City of Basketball Love

Austin Petolillo (@AustinPSports)
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Coming into Wednesday night’s District 1 5A semifinal game, Penncrest’s senior forward Manny Ruffin knew what he had to do in order to advance to the championship game.

Lock down Great Valley star Alex Capitano.

Ruffin’s effort on the defensive end was a huge factor for the No. 3 seeded Penncrest in a 41-33 victory over the No. 2 seeded Great Valley Patriots on Wednesday night at the Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University.

Tyler Norwood had 21 points to pace the Lions, who advance to face No. 8 Upper Merion in Saturday's district championship game at Villanova.

It’s the first trip to a district final in Penncrest boys’ basketball history.

“It means a lot, the kids, it means a lot for the school and the community,” said Penncrest head coach Mike Doyle, who noted he received “over 100 texts and over 70 emails” from the community over the past few days.

Capitano, Great Valley’s star sophomore, finished with just nine points which was enough to co-lead his team with Gavin Frankenheimer. The 6-foot-4 sophomore, was frustrated into a 4-of-12 shooting night, with a hand in his face all night long.

“The key for me tonight was defense, specifically guarding Capitano so I had to make sure I was on him the whole time,” Ruffin said, “when’s he’s off the ball, finishing around the rim or shooting the ball.”

It wasn’t only Ruffin who helped Penncrest on defense. Junior forward Chris Mills was helping Ruffin all night double-teaming Capitano, and Mills played a key role in shutting down Great Valley’s patient, Princeton-schemed offense.

“Chris was constantly helping, playing in the middle,” Doyle said. “They get layup after layup on backdoors, and Chris’s job was to go with the cutter and recover back to the big guy.”

For Ruffin, being the main guy on defense is nothing new to him.

“Last year I started defending every team’s best player and came into this year doing the same thing,” he said. “I was getting experience playing against every team’s best player and especially guarding them as well so I have confidence coming into every game.”

Ruffin also knows that he has some special traits in him that make him a great defender.

“I have quick feet, I’m smart, I have a high basketball IQ, I hustle, and I just want it more than the other person,” Ruffin said. “Basically all the traits people look for in a good defender.”

From the game’s first shot, Penncrest seemed to have the confidence that would lead them to victory.

To start off the game, Norwood got a rebound off of a deflection and decided to pull up from about 27 feet. The result? Nothing but net.

“MVP” chants from the large Penncrest student section rained down after.

“Most games I do pull a deep shot just to get my momentum going, and it went in,” the 5-foot-10 guard said. “After that, I just started feeling it.”

Penncrest has seemed to have found a perfect balance between offensive firepower with Norwood and defensive firepower with Ruffin and Mills.

“It’s relieving for me and the team knowing that we have a player who can get a bucket almost every time he has the ball,” Ruffin said.

Norwood had the same amount of praise for his teammates.

“It’s amazing having guys like Manny and Chris lock down on defense,” he said. “All they do is preach defense and it helps get us offensive looks out in transition.”

For most of the kids on both teams, playing in an arena like the Liacouras Center has been something they’re not used to and could have potentially affected their shooting.

Not for Norwood.

“I knew he was going to make his first shot,” Doyle said. “Other kids we’d worry about with the size. You worry about guys’ depth perception, he’s such a knockdown [shooter] it wasn’t going to matter.”

“I’ve never played in an arena like this,” Norwood said of the 10,000-seat gym on North Broad St. “I thought I would let the nerves get to me but once I got comfortable, the game was just coming to me.”

Penncrest also got a key contribution from senior forward Mike Mallon who scored 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

With about 1:15 to go in the fourth quarter, Norwood knocked down two free throws to put Penncrest up by seven and at that moment, Penncrest had all but punched its ticket to the District 1 5A championship at Villanova University.

Even the Penncrest student section started chanting “We want Nova” as the game clock was winding down.

“It’s funny...our goal from St. Joe’s team camp [in August] was to host two home games and to get to Temple,” Doyle said. “We never talked about the next step.”

“I think we should be alright if we keep playing our basketball with everyone contributing like we do, we’ll be fine,” Ruffin said. “I’m confident.”