of kids that lost in this round (last year) and went to the consolation round. I hope they can be kids here and appreciate what they’ve done.”
Grant, who led the Colonials with 11 points, is looking forward to the trip to Villanova.
“It’s a great feeling,” he said. “We haven’t been here since 2006, so four years later, we’re back there again, and we’re trying to make use of what we have in front of us and go on and try to win it.”
Standing between PW and a trip to the district final is a West Chester Rustin squad that defeated Pennsbury 57-35 in quarterfinal action.
PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 39, PENNCREST 22
Penncrest (22) – Andrew Radomicki 4 3-3 12; Rodney Duncan 2 0-0 5; Matt Atkinson 1 0-0 2; Chris Sell 0 0-0 0; Ian Campbell 1 1-2 3; Matt Bundy 0 0-0 0; Ben Davis 0 0-0 0; Brandon Rogers 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 8 4-5 22.
Plymouth Whitemarsh (39) – C.J. Aiken 2 3-3 7; Brandon Dixon 0 1-2 1; Whis Grant 5 0-0 11; Jaylen Bond 5 0-2 10; Sam Pygatt 3 1-1 7; Julian Bond 0 2-2 2; Stephon Baker 0 0-0 0; Marcus Badger 0 1-2 1; T.J. Clancy 0 1-2 0; Brandon Brown 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 15 8-12 39.
3-point goals: Penncrest – Radomicki. PW – Grant.
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