City of Basketball Love

Dan Arkans (@danarkans)
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POTTSTOWN — Seniors DiMark Lyons, Abdul Jackson, Sadeeq Jackson, Nahzier Booker and Jurrell Young got together for more than just an occasional photo.

Coaches, parents and fans all wanted a piece of the four starting seniors on this special night.

Third-year coach Ken Ivory took it all in, shaking hands, getting hugs, posing for photos of his own. All that was missing were some babies to kiss.

A year ago it was a different story. Pottstown High School was not such a place of happiness for the Trojans after a first-round loss to Upper Merion.

In fact it’s been 16 years since the Trojans were celebrating anything in the postseason. Pottstown was a happening place once again after the fifth-seeded Trojans held off a gutsy 12th-seeded West Chester East charge 59-45 on Friday in the first round of the District 1 Class 5A playoffs. The win was their first district victory since 2008.

“We talked about it all year long,” said Ivory of last year’s loss to Upper Merion. “We talked about revitalizing the program, and carrying the torch. We are happy to be the ones to bring it back.”

Pottstown was a little shorthanded, playing without rotation pieces in senior Dillon Mayes and junior Jahmir Jackson. Still, the way the Trojans started it was hard to tell anyone was missing.

Young opened with 12 electrifying points and Pottstown led 18-5 after one quarter.
“Pressure isn’t anything to us anymore,” Sadeeq Jackson said. “We just try to do what we can as a team. We knew this could be our last game here. That’s not what we wanted. It feels good to me and my seniors that we are in the next round.”

The Trojans (18-6) did slow things down a bit in the second quarter, but five more points from Young (20 points) had Pottstown coasting to a 29-17 halftime advantage.

The third quarter was a different story as both teams bombed 3-pointers. West Chester East got the deficit down to seven points on several occasions behind the sharpshooting Kahseem Bronzell, who finished with 16 on the night. He was joined with team-high honors by senior Ryan Price, who came within 41 points of 1,000.

Each time, though, the Trojans responded. First it was Abdul Jackson with a pull-up jumper, and then Sadeeq Jackson caught fire from the 3-point line to push the lead back to 11. WC East did have the final answer of the quarter with a 3-pointer from Kyle Keefe but trailed 43-36 entering the fourth quarter.

“Our goal was to get them to five,” WCE head coach Tom Durant said. “We got it to seven, and they would hit a 3. We didn’t make shots early. We relied on the 3 early. Their athleticism scared us from the paint, that was a little disappointing.” 

Pottstown then caught the Vikings napping with lay-ins by Yashir Wood and Booker to start the fourth quarter to push the lead back to 11, and only once more did WC East get the score under double digits. 

Of course, by then Sadeeq Jackson was already in closing mode, finishing the game off with a coast-to-coast bucket and a 3-pointer. Jackson finished the game with 17 points, 15 of which came in the second half.

Abdul Jackson chipped in with 14 points and 10 boards, while Syncere Whitehurst came off the bench to add four steals.

“It’s not scary,” Sadeeq Jackson said of crunch time. “We’ve been in a lot of tough games, a lot of overtime games. There wasn’t anything to be scared of. We just knew we had to communicate.” 

Up next for Pottstown is one more date with fourth-seeded Phoenixville on Wednesday night. The Trojans are 0-3 against the Phantoms, including a loss in the PAC semifinals.

“We got the champs,” Ivory said. “We want to go down there and give them a fight. They know us real well. They spanked us three times. I will take (winning) one out of four. We would love to send them to the losers’ side.”

“We are coming,” Sadeeq Jackson said. “We are not backing down from anyone. I know they are coming too. It’s going to be a good game.”

The Vikings are left wondering what could have been after an 8-3 start to the season. WC East finished 11-12 after suffering six consecutive defeats after that start.

“We didn’t have practices,” Durant said. “We missed two days because the power lines were down. Then we had two snow days the next week. We missed practice time. This team had multi-sport guys, we needed to practice. We had mandatory shooting practices for two-and-a-half hours, we never did that in the past. We had basketball guys.”

By Quarter

West Chester East: 5 | 12 | 19 | 14 || 45

Pottstown: 18 | 11 | 14 | 16 || 59

Scoring

West Chester East: Price 16; Cox 3; Bronzell 16; Keefe 5; Carr 2; Walton 3

Pottstown: Young 20; Abdul Jackson 14; Wood 4; Sadeeq Jackson 17; Booker 4

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District 1 5A Boys

First Round
8) Upper Moreland 79, 9) Holy Ghost Prep 76
5) Pottstown 59, 12) West Chester East 45
10) Penncrest 50, 7) West Chester Rustin 36
6) Sun Valley 43, 11) Marple Newtown 41

Quarterfinals (Weds., Feb. 21)
1) Unionville vs. 8) Upper Moreland
4) Phoenixville vs. 5) Pottstown
2) Upper Dublin vs. 10) Penncrest
3) Radnor vs. 6) Sun Valley

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