City of Basketball Love

By Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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WHITEMARSH — Jaden Colzie is a good listener.

When the PW junior point guard came off a curl and caught a pass in front of the Colonials’ student section in the third quarter Saturday, someone immediately shouted out “shoot it.” So, Colzie did just that, sinking a three as part of a dominant third quarter on both an individual and team level.

Earlier in the day, Colzie and a select few of his teammates got a talking to from coach Jim Donofrio about their level of play in recent games and they listened well to that too.

“He brought the main six in his classroom today and he gave us…hell. It was crazy,” Colzie said. “He was saying we were playing lazy, not getting back on defense. All of it was facts, I won’t even lie, the past two games we haven’t been playing as hard as we had all season.”

North Penn, sparked by a terrific game off the bench by Corey Meade, went play-for-play with the SOL Liberty champions for a half and only trailed thanks to a Jahseir Sayles three set up by a tremendous pass by Colzie. Early in the third, the Knights had tied the game 30-30, prompting Donofrio to call a timeout to re-emphasize his earlier chat.

Message received. 

The Colonials hammered the Knights for a 27-9 run over the next six minutes to close the third quarter, Colzie right in the middle of it with 13 points on 5-of-5 shooting as PW turned a 28-26 halftime lead into a commanding 57-39 advantage.

“That anger he gave us — he could have been way worse — it was an example of, we needed that,” Colzie said. “It’s the energy part. We needed energy, we weren’t playing with fire and that’s all he cares about. If we’re playing hard, he’s going to take whatever we have.”

Qudire Bennett led all scorers with 23 — he was also perfect from the floor in the third quarter — while Colzie was right behind with 19 and six assists. Aside from their offense, the Colonials were dominant on the glass and causing turnovers, Chase Coleman pocketing five steals and six offensive rebounds while Lincoln Sharpe hammered the glass for 11 boards, seven on the offensive end.

North Penn was paced by Ryan Deininger's 17 and Meade, who finished with 15 points, two blocks and two steals off the bench.

PW hosts CB East in Tuesday’s semifinal. The players are hoping they won’t have to have the same talk before that game but if they do, it’s a sure bet they’ll be listening.

“We decided to play with very little heart the last two games, so we had to have a conversation,” Donofrio said. “As much as we have talent, we’re not an experienced team that went far in the playoffs a year ago.

“You drop just three percent of your focus and then it’s a game with everybody you play. You have to grind until you get what you want.”

By Quarter

PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 16 | 12 | 29 | 18 || 75

NORTH PENN 12 | 14 | 13 | 18 || 57

Scoring

PW: Qudire Bennett 23, Jaden Colzie 19, Chase Coleman 18, Lincoln Sharpe 7, Mani Sajid 3, Jahseir Sayles 3

NP: Ryan Deininger 17, Corey Meade 15, Ryan Zeltt 5, Ahmaar Godhania 5, Norman Gee 4, Mario Sgro 3, Teddy McAllister 2, Nicholas Hoffman 2, Lee Hammond 2, Luke Cody 2

(2) Central Bucks East 60, (6) Upper Dublin 56 (OT)

Despite trailing by 11 points, the Patriots never wavered on Saturday, sticking together and coming up with a number of clutch plays to first force overtime, then win the game in the extra session.

Kyle Berndt was the leading scorer, although Jake Cummiskey was the one that forced overtime but Tyler Dandrea hit the biggest shot of the day. They don't get the chance to do any of those things without everyone else doing their part, so it wasn’t hard to see why coach Erik Henrysen spread the credit around.

“We didn’t panic,” Henrysen said. “We stayed disciplined on the defensive end, got a couple of stops and the guys just believed in each other. We didn’t do anything out of character.”

Cummiskey connected on a long two-point jumper with 14 seconds left to tie the game, then the Patriots had to buckle down and get a stop to force the extra period.

“Cummiskey really did just about everything,” Henrysen said.

Berndt buried five three-point shots in the game on his way to a team-best 21. East found itself down again in overtime and this time it was Tyler Dandrea answering the bell, hitting the go-ahead three with less than a minute to play for the biggest of his 13 points in the game.

“It was a big one,” Henrysen said. “They came down, we were able to turn it over, collect it and get fouled.”

The East coach had major props for Upper Dublin, calling the Cardinals “a state playoff team in 5A.” UD was led by Brady Fogle, the guard leading the way in scoring for a second straight game, and got nine apiece from Seaton Kukla and DJ Cerisier.

East will play for its first-ever SOL Tournament title on Tuesday against PW.

“We approach each game focused on the task at hand, not looking at it like it’s a championship but looking at it as let’s start by going out and winning the first quarter,” Henrysen said.

By Quarter

CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 14 | 8 | 16 | 11 | 11 || 60

UPPER DUBLIN 14 | 15 | 13 | 7 | 7 || 56

Scoring

CBE: Kyle Berndt 21, Jake Cummiskey 16, Tyler Dandrea 13, Nolan Jacob 4, Dhruv Mukund 3, Miles Demby 3

UD: Brady Fogle 13, Seaton Kukla 9, DJ Cerisier 9, Griffin Pensabene 8, Colin O’Sullivan 7, Ryan Mulroy 5, Terrell Turner 4, Chris Kohlbrenner 1