City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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WEST CHESTER — The distance extends to almost a year now, though it’s not exactly something the Downingtown West Whippets are ready to let go of anytime soon.

They remember what it was like losing the Ches-Mont League championship to West Chester East—and then having East beat them again in the PIAA District 1 Class 6A playoffs last year.

It’s why each time the Whippets carry a certain edge when they play East—and that sharpness surfaced Thursday night when Downingtown West led wire-to-wire in a 55-36 victory at East to clinch the Ches-Mont League National regular-season title.

With the victory, Downingtown West improved to 16-5 overall and 9-2 in the league, with Downingtown East left to play. But since the Whippets swept the two regular-season games from East, the Whippets would own the tiebreaker over the Vikings, who fell to 16-6 and wrapped up their Chest-Mont League record at 9-3.

Both teams are assured playoff berths in the Chest-Mont and they could meet again in the Chest-Mont League tournament championship next weekend.

For now, Downingtown West likes the way it’s heading during the most critical time of the season.

Thursday was a nice case in point.

The Whippets were led by Army-bound Dylan ‘The Maestro’ Blair’s game-high 18 points, followed by sophomore Donovan Fromhartz’s 12, nine from Kelly Bell and six points to start the game from Alex Neuhaus.

Last year, Downingtown West beat East twice during the regular season, only to have the Vikings beat the Whippets twice when it counted for more.

“It’s why we can’t get too high from this,” Fromhartz warned. “We played well tonight and we’re back at Tuesday and the Ches-Mont playoffs next weekend. Kelly Bell and Alex Neuhaus really stepped up for us tonight. They made the right passes and made the right plays.

“We knew that they could play, but they really showed that to everyone tonight, and it helps having Dylan. We beat East both times last year during the regular season, and lost to them in the Chest-Mont champion and the second round of the districts.

“There is some revenge there when we play them. We celebrate winning the Ches-Mont tonight and we’re back at it at practice.”

Blair, the Whippets’ exceptional four-year starting point guard, was in complete control of the tempo, as he usually is, directing traffic through East’s mix of full-court and half-court pressure, and sometimes twisting and turning through the maze of bodies to wind up on the other end with a layup.

Blair certainly remembers what it was like walking off the court at West Chester University last February without the Ches-Mont tournament championship.

“We’ve been in this exact scenario last year, and they threw a box-in-one at us last year and we weren’t ready for it. We’ll be prepared for that this time,” Blair said. “What I really like about this team is how selfless we are. No one cares who is getting all of the points or the rebounds. It’s going to take all of us to win.

“This is about doing your role, and no one cares about getting the credit. It’s about winning the basketball game. Kelly Bell battled (East’s Jack) Kushner on the boards, Joey Suarez came out and hit two threes for us and got us into a rhythm. Alex Neuhaus started us going.”

This was the ready step for Downingtown West.

Whippets’ coach Stuart Ross, who threw a good blend of zone and man defenses at East, feels his team is peaking at the right time.

“Losing to East in the postseason was fuel for our fire in the offseason, and I like to think that we are starting to play our best basketball,” he said. “We have fresh legs going into the Chest-Monts, and we’re playing Downingtown East next, and that is rivalry game, where anything can happen.

“What I like the most about our team is that they play for each other. They play together, they play hard and they listen. We had a lot of juniors who did not play a lot of varsity minutes coming into this season, and a lot of those guys are grown up now. It was nice to see the hard work paying off. We’re playing together and it’s always nice to have a player like Dylan Blair.”

The Whippets led from start-to-finish, up by as much as 28-14 and 31-17 at halftime—and they did it with Fromhartz battling some foul trouble, getting hit with his fourth early in the fourth quarter.

The Vikings got within 10 once in the fourth quarter, 40-31, on a Kushner bucket with 7:47 left to play. That was it. The Whippets went on an 11-1 run to seal the victory, shooting 22 of 52 for the game, while East was 14 of 42 from the floor.

“They shot very well and give credit to them, they came into a hostile environment and they didn’t miss,” East coach Tom Durant said. “They’re the No. 1 seed and we’re the No. 2. They’re a multiple-headed monster to play and Dylan Blair is Dylan Blair. They prepped well and they executed, and we didn’t make the easy shots. No one seemed to be comfortable out there.”

By Quarter
Downingtown West: 14  |  17  |   9   |  15  ||  55
West Chester East:   9   |   8   |  12  |   7   ||  36

Scoring
Downingtown West: Dylan Blair 18, Donny Fromhartz 12, Kelly Bell 9, Alex Neuhaus 6, Joey Suarez 6, Antonio Lewis 2, Alex Ely 2.

West Chester East: Jack Kushner 8, KJ Cochran 7, Jose Ramos 6, Ryan Price 6, Josh Sherlock 4, Jack Gallagher 3, Kory Puchalla 2.

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.