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District 1 6A: Touré's shot lifts Upper Darby past D'town West, into states

02/21/2018, 12:45am EST
By Ray Dunne

Mamadou Toure (above) hit the game-winning shot that lifted Upper Darby into the PIAA state playoffs. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Ray Dunne (@RayDunneBTB)
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Upper Darby has a couple of quality shooters when that they have relied upon when needing a timely basket.

Junior guard Mamadou Toure, however, is not usually the man for the job. Toure’s game focuses more on defense and distributing the basketball. After a first half in which he only converted three of nine attempts from the field, it would be hard to sell anyone in the gym on the idea that the 5-foot-11 guard would pull up with the game on the line.

Nonetheless, as the final seconds ticked away in the Royals’ District One 6A playoff game against Downingtown West, Toure had no choice but to test the jumper he has been working on.

“We knew they were going to smother our best shooter so I was going to have the lane to myself, but when [the defender] backed off, I just shot it, “ Toure said.

With his left foot just inside the three point line, Toure let it fly. The ball took a hard bounce off the backboard and fell through the net with a second remaining on the clock.

“I knew it was going to be hard,” he said, “but I didn’t call bank.”

The final two of his 11 points pushed the score to 46-44, the eventual final score that pushed Upper Darby to the next round of districts and their first PIAA state playoff berth since 2013.

Royals’ head coach Bob Miller called a timeout with 14.1 seconds left to discuss how his team could pull off the late game heroics, but Toure’s shot was all impromptu.

“The funny part is, we didn’t get anything I asked for,” Miller said. “The ball wasn’t supposed to leave Mamadou [Toure]’s hands, he passed it over to his teammate, then I’m yelling to him to give it right back, we were supposed to set a back screen for the guard and then a ball screen and [Toure] was supposed to go all the way to the basket and try to get to the foul line.”

The shot capped off an impressive comeback for the Royals, who trailed the No. 24 seeded Whippets for the majority of the game following a very slow start. Just over three minutes into the game, Downingtown West had already built a 9-0 lead over the No. 8 seeded Royals.

Such has been the case in a number of games this season, with the most recent example being Upper Darby’s Central League semifinal loss to Penncrest, where the Royals came out flat and never recovered.

These experiences starting slow, although frustrating to Miller and his staff, were just another reminder to Upper Darby’s players on what they should be focusing on while on the floor.

“They just couldn’t panic, they had to just start sharing the ball and then once a couple shots fell, we hit a couple threes in the first half, but the reason we are standing here is defense,” Miller said. “We knew it was going to be contrasting styles, we’re guard oriented, we don’t really have a true post player, and they’re post oriented, so the defense is the reason we won.”

After allowing 17 points in the first quarter, the Royals hunkered down and were in their opponents’ faces for the rest of the evening. Junior center Kymir Roper (seven points, seven rebounds) specifically had a big night, playing tough in the post despite giving up size to each Downingtown West big man.

As they clawed their way back into the game, the Royals showed truly how much different they are from the team that struggled a year ago. Their consistent resilience and effort on both sides of the floor has carried them back near the top of district play.

The win improves them to 7-1 in games decided by six or less points, an improvement over last year’s 3-3 record in such games. Additionally, they are only allowing 50.9 points per game, nearly ten points lower than their average from a season ago.

“We knew we were going to be way better than we were last year,” Toure said. “[There’s] more chemistry, way better defense, better conditioning, we’re all energized this year to win a championship.”

As for Downingtown West, they will begin play in the District One playbacks along with the other teams that lost on Tuesday night. The Whippets will travel to No. 16 seeded Bensalem as they try to claim one of the final two state berths out of District One.

In spite of the loss, big men Will Howard and Greg Barton combined for 18 points while sophomore guard Naseem Roberson had a fantastic first half and hit clutch free throws down the stretch for Downingtown West, finishing with nine points, five rebounds, and five assists.

The road to accomplishing their ultimate goal of a title now runs through a seemingly untouchable team. Top seeded and unbeaten Plymouth-Whitemarsh awaits as the Royals will travel to the Colonials’ gym Friday night with a berth to Temple University and the district semifinals on the line.

This meeting will be the first time the teams meet up for a game that counts, but the matchup has roots to where this season all began for both teams.

“We’ve scrimmaged them every year for seventeen years I think, their coach [Jim Donofrio] is pretty funny, he said the only constant in his life is Upper Darby for [the] first scrimmage,” Miller said. “We shouldn’t be afraid to play them, but they’re a tough matchup, they’re the best team in the state.”


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