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Norristown seniors making up for lost time in playoffs

02/23/2022, 1:00am EST
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)

HAVERTOWN — Norristown didn’t have a single opportunity to get any playoff experience last season. As a matter of fact, the Eagles didn’t have an opportunity to get any experience last season, one of the handful of area programs that sat the 2020-21 campaign out entirely due to pandemic.

“It’s over a lost year,” head coach Dana ‘Binky’ Johnson said. “It’s 21 months.”

So despite having a healthy group of seniors, Norristown’s very much learning about postseason life on the fly. And they’re quickly making up for lost time. 

The No. 12 seed in the District 1 6A bracket, Norristown’s playing like a veteran squad with plenty of late-season experience, shrugging off a big early deficit and closing strong in a 46-39 road win over No. 5 Haverford High in the second round of the District 1 6A playoffs Tuesday night. 


DJ Johnson (above) and Norristown are in the District 1 6A Quarterfinals on Friday at Bensalem. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“I’ve been around Norristown basketball for a while,” said senior guard DJ Johnson, the head coach’s son and one of the Eagles’ leaders. “I’ve been around and understand how it works, understand the atmosphere. For my teammates, I’m not so sure if they’ve been around it [...] but they’re definitely adjusting well.”

After falling behind early against No. 21 Wissahickon in their opening-round win, Norristown once again found itself with a first-half deficit — except this time on the road, to a very capable Haverford squad. The Fords (17-6) were up 11-5 after one quarter, forcing six Eagle turnovers, and then a Kevin Gannon 3-pointer made it 14-5, leading to Norristown’s second timeout of the first half. 

Forty seconds later, the lead now 18-5, Binky Johnson called timeout yet again.

“I can’t say it right now [what I said in that timeout],” he said with a laugh, “but it was the fact that we have to do something different, so we changed up our defense [...] if we played that pace, we were going to lose by 30 tonight.”

“He was mainly yelling at the captains, telling us that we’ve got to play better, that we’re the leaders of this team, we can’t go out like this,” DJ Johnson said. “He said basically the comeback was going to have to start with us.”

From that point forward, Norristown was the better squad. 

A 7-0 spurt out of the second timeout helped the Eagles close the gap to 21-14 at the break, and the tone was already changing. The third quarter went 14-5 in the visitors’ favor, Norristown getting buckets from four different players as the Haverford turnovers started to mount. 

By that point, the confidence was there for Norristown, though it took until the final couple minutes of regulation to finally extinguish Norristown’s hopes. 

That was after a wild fourth quarter which saw Haverford, desperate for a bucket, miss several layups, their outside shooters already frustrated by a Norristown zone which allowed them to shoot only three long balls the whole second half after going 3-of-9 in the first. 

Myon Kirlew (12) had nine points, including a corner 3-pointer with under three minutes left to help Norristown seal the win. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Sophomore guard Myon Kirlew (nine points) hit the biggest individual shot of the game, a 3-pointer from the left corner that put Norristown up 37-32 with 2:12 remaining. John DiNolfi (10 points) added 3-of-4 foul shooting the next two times down the court to keep the advantage at five.

DJ Johnson led the way on both ends with 14 points, six rebounds and six steals, including going six-of-six from the foul line in the game’s final 41 seconds to help the Eagles seal the win. 

“Everything’s tough about them, they’re a tough team, they deserve their seeding and everything,” he said of Haverford. “People counted us out, they said we weren’t going to make playoffs, a lot of people didn’t even have us listed as a winning team, they said we weren’t going to have a winning season, but [...] everybody put in work behind closed doors, putting in work that no one else sees.”

After giving it up just four times in the first half, the Fords coughed it up nine times in the second, the Eagles coming up with nine steals for the game. 

“I thought we were still going to the basket hard, and I thought they were getting their hands on the ball, or hands on us a little bit, and we weren’t as strong as we could be,” Haverford coach Keith Heinrichs said, adding later, “Norristown is a very good on-the-ball defensive team. They made some tough defensive plays.”

“We were cutting and moving and we were getting it, and then those cuts weren’t there,” Heinerichs said, “and I think a lot of it was the physicality of Norristown, they were physical and we weren’t able to overcome their physicality.”

Haverford’s season isn’t over. The Fords will host No. 20 seed West Chester Henderson on Friday in the playback rounds, which will be yet another chance to qualify for the state bracket; a loss in that one, however, ends their season.

Binky Johnson, who starred at Norristown in the 1980s and then played Division I ball at Canisius, garnered plenty of postseason experience during his high school years. Now in his fifth year as the Eagles’ head coach, he’s taken three teams to the state playoffs, including this one, but it hasn’t happened since 2019.

This run’s even more special considering it’s his last as his son’s coach, the pair’s only opportunity to experience a Norristown tournament run as father and son.

“It’s special, it’s beyond special,” the elder Johnson said. “A moment with your son, and don’t forget the stressful part of it, because he’s got to go home with me at night. 

“It’s special, but it’s also really important that he makes his own way, getting out of my shadow as a player and a coach and my history here at Norristown. I just want him to be himself, that was important.”

Norristown’s season continues on Friday with a trip to No. 4 seed Bensalem. It’s the same drive down the Turnpike the Eagles made on Jan. 31, when they came away with a 55-40 win over the Owls, the Suburban One League runners-up. 

“They’re familiar with us, we’re familiar with them,” Binky Johnon said. “It’s going to be another dogfight like tonight.”

By Quarter
Haverford:   11  |  10  |   5   |  13  ||  39
Norristown:  5   |   9   |  14  |  18  ||  46

Shooting
Haverford: 17-38 FG (3-12 3PT), 2-5 FT
Norristown: 15-31 FG (2-8 3PT), 14-26 FT

Scoring
Haverford: Googie Seidman 16, JR Newman 10, Tommy Wright 4, Brian Wiener 4, Kevin Gannon 3, Nick Colucci 2

Norristown: DJ Johnson 14, John DiNolfi 10, Myon Kirlew 9, Zaki Gomez 9, Righteous Mitchell 4


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