City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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WARMINSTER — What appeared to be an extremely favorable situation and a chance for Plymouth-Whitemarsh to pocket a fairly comfortable result turned into a really hairy finish that needed someone to pull on the cape late and play hero.

Of course, that’s hardly unfamiliar territory for Jim Donofrio’s Colonials.

Locked in yet another tight scrape that wasn’t decided until the closing seconds, Plymouth-Whitemarsh survived once again as Cheo Houston buried an all-or-nothing 3-pointer off a falling Danny Cooper dish with just over a second to go to push the Colonials past fast-closing Constitution 58-57 Saturday at Archbishop Wood.

Ish Horn paced the Colonials (4-0) with 15 points, while Houston and Ahmin Williams checked in with 11 as a resourceful PW side won for the fourth time in as many tries by seven points or fewer. Williams also grabbed 11 boards before fouling out.

“It’s a fascinating start to a season,” Donofrio said. “The best character trait we have is we don’t want to lose. Everything else needs fixing.

“We are young, but we’re bull-in-a-china-shop-kind-of-guys and we’re still being a little thickheaded and we have to understand the game’s a lot more sophisticated than just go, go, go,” Donofrio added. “We played a team that’s go, go, go and we are not exercising all the things we want. We’re not putting them into play.

“We’ve just got to work our way through it … by winning.”

Tamir Green collected 15 of his game-high 19 points in the second half to lead Constitution (3-3) — the 5-8 senior also dished out seven assists — while Maurice Waters cranked out a monster double-double (18 points/16 rebounds).

The Generals also played without head coach Rob Moore, who was serving a one-game suspension following his ejection from Friday night’s victory over West Catholic. Instead, assistant coach Ron McGee ran the Philly Public League outfit.

And while things looked mighty grim for Constitution when Williams found 7-0 pipe cleaner Naheem McLeod for a layup with 5:57 to play that had the Colonials firmly in command at 52-39, the Generals weren’t about to climb on the bus and go home.

They also got plenty of help from PW, which started throwing the ball around and providing the Generals even more chances to bounce back into Game 3 of the Coaches vs. Cancer Showcase. PW, in fact, committed eight turnovers just in the fourth.

“We fought the whole game, we looked the whole game and then we started turning the ball over,” said the 6-3 Houston, who also grabbed five rebounds. “It all went downhill, but we found an answer and got the win.”

Donofrio’s Colonials finished with 25 miscues yet still managed to prevail.

“The press speeded us up some, but we were just making dumb mistakes,” Houston remarked. “We weren’t looking for who was open. Just a bad sequence.”

Neither Houston nor the philosophical Donofrio could really explain PW’s ability to escape early tight spots, yet that may come in handy in February and March.

“It’s a good experience for us to go through these games,” Houston admitted. “But it’s not a good excuse for what we did in the last six minutes of that game. So, we’ve got to improve every day in practice and get better.”

Nonetheless …

Given an opportunity to take a late rip at the No. 5 squad in City of Basketball Love’s preseason 6A rankings, the energetic Green found even more juice and started to go to the hole, look for his suddenly revved teammates or pop from the perimeter.

While Green’s two freebies started a 14-1 run that had the Generals even (53-53) with 1:51 to play — Green added two more free throws and his second trey during a spurt that also included a Waters flush and three Raquan West points — his slick dish to the low block found Laron Willis-Worthy for an easy finish.

Moments later, another Green delivery set up another Willis-Worthy score as Constitution took its first lead since midway through the second quarter.

“Tamir’s the leader of the team,” McGee said. “He kind of fueled that press for us and it worked at the end of the game. Just that last shot, we didn’t close out fast enough.”

First things first.

Ahmad Williams canned a contested jump shot from a step beyond the right elbow with 25 seconds remaining, forging another tie. Yet when Green located Yusef Diabate inside for a deuce at the 11-second mark, the Generals were back on top.

Desperate to get something up since the clock was about to run out, a stumbling Cooper collected the ball on the left wing before shoveling it to his left to Houston.

With his feet set and plenty of space — and just enough time — Houston got a good look at the rim before unloading. An instant later, the ball fell.

“The play was to go down the court and just find the open man,” Houston said. “We knew our momentum was gone, so we were looking for a 3 to end the game.

“We got the one we wanted.”

Euphoria for PW, the early-season escape artists that frustrated the Generals and constructed leads in both halves behind an effective trapping defense.

Horn also was effective off the bench, scoring 10 of his 15 points in the first half by bagging a series of mid-range jumpers from just inside the foul line.

Heartbreak, meanwhile, for a Constitution club that sits atop City of Basketball Love’s 2A preseason rankings and played so hard late just to have a chance.

“That last play, I was screaming for everyone to get out of the press and get back,” McGee said. “Just a long outlet pass, guy stepped back and hit a 3. That’s tough.”

Welcome to PW’s world thus far, where teams get so, so close … only to fall short.

Donofrio knows his Colonials still have plenty of rough edges that need refinement, but he certainly can see how hard his youngsters compete.

“We’ve got to understand that the game requires concentration as well as heart,” Donofrio said. “Great heart. We have great heart. We have great heart.

“We’re 4-0 on pure heart, but heart doesn’t do it all the time.”