City of Basketball Love

Ryan Coyle (@ryancoyle35)
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When you play for Jim Donofrio and wear the red, white, and blue uniforms for Plymouth-Whitemarsh, there is a standard every time you step out on the floor.

Continue the tradition of excellence that has been put in place. 

Donofrio, who recorded his 500th career win Dec. 22 against Wissahickon, was honored pregame before Tuesday’s SOL Crossover contest against Cheltenham.

While the coach has racked up many accolades to go along with 500 wins, a 2010 PIAA 4A State Championship. 16 League Titles, and 1 District 1 title amongst others, he coached his 502nd win just as hard as any other.

With the game in hand late in the fourth quarter, senior forward Quidire Bennett (who has been on scoring tear this season) flushed down a dunk in transition to put the game away for good, but failed to get back on defense, resulting in an easy layup for Cheltenham on the other end. Donofrio wasn’t having it, calling a timeout and lighting a fire into his team. 

“Q got the dunk, but then we didn’t get back on defense and they got two points” Donofrio said after the 74-58 victory over Cheltenham. “They sometimes think I am being too hard on them, but this isn't pick-up ball. The discipline has to be learned here that ‘alright you have a 10-point lead here, not 27’. I’m glad you got the dunk, but now you’ve got to turn right around and lock in on defense.”

While the Colonials improved to 8-2 (6-0 SOL) in the victory, Donofrio sees a bigger picture for this talented group, but there is still a lot of work to be done. 

“Every year is different, but in some ways on paper it looks like this team could fit that label as a higher-level A grade team,” Donofrio said. “But, under the service of that when you have big winning seasons where you win 25 plus games, you probably have a combination of a lot of experience that fell short the season before. In this case guys like Rodney Willis, Jah Sayles, Jimmy Flowers, Chase Coleman, they are all new to these moments on the floor. I think that is part of the struggle. You have to go through the fire.”

That fire has been a blazing one for Donfrio’s squad who despite their inexperience in some regards is out to a hot start and has played a challenging schedule thus far battling Roman Catholic, West Chester East, Salesianum (Del.) and Abington amongst others all in preparation for another playoff run with Donofrio at the helm. 

On a night where the backcourt duo of juniors Coleman and Jaden Colzie didn’t have their most efficient night from the floor, shooting 12-for-39 from the floor, they still found a way to combine for 31 points. The Colonials’ talent helped them prevail to a double-digit victory in the SOL crossover matchup, but Donofrio knows they can’t bank on that night in and night out. 

“When you are talented, it can happen in different stretches,” Donofrio said. “It was an important game for us. Last Friday (in a 67-53 loss to West Chester East), we fell asleep and when you are a young team, you win seven games in a row, that happens. But there has to be a moment of ‘alright what are we doing here?’, you only get 22 games, 88 quarters. This isn’t an NBA schedule, there isn’t a lot of time to have down nights.”

“When we did that (focused on defense), we stopped lunging on defense, going for steals, being risky, you make them work, you are in a good position. Then in the fourth quarter when you are in the right position is when you can get your run outs. We are still a little young in that regard.”

This year’s PW squad isn’t like teams of years past, a team that doesn’t necessarily have the elite athletes and blazing speed that allowed the Colonials to press teams and trap them 94 feet for 32 minutes, but their defensive system still caused some issues for a Cheltenham team that thrives in transition. 

“As Coach D said before the game, this is a North and South transition team,” Bennett said after dropping 30 points on Tuesday night. “They get all their points in the transition offense. They were looking to break, so we would step up and when they would try to make the pass we got some steals and forced them to bobble it or throw it out of bounds. Stopping their break played a big part in our favor in the first half.”

Taking the Panthers out of their comfort zone in the transition offense resulted in 22 turnovers for the visitors, including five from Cheltenham (5-4) sophomore point guard Josiah Hutson who led the Panthers with 13 points, but struggled to get into any rhythm for most of the night due to the defensive pressure of Coleman. 

Flowers played an integral role as an energizer piece off the bench for the Colonials, recording four blocks on the night and altering a lot of other shots at the rim by the Panthers. Flowers also had 6 points on the night, recording a few putback layups after misses by Colzie and Coleman in the lane.

Bennett knows that everything won’t click for him and his teammates each night on the floor, but as he continues his strong senior season, he knows it is important to help his teammates keep a level head and continue to plug along with his veteran leadership. 

“We are going to have games during the season where we are going to start out a little slow on offense, but we know we have to just keep plugging away,”  Bennett said. “We knew our shots weren’t falling in the first and second quarter, but at halftime we just were like ‘alright let's lock in and stretch the lead more’ and we came out and did our thing.”

PW took a 30-20 lead into the locker room, but pulled away in the second half en route to a 74-58 with the duo of Bennett and Coleman combining for 51 of the Colonials 74 points. 

There has been a message spread to this young and inexperienced, but talented team that Donofrio is hoping resonates with his Colonials before February rolls around with some loftier goals in mind. 

“If you work really hard you’ll put on a show,” Donofrio said. “If you come out to put on a show, it's not going to work. Don’t worry about the show, worry about the work and then the highlights come. They have the potential to be a really nice racing car, the wheels just aren't quite right yet. They are a great group of kids, real fun to work with, just need some tuning.” 

If there is anyone to get this car ready to race to the finish line, the man with over 500 wins might just be the one to do it. 

By Quarter

Plymouth Whitemarsh: 15  |   15  |  17  |  17  ||  74

Cheltenham:  9  |  11  |  17  |   21  ||  58

Scoring

Plymouth Whitemarsh: Bennett 30, Coleman 21, Jaden Colzie 10, Flowers 6, Sharpe 5, Willis 2

Cheltenham: Huston 13, Hughes 12, Healey 9, Addison 8, Metcalf 7, Respes 4, Tinsley 3, Thompson 2