City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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WEST CHESTER — It wasn’t going to happen. Dylan Blair wasn’t going to let it happen. 

With 27 seconds to play in the Ches-Mont League championship Tuesday night, the Army-bound Downingtown West star snuck behind the blind side of a Unionville player at the top of the circle, popped the ball free, then grabbed it a few strides later for a layup and a lead the Whippets wouldn’t relinquish.

It was the play of the game in a clutch moment that will be remembered for a while, propelling Downingtown West to a 46-43 comeback victory over Unionville at West Chester University’s Hollinger Field House to win its first Ches-Mont title since 2015.

Blair, the Whippets’ 5-foot-11 maestro, finished with a game-high 26 points, scoring nine of Downingtown West’s final 12. There was none more important than the steal-and-score with 23 seconds left, which gave the Whippets a 45-43 lead.

Unionville had a look in the lane to tie in the closing seconds, but a shot rimmed out and the Whippets’ Antonio Lewis put the finishing touches on the victory by sinking a free throw with 5 seconds left for the 46-43 final.

“I was going to do anything I could to win this game, whether it was scoring the ball, or getting stops on defense, or getting on the floor for loose balls, because it’s been a long time coming,” Blair said. “I kind of knew what was going on in the end (when he stole the ball). I knew he didn’t see me coming, so I went and took it from him.”

The victory had special meaning for Whippets’ coach Stuart Ross. He had won a PSAC East title as a player for West Chester at Hollinger and he not only won his first Ches-Mont title, but captured his 200th career victory in the process, just two days after he earned his 100th with Downingtown West.

“This is my first (Ches-Mont), the Holy Grail as I called it,” said Ross, who was doused with a water shower by his team when he returned to the locker room. “Unionville did their job. They executed their offense, and we had to keep battling and stick with our game plan. Off the top of my head, I think this was our largest margin we were down by. We let them be comfortable offensively.

“They’re a really good offensive team. We let them stay comfortable and execute it. We wanted to take some chances defensively in the second half, Dylan made some plays down the stretch and we talked about guys being ready for their moment in the locker room.”

Downingtown West (19-5) has a first-round bye in the PIAA District 1 Class 6A playoffs, set to play the winner of William Tennent and Haverford. Unionville (20-4) is the No. 3 seed in District 1 Class 5A, also with a bye, scheduled to meet the first-round winner of Pottstown and Upper Merion.

Unionville coach Chris Cowles did an excellent job designing openings and a strategy that caused the Whippets problems all night.

“We kind of let them off the hook with some fouls early and not being disciplined,” Cowles said. “Dylan is a great player and we messed up some coverages not going over on him and making him make decisions. He made us pay when we did that.

“We have to be more foundationally sound. We didn’t come to the ball a bunch of times in the first half, and obviously in the fourth quarter. Our foundation has to be set at 100. It wasn’t at 100 and it’s disappointing.”

The Longhorns led 41-37 with 5:14 left to play. It’s when Lewis pulled it to within 41-39 after a pair of free throws, and Kelly Bell tied it on a feed from Blair with 3:15 to play.

“We knew Dylan would take over,” said Bell, who had a big blocked shot in the fourth quarter and sported a bruise under his left eye from an elbow. “We weren’t sharing the ball in the first half and they were, so that was the talk at halftime, playing harder and passing the ball more.

“This is an amazing feeling to win this. It’s what I wanted and what I dreamed.”  

Unionville took a 27-17 lead into halftime. There were points in the first half when the Longhorns were up 21-10 and 27-16. The Longhorns made 9 of 19 from the floor, while Downingtown West struggled over the first two quarters, making 7 of 26.

There was an interesting contrast. At halftime, Unionville had six players score, while Downingtown West had three, with Blair taking a lot on himself. Unionville had great ball movement, finding the open man on the perimeter, while the Whippets were stagnant, standing around and waiting for Blair. They hardly shared the ball in the first two quarters.

Blair had 13 of the Whippets’ 17 at halftime, while Charlie Kammeier had 10 for Unionville.

Downingtown West’s superb 6-6 sophomore Donny Fromhartz had two points at halftime, and his four shots came off rebounds. He finished with nine, playing with four fouls late.

“We broke down the huddle in the second half with ‘together,’ because we had to win this together,” Blair said. “We were down by 10 and we prepared for situations like that before. When it came down to the moment, we executed. This was a great step to go into the district playoffs with this. It means a lot to me that we won this game.”

By Quarter
Unionville:      11  |  16  |  12  |   4   ||  43
D’town West:  8   |   9   |  20  |   9   ||  46

Scoring
Unionville: Robbie Logan 12, Charlie Kammeier 11 Nick Diehl 8, Ryan Brown 6, TJ Anderson 3, Kevin Carson 2, James Brenner 1.

Downingtown West: Dylan Blair 26, Donny Fromhartz 9, Kelly Bell 6, Antonio Lewis 3, Joey Suarez 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.