City of Basketball Love

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
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The Conestoga Pioneers are used to making the state playoffs. In both of the last two seasons, ‘Stoga opened the district playoffs as the top seed and quickly won the two games needed to clinch a state bid.

Throught this year’s campaign, however, the Pioneers haven’t seemed to have that same dominance of a back-to-back 1-seed. An early 27-point loss to Malvern Prep certainly didn’t sit well with head coach Mike Troy, but despite losing almost their entire starting lineup in the 2015 graduation class, he knew this team had potential to be just as good as his recent groups.

All they needed was a little time.

Tuesday night, No. 14 Conestoga proved that despite not having the impressive regular season of years past this season, they have what it takes to be just as accomplished, as they knocked off the third-seeded Downingtown West Whippets on the road by a final score of 57-51 in district one quarterfinals, to clinch their third straight trip to the PIAA class AAAA state tournament.

“The secret is humility,” Troy said. “We thought we could be a good team, and Malvern played a terrific game against us, but then we regrouped and said ‘okay, what do we want to achieve,’ and we put in the hard work to achieve it and coming in and knocking off a three-seed is a tremendous accomplishment.”

“It feels great,” he continued. “This was a team that graduated five of its top seven players last year, and it’s a tribute to the guys and how hard they’ve worked to achieve the level of getting back to states.”

Troy, despite being calm and collected after the game, was beyond livid in the early second quarter when his senior guard Daryl Caldwell was called for a technical foul trying to save a loose ball and firing it off of the back of Downingtown guard Ryan Betley as both players fell out of bounds.

The Pioneers didn’t let that get in their heads though; after Betley made one of the two technical free throws, Caldwell and Larkin dropped in back-to-back threes to open up an 18-11 lead.

It was obvious at that point that the Pioneers were prepared to fight with the third-best team in district and do whatever they could to get back to states.

Larkin, a senior, played a critical role in that, dropping in four treys on his way to a team-leading 14 points.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Larkin. “To make it this far after people outside of our team doubted us, and to do this for the guys is unbelievable. We played Downingtown West three times in the offseason, so we know their personnel, we know how they play and how good they can be, and I feel like we never let down, we played with so much heart. I’m so happy for these guys.”

One of his biggest three-point shots came late in the third quarter, when Conestoga needed it most. Betley had just cut the Pioneer lead to two before Larkin’s dagger sparked a quick third quarter-ending spurt that pushed the lead back out to 40-33.

“It’s such a confidence booster,” Larkin said. “I know if they’re going to get big shots then I’ve got to hit a big shot. Just the ability to go back down and answer and silence their crowd and pick up our team as much as possible, especially as a senior and a leader, I want to do that as much as possible.”

As for Betley, who has been struggling to find his shot, he also had four three-pointers and led the way with 19 points. After he fouled out in the final minute of play, however, senior wing Dom Guerrera stepped up with a clutch three that briefly revived the Whippets, who at that point trailed by just three points with 27 seconds left.

Guerrera also had an impressive all-around performance in defeat, chipping in 14 points.

The Whippets will now be headed to the playback bracket along with two more of the district’s top five--No. 1 Coatesville and No. 5 Pennridge. They were there last season, and were able to clinch a state berth with two wins, which they’ll have to do again this year to reach the same heights.

Their first step on the road back to states will be against 27-seed Upper Dublin this coming Friday.

“I think we’re woken up, but it’s just a matter of how we want go out,” said West head coach Jason Ritter. "Do we want to go back to the state tournament or do we want to fold? We’ll find out what we’re made of Friday night.”

With all that, said done, however, Troy was nothing but proud of his team after reaching their former glory despite lesser expectations.

“For these guys, it’s really a statement game,” Troy said. “If you take somebody like Downingtown and look at all of Downingtown West’s strengths and our weaknesses, it’s a statement game of imposing your will on another team.”

His team will have a district quarterfinal at Lower Merion on Friday--another game in which they’ll be the underdogs.

But after knocking off the heavily-favored Whippets and silencing some doubters, you can bet the Pioneers will be nothing but confident and ready to face their next challenge.

“I think beating them, it’s the proof that you can beat anybody,” he said. “It’s a matter of getting out there, stepping on the court, and playing the 32 minutes.”

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Tuesday's District 1 AAAA Results
No. 17 CB East 49, No. 1 Coatesville 43
No. 9 Chester 56, No. 25 Hatboro-Horsham 34 (Game story)
No. 4 Ridley 45, No. 20 Perkiomen Valley 31 (Game story)
No. 12 Spring-Ford 61, No. 5 Pennridge 58 (Game story)
No. 2 Plymouth Whitemarsh 60, No. 18 Academy Park 56
No. 7 CB West 42, No. 10 Phoenixville 30 (Game story)
No. 14 Conestoga 57, No. 3 Downingtown West 51 (Game story)
No. 11 Lower Merion 64, No. 27 Upper Dublin 48

Friday's District 1 AAAA Schedule
Quarterfinals
No. 17 CB East @ No. 9 Chester
No. 12 Spring-Ford @ No. 4 Ridley
No. 7 CB West @ No. 2 Plymouth Whitemarsh
No. 14 Conestoga @ No. 11 Lower Merion

Play-Backs
No. 25. Hatboro-Horsham @ No. 1 Coatesville
No. 20 Perkiomen Valley @ No. 5 Pennridge
No. 18 Academy Park @ No. 10 Phoenixville
No. 27 Upper Dublin @ No. 3 Downingtown West