City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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When the final buzzer sounded at Cheltenham High School, the hometown team quietly filed into place for the handshake line with Spring-Ford.

There was no flinging of the basketball towards the ceiling, no screams of joy, not much more than a handshake and a fist bump or two.

It was pretty tough to tell that the Panthers had just qualified for their first state tournament berth in over a decade, taking down the visiting Rams 66-52 in the second round of the District 1 6A tournament.

That's because bigger prizes await.

“It feels good, but I feel like we expected it, we’re not done,” junior point guard Ahmad Bickley said. “We’re still worried about districts, we’re not worried about states right now. We’re worried about winning districts.”

This wasn't supposed to be the Cheltenham squad that got back to the PIAA state playoffs for the first time since 2006.

Last year's group, which had 10 seniors, looked in prime position to do that, until they were upended at home in the first round of districts as the No. 13 seed in the old AAAA tournament by No. 20 Perkiomen Valley.

But despite the heavy loss due to graduation, with only one starter returning, this year's Panthers got stronger and stronger. A nine-game win streak from Jan. 10-26 featured wins over Abington and Hatboro-Horsham, and now they’re on a three-game winning streak after dispatching the Rams.

“The one you don’t expect to do it is the one that does it,” Timms said. “[Last year’s team] had a lot of expectations on them...and that weight was too heavy. This team has no weight, if you see they play effortless, there’s no weight.

“Coming up to (the game), I started receiving texts, because I wasn’t necessarily aware of the absence and how long it’s been,” the fourth-year head coach added. “Once it got closer to this game, I started to understand the magnitude of this game. So it feels great, it feels great.”

Now, the Panthers are just three wins away from the program’s first district championship since 1968.

“(Last year) we took it a little easy thinking that we were just going to win instead of just playing hard,” said senior wing Trevonn Pitts, the team’s only returning starter. “So it’s definitely a good feeling, Cheltenham hasn’t been in states in a long time, hasn’t had a run, so it’s definitely good to bring that energy back around the school.”

Earning the No. 8 seed in the district’s biggest classification after a 17-5 regular season brought with it an extra challenge. Cheltenham (18-5) came into its gym on Tuesday night having been off for exactly two weeks, while Spring-Ford (17-8), got to play not only in its league playoffs last week -- losing to Perk Valley in the championship -- but in the first round on Friday night against Avon Grove.

Timms drew some experience from last year, when a snow delay forced his team into an eight-day layoff between games to help him prepare for a fortnight without meaningful basketball followed by the program’s biggest game in his tenure as head coach.

“Once we knew we were going to get that bye, we gave guys more days off so it would seem normal,” he said. “We weren’t in the gym the whole time working like we did last year, and we tried to keep it as normal as possible with those two weeks off, but it was of some concern to us.”

The win was on the back of a true team effort for Cheltenham, which had four players score in double figures.

Bickley, a 5-9 point guard, led the way with 17 points, including five big foul shots in the final three minutes to help the Panthers secure the win after Spring-Ford cut what had been a 10-point lead down to four. Pitts had 16 points, eight rebounds and five steals; junior wing Jack Clark had 15 points and nine rebounds while junior wing Rodney Carson added 11 points.

Playing just as big a role as that quartet was 6-5 sophomore Kyin Healy, who chipped in four fourth-quarter points to go along with six rebounds, four blocks and two assists.

Healy, who got benched in the first quarter, came up with several clutch plays down the stretch. His two assists both came in the fourth quarter, dishing off to Carson and Bickley for layups before the latter found him for his two buckets shortly thereafter. His blocks were even bigger, sending away several Spring-Ford layup attempts; the last one led to a huge Pitts slam to put Cheltenham up 10 with 3:30 left.

“Yeah, we’ve been talking to Kyin about that all year and he gave that to us today,” Bickley said. “He’s getting better by the day, every day he works on it.”

Spring-Ford’s Ryan Fitzpatrick, who had a game-high 25 points, didn’t let the Panthers run away with it, knocking down two quickly 3-pointers -- his third and fourth of the fourth quarter -- to cut that double-digit deficit to four with two minutes left.

But Cheltenham was true from the foul line, making 10-of-12 in the last 120 seconds to seal the win.

The Rams now head to the play-back bracket, where they’ll face No. 16 Garnet Valley on Friday night. Two more wins earn them a state playoff bid; one more loss and their season is over.

Fittingly, Cheltenham’s win earns it the right to play who else but Perkiomen Valley, now the No. 1 seed in the district, in Friday night’s quarterfinals. The winner of that one, which will be played at PV, gets a berth at Temple University in the district semifinals the following Tuesday.

Beating the Vikings and star guard Justin Jaworski would be a nice measure of payback, indeed.

“I just want revenge, I can’t wait to be honest with you,” Pitts said. “They came here and beat us, hopefully we can go there and beat them, that’s basically what it’s about as of right now.”

~~~

In other District 1 6A action….

No. 1 Perkiomen Valley 68, No. 16 Garnet Valley 60 (OT)

Justin Jaworski led the way with 34 points as the Vikings survived a tough challenge from the Jaguars. Garnet Valley’s Brandon Starr sent it into the extra session with a 3-pointer with five seconds to spare, but Perk Valley’s senior star was too much to be contained, hitting four key foul shots as GV went scoreless in OT. Garnet Valley was paced by Starr with 23 points; junior Austin Laughlin chipped in 17 for the Jaguars.

No. 2 Plymouth-Whitemarsh 62, No. 18 Central Bucks East 43
After leading just 8-7 following the first quarter, P-W used a balanced scoring attack to blow the gates open and make its way back to the district quarterfinals for the third season in a row. Ish Horn and Ahmad Williams led the way with 19 and 12, respectively, while Kareem Breeden (10) and 7-footer Naheem McLeod (8) chipped in with solid showings as well.

No. 3 Abington 48, No. 19 Norristown 32
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No. 4 Coatesville 56, No. 13 Downingtown West 46
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No. 5 North Penn 55, No. 21 Hatboro-Horsham 45
Clifton Moore got the Hatters off to a quick start with nine points and five rebounds in the opening quarter, but the Knights slowly took control of the game to book their spot in the state playoffs. Thanks to a 17-9 third quarter, the Knights were able to pull away from the Hatters, keeping the game just out of reach in the fourth. Senior forward and Merrimack commit David Giuliani had 13 points and 13 rebounds, while his classmate Reece Udinksi added 12 points in the Knights win.

No. 11 Penn Wood 71, No. 6 Pennsbury 55
The only upset of the night belongs to the Patriots, who made the long trip up from Lansdowne to Fairless Hills to knock off the Falcons. Penn Wood outscored Pennsbury 22-16 in the second quarter before a 13-0 third quarter run helped them secure the upset. Shariff Goff led the Patriots with 18 points while Javon Lindsey-Terrell added 15. St. Francis (Pa.) commit Mark Flagg scored 22 points for the Falcons.

No. 7 Conestoga 77, No. 10 Lower Merion 57
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