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Plymouth-Whitemarsh routs Downingtown East in PIAA opener

02/16/2014, 12:00am EST

By Jeff Neiburg

Jeff Neiburg (@Jeff_Neiburg)
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Plymouth Whitemarsh coach Jim Donofrio calls this year’s team one of the smartest and most unselfish that he’s ever coached.

That’s saying something. After all, Donofrio is deep into his 16th season at the helm of one of the more successful programs in southeastern Pa. and has multiple District 1 titles and a state championship under his belt.

But after performances like the one his Colonials offered on Saturday night, especially in the first half, it’s hard to disagree.

No. 6 Plymouth Whitemarsh raced out to an early advantage, using a full court press to give Downingtown East fits. The Colonials shot the lights out in the first half, building a 41-21 halftime lead, allowing them to coast to a 66-48 victory against the No. 27 Cougars on Saturday night.

Forcing the pressure from the outset, the Plymouth Whitemarsh was able to force 11 first half turnovers, leading to many easy transition buckets.

“We are 85 feet if we can the whole game,” Donofrio said of the press. “That doesn’t mean that’s our only angle.”

The Colonials made Downingtown East pay for paying special attention to junior guard Jimmy Murray early on, getting 12 first half points apiece from juniors Cameron Johnson and Andre Mitchell.

The two would finish tied for a team-high 16 points. Murray, on the other hand, scored just four points in the first half and finished with 14.

“They have so many different offensive sets and plays,” Downingtown East coach John Goodman said. “We tried to give Murray extra attention but the other guys, credit to them, were open because of our attention to him.”

Murray, who averages 21 points per game, is quite alright with playing second-fiddle to his teammates, which speaks to that level of unselfishness that Donofrio speaks of.

“Whenever that happens we know to go to other players on the team, because we know we’re all capable of scoring as much as I do,” Murray said.

Much of the reason that Plymouth Whitemarsh was able to build such a big lead was its ability to keep the ball out of Downingtown East’s talented sophomore forward Cary Angeline.

The 6-foot-7 Angeline was held off the scoreboard until the 2:10 mark of the second quarter, when his layup made the score 35-19 Colonials. He would score 17 of his game-high 21 points in the second half, when the game was well in hand.

“Them speeding us up didn’t allow us to get into our sets, which takes away from us being able to pound it in,” Goodman said. “They did a really good job on Cary but I think we could have done a better job of getting him the ball in the right spots.”

While Plymouth Whitemarsh couldn’t keep the 55 percent shooting pace that they featured in the first half (they shot 44 percent on the night), the Colonials desire to press and crash the boards never changed.

Downingtown East was never comfortable playing at the tempo that the Colonials forced them to, turning it over 18 times on the night and giving up a 34-25 advantage on the glass.

“The mindset is to get up the entire game, because most teams aren’t used to full-court pressure,” Murray said. “So get up the entire game and see if we can keep them away from the basket, especially because they had [Angeline] down low.”

With the game seemingly out of reach late in the third quarter, Angeline’s brother, senior forward Ryley Angeline was called for a charging foul under the Colonials basket. A scrum ensued and he was given a double technical foul and ejected from the game.

Joining Cary Angeline’s 21-point, eight rebound effort in double figures was juniorguard Marquan Gallimore, who scored all 10 of his points in the first half. Senior guard Kyle Tucker added seven points and five rebounds.

Next up for Plymouth Whitemarsh (20-3) is a second round matchup with No. 22 Central Bucks West, who upset No. 11 Penncrest 58-50 in the opening round.

The Colonials are the highest seed remaining in the bottom quarter of the bracket after No. 30 Wissahickon knocked off No. 3 Great Valley on Friday night.

“It makes it a little easier, but the mindset is to just stay humble and keep going at it,” Murray said.

“If it can happen to Great Valley it can happen to us,” Donofrio said. “Bottom line is that it’s a treacherous walk. All you want to worry about is the next game.”

“There’s a lot of built-in energy for us, which is fun,” he added. “We’ve been under the radar a lot, which I like. We’re not mentioned a whole lot, I hope people still don’t know we exist.”