City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADrobinson3)
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FORT WASHINGTON — Some things are hard to quantify.

There are intangible things, like how much "heart" or "character" a person has and more fungible things, like how many jellybeans a supermarket crams into a glass jar for an Easter promotion. What Plymouth Whitemarsh junior Qudire Bennett did at the end of the second overtime session Thursday night in Upper Dublin's gym may qualify for both of those realms.

Bennet's improbable leaning, buzzer-beating, game-winning 3-pointer handed the Colonials a 47-44 victory over the Cardinals, that much is certain.

As far as PW's SOL Liberty conference title hopes and District 1 6A playoff future, there's still work to be done. Whether the shot was a spark to ignite a bigger flame or merely a flash in the pan will be played out next week, but there was no issue quantifying where it ranked in Bennett's personal resume.

"Top, No. 1," Bennett said after putting in 20 points Thursday. "All my game-winning shots have either been a three or a lay-up, but coming off a tight screen with an Upper Dublin player tightly guarding me, I picked up my dribble, shimmied back and had a one-handed shot, as soon as I saw my follow-through I knew we were going to win this game.

"Our student section stormed the court, I got tackled but I loved every moment of it celebrating with my coaches, my team and my friends."

It was also a moment of redemption for Bennett, who had missed a free throw at the front of a one-and-one with 25 seconds left in the fourth quarter that could have helped put the game away in regulation. Instead, a PW foul on Upper Dublin's Colin O'Sullivan while shooting a three led to the Cardinals junior knocking down a trio of gut-check free throws with 4.8 left to tie the game 38-38 and a defensive stand sending things to overtime.

Thursday's win puts the Colonials at 11-3 in the SOL Liberty, where they sit in first place on a technicality at the moment. Wissahickon, which also has just three conference losses after beating William Tennent 48-43 on Thursday, is a half-game back at 10-3 in the SOL.

Even with the loss, Upper Dublin is still in the running for a conference title at 10-4 in the SOL thanks to some scheduling quirks that will see Wissahickon face both UD and PW in the final week of the regular season. The Trojans will make up that game in hand Friday night against Quakertown, then face the Cardinals on Tuesday and finish the season at Plymouth Whitemarsh while PW faces Abington next Tuesday and UD will wrap up against Hatboro-Horsham.

So, for all the heroics and theatrics, there's still a chance the win ends up meaning nothing if the Colonials don't keep winning.

"After a win like this, we're going to have all our excitement for one night then we're going to humble ourselves for next week," Bennett said. "We have to be humble and everything has to be precise and well-executed. This group of guys, we fight. We've been together for two years straight, we're tight and have a tight chemistry and that's how you get moments like this, the moments you remember forever."

The 42 minutes played on Thursday were like a microcosm of the Colonials' season to this point. Despite coming in at 13-6, PW was also clinging to the No. 24 spot in the 6A district rankings, far from a lock to even get into the postseason.

"This is the three-headed monster with these three games," PW coach Jim Donofrio said. "They are emotional kids and I drive them crazy, I'm sure, because I'm critical and I'm trying to get them to be level. We did a lot of good things defensively then we find ways to play both Upper Dublin and ourselves.

"It's the oddest year I've ever seen for records and rankings, it seems like everyone has 10-14 wins and whatever that's doing with equations in the rankings, it's potluck."

Bennett's own night was an adventure tale of its own. Sure, he led all scorers with 20 points, but he also had the missed free throw and was called for two offensive fouls and then somehow made everyone in the gym forget all that with the team's shot of the season.

"Q is becoming such a scorer but he's still a young-minded player that if you run a set for him, he thinks he absolutely must shoot that ball even if he's knocking three Upper Dublin kids over," Donofrio said. "Next year, he's the mature guy in the building but this year, he's just so hungry to be great.

"Some dogs are puppies for too long and that's what we are. We run around, we chase cars, we go three houses away, we jump through the electric fence."

To his credit, Bennett didn't play himself out of the game after any of his miscues although the junior wing did admit he frustrated with himself after a couple of them. As the third-leading scorer in the SOL at 18.1 ppg, the 6-foot-4 Bennett chalks any over-zealous offense up to just wanting to win.

"I might be a leading scorer in the SOL, but I don't look at it like that, if teams want to guard me, I don't care how many points I have," Bennett said. "I'm going to get my teammates open and they're going to do their thing. If they only want to worry about me, then they're going to have all my teammates to worry about."

However, he wasn't going to give up the ball once he caught it in the corner just in front of his bench, the last ticks of clock burning away. The defense couldn't have been any better, it was just that kind of a shot.

"Watching it over and over again, it's still a shock to me," Bennett said. "The clock was winding down, but as soon as I saw my follow-through, I just knew we were winning this game. All net, no rim, nothing and we win the game by three in double-OT."

After his shot went through the net, Bennett got swarmed by his teammates and then the PW students who made the trip over as they started leading him toward a corner of the gym and a door leading back to the locker rooms.

"I didn't know where we were going," Bennett said. "It was too fun of a moment, just one of those moments where all you want to do is enjoy it."

If the Colonials get two more wins, they may have been the first steps toward a conference title.

By Quarter
PW:   15  |  11  |   8   |   4   |   3   |   6   ||  47
UD:   10  |  12  |   5   |  11  |   3   |   3   ||  44

Scorers
PW: Qudire Bennett 20, Marshall Baker 10, Trey Jones 5, Zende Hubbard 4, Jaden Colzie 4, Taji Hubbard 2, Pat Flynn 2

UD: DJ Cerisier 16, Ellis Johnson 12, Griffin Pensabene 6, Colin O'Sullivan 5, Seton Kukla 5