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District 1 6A: Bickley, Cheltenham show road toughness at Perk Valley

02/24/2017, 11:00pm EST
By Josh Verlin

Cheltenham coach John Timms (above) has the Panthers playing their best ball in over a decade. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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As the clock at Perkiomen Valley ticked off its final 20 seconds, the small-but-vocal group of Cheltenham supporters in attendance started to chant one word, over and over.

“Temple...Temple...Temple...”

That’s all it took for Cheltenham head coach John Timms to get emotional. He was going home.

With a 64-53 win over the No. 1 seed Vikings, Timms’ No. 8 Panthers advanced to the District 1 6A semifinals, earning a game at Temple University’s Liacouras Center.

For Timms, a North Philadelphia native and product of the now-closed William Penn HS, it was a chance to fulfill a lifelong dream.

“I grew up on Susquehanna and Diamond,” the fourth-year head coach said. “Lived in the projects...I was getting choked up on the sideline. The thought of me being on Temple’s sideline -- not playing on the hardwood -- did that.”

Timms, who went by the name John Turman in high school, played at the North Broad institution as a senior in high school, in the All-Public League All-Star game that was held on what was then the Owls’ home court, McGonigle Hall. But that 3,900-seat bandbox, located in the school’s renovated Pearson-McGonigle Hall, pales in comparison to the 10,000-seat Liacouras Center, built in the mid-1990s.

And next week, it’ll feature Cheltenham squad hunting for its first district title since 1968, taking on No. 4 Coatesville next Tuesday.

“To bring back Cheltenham, a group of great kids, to experience basketball on that level, I can’t even explain the feeling,” Timms said. “I’m so happy for them.”

The Panthers are pretty excited themselves.

“It feels amazing,” junior point guard Ahmad Bickley said. “We expected this, though...a lot of people will call it an upset, but we feel like we were better than them.”

Bickley’s play backed up his words.

The 5-foot-8 point guard was strong on both ends of the floor, dropping 24 points to lead the way for the Panthers while also spending most of the game tracking Vikings star guard Justin Jaworski. Junior guard Jack Clark contributed 18 for Cheltenham (19-5), while senior Trevonn Pitts and sophomore Kyin Healy added 10 apiece.


Ahmad Bickley (above) had 24 points and four assists for Cheltenham. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Bickley got Cheltenham going during a crucial second quarter, which turned a 13-10 lead into a 30-16 advantage at the half. He connected on all four of his field-goal attempts in the quarter after going scoreless in the opening frame, and each of those four shots was a mid-range jumper in the lane.

In the second half he got more aggressive, resulting in his frequent trips to the line down the stretch -- as well as another pull-up jumper or two along the way.

“After one went in, I just felt like the next, every one I shot after that was going in,” he said. “That just kept my confidence high, and after that I started to drive because I knew they were expecting the jump shots.”

Jaworski found his way to 32 points, though 19 of those came in the fourth quarter, after Bickley picked up his fourth foul; the 6-1 scorer pocketed 12 points in the final 72 seconds alone as he did everything he could to give his Vikings (22-4) a chance.

But it wasn’t enough against a Cheltenham bunch that shot 19-of-20 from the foul line; Bickley alone was 10-for-10 in the final quarter. It’s the second district playoff game in a row that the Panthers were true from the line, going 10-for-12 to close out Tuesday’s second-round win over No. 9 Spring-Ford.

“All week we ran when we missed free throws,” Bickley said, “So we practiced free throws all week, and it paid off once again.

“We’ve got a lot of good free-throw shooters on the team, so anybody who gets the ball, we know they can knock them down,” he added.

If Timms had any questions about how a team with just one senior in the rotation would handle the Liacouras Center atmosphere, he got a positive answer with the way they handled the Perk Valley crowd.

The Vikings’ orange-clad faithful packed 90 percent of the gym, roaring early and often to support the team that’s already set the school record for regular-season wins, won a Pioneer Athletic Conference championship and hosted district playoff games for the first time in school history.

Add in a couple hundred Cheltenham supporters who provided plenty of energy on their own, and it was never lacking for noise in the gym.

“It’s crazy, it’s a crazy atmosphere,” said Clark, a lanky 6-5 junior with a bright future. “The way the students were chanting, the way our student section was chanting, it was just a crazy atmosphere to play in.”

But Cheltenham never flinched, matching every Perkiomen Valley shot early on before putting space between the two in the third quarter. And when the Vikings came roaring back to close it to a two-point game early in the fourth, the Panthers held firm, restoring the 10-point lead by the midway point of the fourth.

It was a showing of steadiness that many more veteran teams would have trouble pulling off.

“We’re young but we’re ready, I saw it over the summer,” Timms said. “That’s why we did summer and fall ball a lot this year, so I could see exactly what we had. What I saw was, they weren’t afraid. When you’re young, you’re not afraid, you don’t know any better.”

Perkiomen Valley gets another home game on Tuesday, though it’s not one they would have wanted; No. 5 North Penn will visit in a seeding game, with Penn Wood and Conestoga also losing on Friday and entering the seeding rounds as well.

If Cheltenham can get past Coatesville in the semifinals, a date with either Plymouth-Whitemarsh or Abington -- two other Suburban One League powerhouses -- awaits at Villanova University in the final the following Saturday. No matter what happens in either game, they’re guaranteed a berth in the PIAA state tournament for the first time since 2006, with no worse than the fourth of 10 seeds to come out of the Philadelphia suburban district playoffs.

“Temple, then Villanova, and then states,” Bickley said. “That’s our plan, try to go for everything, win it all.”

~~~

In other District 1 6A quarterfinal action...

No. 2 Plymouth Whitemarsh 44, No. 7 Conestoga 29
The defending district champions have become known for their defensive prowess, which Conestoga found out the tough way as the Pioneers couldn’t get to 30 points in the loss. According to PAPrepLive, the Colonials had 14 blocks against just nine field goals made by ‘Stoga, and though 44 points is far from P-W’s best offensive output of the season, that’s certainly good enough when their defense is clicking at that level. It was only a one-point P-W lead after one quarter, but the Colonials held the Pioneers to only two points in the second. Ahmad Williams had 17 points for P-W.

No. 3 Abington 67, No. 11 Penn Wood 49
Click here for coverage

No. 4 Coatesville 62, No. 5 North Penn 51
Info coming soon

Playbacks

No. 9 Spring-Ford 93, No. 16 Garnet Valley 85 (2 OT)
It was a crazy night in play-backs, as three of the four games went to extra sessions. Spring-Ford kept its state playoff hopes alive for another game, but not without the best efforts of Garnet Valley, who got buckets from Cade Brennan at the end of both regulation and the first overtime to extend things an extra eight minutes. But a combined 49 points from Noah Baker (25) and Austin Hokanson (24) got it done for the Rams, who will host Downingtown West with the hopes of going to the PIAA state tournament for the third time in four years.

No. 13 Downingtown West 62, No. 21 Hatboro-Horsham 50
Click here for coverage

No. 10 Lower Merion 58, No. 18 Central Bucks East 54 (3 OT)
In the wildest game of the night on the 6A side, senior Noah Fennel (10 points) nailed the game-tying three-pointer in the final minute of regulation to force overtime, capping a ten-point rally in the final three minutes for the Aces. Sophomore Steve Payne hit four consecutive free throws in the third overtime to seal the victory. Senior Terrell Jones and sophomore Jack Forrest led the way with 19 points apiece for Lower Merion, which advances to play Pennsbury for a spot in the PIAA Class 6A Tournament.

No. 6 Pennsbury 84, No. 19 Norristown 83 (OT)
Down by six with under a minute to go in regulation, Pennsbury rallied back to force overtime on a Mark Flagg tip-in of a missed free throw with 2.2 seconds to play. In the overtime period, Pennsbury guard Tyler Sessa-Reeves went a perfect 6-for-6 from the line to keep his squad’s season alive. Senior guard Addison Howard paced Pennsbury with 29, while the St. Francis commit Flagg added in another 25 and 6-foot-7 forward Billy Warren scored another 12. Norristown was propelled by a balanced scoring effort from Xavier Edwards (19), Mickeel Allen (15), Mike Dorman (15), and Darius McGowan (15).


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