City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa. -- Alan Glover was sure his junior season was going to last all of one play.

The Plymouth-Whitemarsh forward came off the bench in the season opener against Coatesville last season, and within seconds someone rolled into his left knee. At first, Glover feared a bruise -- turns out, it was a torn MCL.

The first game of his senior season went quite a ways better.

Getting the first start of his high school career, Glover provided an early spark for the preseason No. 1 team in the 6A state rankings, as P-W rolled to an 82-56 win over a tough Sankofa Freedom squad.

A 6-foot-4, 205-pound wing forward, Glover is a hustle specialist on a Colonials’ squad filled with them. And when P-W found itself facing a small early deficit, Glover didn’t quit, coming up with early production to help flip the momentum.

He finished with nine points, eight rebounds and three assists, plus a few steals in a game where P-W forced more than 20 Sankofa turnovers.

“It feels good to be back,” he said. “We had a great start to the season, we just have to keep pushing now.”

Glover missed all but the last few games of that 2016-17 season; he was lucky enough that the injury didn’t require surgery, and constant physical therapy brought him back for the Colonials’ appearance in the state playoffs. But even though he was able to come back, he wasn’t his usual self.

“[I was] 75-80 percent, still with a brace, still a little immobile,” he said, “but I played through it.”

Glover said he didn’t start feeling back to normal until the early portion of the summer. But it was in July, when he got to take the brace off, that he was finally back to himself.

“The first summer game without it, it felt good,” he said. “It did hinder my movement a little bit -- you watch film, I was kind of limping, getting up and down the court.”

There were a few more setbacks, including a sprained ankle in August that sidelined him for a time, but Glover recovered in time to participate in P-W’s preseason scrimmages.

It wasn’t until five minutes before the season opener, however, that Glover found out he was going to be starting, news that he said was “a lot of relief, from working hard, but a lot of pressure.”

P-W boss Jim Donofrio, upon hearing of Glover’s reaction to his start, was a little taken aback.

All along, he assumed Glover was aware of what he had been thinking.

“I think it’s funny because I don’t realize how they think sometimes,” Donofrio laughed. “He’s an automatic [starter] to me -- but it’s nice to think he’s so humble about it that it’s a question to him.”

Glover is part of a talented P-W starting five, returning four starters from a group that won 25 games and advanced to the PIAA Class 6A quarterfinals before losing to eventual champ Reading.

Naheem McLeod, the team’s 7-foot-plus junior center, continued to show progress, going for 24 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks against Sankofa.

Senior twins Ahmin Williams (18 points, 6 rebounds) and Ahmad Williams (9 points, 5 rebounds) put in their usual two-way effort, flying all over the court to make play after play on both ends. Fellow senior guard Ish Horn, a 6-1 scorer, added 11 points and four assists.

It’s a group that’s certainly in the mix for a PIAA state championship, which would be the program’s first since C.J. Aiken, Jaylen Bond and Co. made it happen in 2010. But they’re doing it with a team whose only true Division I prospect, McLeod, is far from a finished product, his impressive numbers in Friday’s opening night notwithstanding.

“We’re in a really good place where we’re respected as a program, we’re ranked high, but no one’s getting a lot of individual (attention) as far as you’re the best individual, you’re the best at that,” Donofrio said. “It’s a great place to be. That keeps the fire (going).”

Sankofa Freedom (0-1), which made it to the second round of the PIAA Class A tournament a year ago, was paced by a 23-point effort from junior wing Scott Spann. The Warriors didn’t back down from the challenge, playing a full-court press from start to finish, forcing over 15 Colonials turnovers in their own right and eliciting several big roars from their supporters with a few runs over the course of the game.

“That’s the style ultimately that you have to see to win district and state titles,” Donofrio said. “If you can’t figure out fast...there’s a team that could trip you up along the way.”

But against its small-school opponent, P-W had too much size, too much depth and too much experience to be denied.

The Colonials responded to being down 8-4 with a 28-2 run that lasted well into the second quarter, taking a 43-20 lead into the break. It started thanks in no small part to Glover, who had six points on put-backs in the first quarter alone, along with a couple dimes to McLeod.

“He’s the Ahmin Williams in the forward spot,” Donofrio said of Glover. “I thought Ahmin setting the tone on the defense is fantastic, but when Alan Glover had about two or three energetic offensive boards and was just relentless, it just tells a team ‘we’re here. And we’re going to be here all night.’”

Glover said he’s been hearing from Division III programs Arcadia and Wesley -- Arcadia head coach Justin Scott was in the crowd on Friday night -- as well as several Division II schools including Indiana (Pa.), West Chester and Kutztown.

“There’s not really any film, with me getting hurt last year,” he said. “They want to see me playing hard, getting rebounds, doing what I do. Just have to keep doing that and see what they say.”

Plymouth-Whitemarsh continues its season on Monday night against Bishop Shanahan, which returns four of its top six from a team that made the District 1 Class 5A semifinals a year ago.

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