City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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DOWNINGTOWN — They are a young work in progress that seem to be growing with each game.

Downingtown East third-year coach Darren Domsohn has had no problems this season throwing junior Jordan Daniel, sophomores Charlotte Aldridge, Chloe Hunold and Grace Hodges with Kendall Chiavelli right into the fire of the Ches-Mont League.

This fledging group took a solid step towards maturing Friday night by awarding their coach his first district victory, topping Ches-Mont rival Downingtown West 36-18 in the opening round of the PIAA District 1 Class 6A playoffs.

The No. 11-seed Cougars (18-5) advance to the second round against district powerhouse No. 6 Spring-Ford on Wednesday night at 7 p.m., while No. 22-seed Downingtown West (11-12) saw its season end.

East received great balance in getting a game-high nine points from Aldridge, seven from Hodges and six each from Chiavelli and Daniel.

But it was defense and a suffocating half-court trap that caused West to finish with its lowest total of the season, after the Cougars beat West last week 24-21.

“Credit to our girls, they really focused this past week,” Domsohn said. “We did a couple of things that we wanted to change up, things we wanted to show them a little differently than the last time. Really this is a credit to the entire team, top to bottom, for buying into what we were selling this week.

“It is about everyone who has contributed. It is a cool moment, and cool moment for the kids, because this is their first district win, too. This was a great step for them. I have lot of respect for Downingtown West, and for the girls to lock in and do all the things we were preaching this week, it was exciting to see.”

Aldridge lived through the 8-14 nightmare in 2022-23.

“This was a needed step, and we had to all come together,” Aldridge said. “We did not move the ball well, and we did not play our best game the last time against West. This was a big step. We were smart the way we moved the ball, and everyone was involved. It was super excited winning this. It is fun looking forward to the years to come.”

Chiavelli dropped 17 the first time the teams met, a 50-40 East victory. On Friday night, the freshman guard moved the ball well, set up her teammates cutting to the basket and was heady with the ball when West tried double-teaming her.

She also knew the losing wave that swallowed last year’s team and was determined to change that course this season.

“This is a great win against our rival, and we were all together,” Chiavelli said. “We have made great improvement. A month ago, it was one person in our heads. Now, we are all together. There was a touch of selfishness, and I think that came from us being new playing together and it was a new year. We are sharing the ball.

“Winning this is an awesome experience and against our rivals makes it even better.”

East led from start to finish, getting out to a 5-0 lead, though the Whippets clawed back to tie it 7-7 on a pair of Liv Young free throws with 1:13 left to play in the first quarter.

That was it.

West did not score again until there was 6:31 left in the third quarter, going 10 minutes, 42 seconds without a point. In the meantime, the Cougars went on a 14-0 tear to take control of the game, entering halftime with what appeared to be a commanding 21-7 lead.

West went completely cold in the second quarter, going 0-for-9, while turning the ball over four times in the quarter and 10 times overall in the half. East’s halfcourt pressure had something to do with that, though the Whippets simply missed a lot of inside shots.

West coach Mike Young had been dealing with the loss of star freshman point guard Hayden Blair to a season-ending injury since the Whippets got out to a 9-3 start.

Since then, it has been a struggle.

“Hayden was obviously a big part of our team as a point guard and ran our stuff,” Young said. “That was obviously a big factor. We fought through a lot of adversity when that happened. We have a lot of teams that are really good in our league, some really close games down the stretch. We just could not get over the hump.”

There were a few occasions when West had three, and sometimes four, shots in one possession, out-rebounding the smaller Cougars, yet could not convert a bucket. As a team, the Whippets were 2 of 20 from the floor, while East was 8 of 25 for the half.

“We hit slumps all year where we couldn’t hit shots or we turned the ball over a lot,” Young said. “We tried to work on those things, but they were reoccurring themes. The first play of the game, we missed two layups. It was not one person. It was everyone.

“I just told my team, and I got emotional talking to them the last time, just because we have six seniors and they were all great kids. They stuck with the program and were awesome teammates. They were great all year.”

By Quarter

Downingtown West: 7 | 0 | 7 | 4 || 18

Downingtown East: 11 | 10 | 10 | 5 || 36

Scoring

Downingtown West: Caitlin Grant 9, Kelsey Meenan 5, Liv Young 2, Rachel Schuda 2

Downingtown East: Charlotte Aldridge 9, Grace Hodges 7, Kendall Chiavelli 6, Jordyn Daniel 6, Chloe Hunold 4, Izzy Haag 3.

Joseph Santoliquito is a hall of fame, 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.

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District 1 6A Girls

First Round
16) Pennsbury 44, 17) Bensalem 24
9) Neshaminy 43, 24) Ridley 31
13) Abington 48, 20) Great Valley 37
12) Kennett 42, 21) Plymouth Whitemarsh 37
18) Council Rock South 43, 15) Unionville 40
10) West Chester Henderson 45, 23) Central Bucks South 32
19) Penncrest 60, 14) Coatesville 59 (OT)
11) Downingtown East 36, 22) Downingtown West 18

Second Round (Weds, Feb. 21)
1) Perkiomen Valley vs. 16) Pennsbury
8) CB East vs. 9) Neshaminy
4) Haverford High vs. 13) Abington
5) North Penn vs. 12) Kennett
2) Conestoga vs. 18) Council Rock South
7) Garnet Valley vs. 1)) West Chester Henderson
3) Upper Dublin vs. 19) Penncrest
6) Spring-Ford vs. 11) Downingtown East
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