City of Basketball Love

Zak Wolf (@ZakWolf22)
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There are plenty of banners hanging inside the Plymouth Whitemarsh gym — whether it’s the league and district championships or state titles, the Colonials have it all. Even with those accomplishments, there was still one itch that the Colonials were hoping to scratch this season. 

Over the years, PW has won countless Suburban One League titles, enough to fill up nearly every space on one of the banners hanging in their new gymnasium. But there was one spot left to fill on the banner listing all the titles before there was no space left, before a new banner would have to be made. 

Tonight, the Colonials got to fill that space. 

Thanks to a 63-49 win over Wissahickon, Plymouth Whitemarsh clinched a share of the Suburban One Liberty Division title. The Colonials are back-to-back division champions after winning it outright last season. 

“We filled that last spot on the banner,” junior forward Quadire Bennett said, “The last little square on the banner is what fueled us to win this game. Now every time when we come back here, we can see ‘2022’ and we’re going to think that we put that last date up.”

After both teams lost their games on Tuesday, they knew a share of the league title would be up for grabs when they faced off on Thursday. With PW, Wissahickon and Upper Dublin all at 11-4 heading into the night, it was all to play for. Upper Dublin defeated Hatboro Horsham 51-35 to clinch their share of the league title.

“I really appreciate league titles,” PW head coach Jim Donofrio said. “A lot of people say, ‘district title is the best, state title is the best,’ that’s all great stuff, that takes a lot of magic and a lot of other stuff. You win those and you remember those forever, but league titles show resiliency, and they show consistency, and they show that you’re in it for the marathon.”

It wasn’t always smooth sailing for PW, who hit a couple bumps in the road on the way, including on Tuesday, where they blew a late lead against Abington and lost in double overtime. That didn’t just damage their league title hopes, but it also put them in a difficult position to make the District 1 6A playoffs. 

Heading into tonight, the Colonials knew winning was the only option, sitting at number 26 in the District rankings, with 24 teams making the postseason. In such a tight race, with a lot of teams bunched up together, one result could change a lot of things and that’s exactly what happened. PW shot up to number 19 in the rankings after their big win.

“I teach philosophy and in philosophy they say that mathematics is the key to understanding the universe, just not in the district one tournament,” Donofrio said.  

Consistency has been something PW has struggled with all season long, whether it was their shot selection or not playing smart with the lead. Earlier in the season, the Colonials lost at Wissahickon 50-34, but tonight they put it all together and played as a team.

“We took it to a gear Wiss hasn’t seen,” Bennett said. “We played there a month ago and we didn’t have the best chemistry at that point in the season, but tonight we went into another gear that they couldn’t stop.”

Bennett led PW with 19 points. The Colonials have gone through some offensive slumps this season, but he’s stepped up to be a consistent scorer for them. Bennett is one of the top scorers in all of Suburban One and after struggling with his jumper in the first quarter, Bennett went to work inside. Wissahickon had no answer for his size down low, as Bennett went to the free throw line seven times.

PW had a balanced attack with all five starters in double figures: Jaden Colzie (12), Marshall Baker (11) Trey Jones (11), and Tajee Hubbard (10) all joined Bennett.

After struggling to close games out this season, PW didn’t allow that to happen tonight, outsourcing Wiss 19-9 in the fourth quarter. Whenever Wiss threatened to cut into the lead, P.W answered it and eventually shut the door on any comeback threat. Earl Stout knocked down a three late in the third quarter to cut the lead to three, but P.W would go on to score the next 13 to put the game away. 

“We had a huge emphasis the last couple of days on finishing games,” Donofrio said. “As a player, you just have to decide when you’re going to be great and we haven’t had enough of that this year. It seems to be a constant battle of saying ‘I need you to believe in yourselves.”

The Colonials played lockdown defense in the fourth quarter as well, with the classic Jim Donofrio full court press in effect. All game the Trojans struggled with the ball pressure and turned the ball over.

Junior guard Earl Stout led the Trojans with 13 points, but PW made him work for everything he got. Sophomore Dom Vacchiano was also in double figures with 10, including two 3s, but Wiss couldn’t come up with enough offense to keep up with PW when they made their run. 

In the playoffs anything can happen and with the Colonials ability to hit shots and play defense, they’re going to be a dangerous low seeded team to play against. But for his team to be successful, Donofrio wants his team to read the game better and show poise, especially when they have the lead.

“They’re very hyper guys and they’re not patient enough on offense,” Donofrio said. “They just want to get shots off, it’s almost like a Tuesday night at a rec center. That’s been the fight all year. You run a ton of beautiful stuff and you don’t let it happen.”

“To win games now, you have to look at a one point lead as a good thing,” he continued. “Do you have the confidence to know that you’re winning? Sometimes we’re up 10 and we act like we’re down 10, that’s immaturity. We need to be up one saying we’re good, and if you do that you make big plays at the end, you make smart plays at the end.

By Quarter
PW:  15 I 13 I 16 I 19 II 63
Wiss: 14 I  9 I 16 I  9  II 48

Scoring
PW: Bennett 19, Colzie 12, Baker 11, Jones 11, T. Hubbard 10

Wiss: Stout 13, Vacchiano 11, Wilson 8, Williams 7, Dias 5, Twersky 4