City of Basketball Love

Tom Robinson (@tomjrobinson)
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DALLAS TOWNSHIP — Zach Paczewski shot West Philadelphia boys basketball out of its aggressive, trapping 1-3-1 zone by nailing eight 3-pointers between the first- and third-quarter buzzers.

The Speedboys soon found out Dallas was even tougher to contain while they were doing a better job of accounting for Paczewski in a man-to-man defense.

The Mountaineers ran off 15 straight fourth-quarter points — seven of them on a possession extended by back-to-back technical fouls on the Speedboys — to complete a comeback for a 71-61 home-court victory in a PIAA Class 5A Tournament first-round game.

Each of the first three quarters unfolded the same way: the Speedboys threatened to pull away, and the Mountaineers closed the gap.

A nine-point West Philadelphia lead in the first quarter was down to 14-13 when the quarter ended. The game’s biggest lead of 13 was reduced to 39-31 at halftime. Another lead of a dozen points was entirely gone by the end of the third quarter.

Dallas started the game 0 for 9 from 3-point range, but Paczewski’s shot at the first-quarter buzzer began a night in which he was 8 for 11 from long range and Dallas was 13 for 24 (52.4%) over the next 21 minutes.

Although West Philadelphia did not trail for three quarters, Paczewski’s shooting frustrated the Speedboys and had them talking to their coach about switching to a different approach.

“We got out of the 1-3-1, where they only had one guy who could actually score,” West Philadelphia head coach Adrian Burke said. “(Paczewski) was hurting us in the 1-3-1, but we switched into man-to-man and now everybody hurt us.

“It was just a bad switch.”

Mikey Cumbo scored eight of his 23 points in the fourth quarter, including the last five points of the game-turning 15-0 run.

Nick Williams and Jude Nocito, who had combined for just two points before that, added five points each in the fourth quarter. Paczewski scored the last four of his career-high 28.

All of that offense offset a strong game by Abdrahaman Coulibaly, West Philadelphia’s only senior starter, who found himself visiting with recruiters when the game was over. Coulibaly showed impression elevation, not only on his four emphatic dunks, but also on the foul-line jumpers that were part of his 9-for-13 shooting performance.

Coulibaly finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds.

The rest of the Speedboys only managed 12 second-half points, and the team was 0 for 13 on 3-pointers after a 4-for-10 start in the first 12 minutes.

The game turned for good with the help of seven points off one play in the last two minutes.

Dallas was already eight points into the game’s biggest run and ahead by three when an over-the-back foul on an offensive rebound attempt by West Philadelphia was followed up by consecutive technical fouls when some shoving occurred along the Speedboys bench.

“They didn’t see the guy do anything to our guy,” Burke said. “They only saw what our guy did.”

Nick Farrell, who had drawn the foul with a strong box out, made his two free throws. Cumbo hit three of four on the technicals, then drove to the basket for a 67-55 lead.

It was too much for the Speedboys (10-14) to overcome after having seemingly been in control for much of the game and only trailing for 20 seconds of the first 28 minutes.

Jalyn Hopkins grabbed three rebounds in the first 1:05 but then sat for the rest of the half after picking up his second foul with 4:28 left in the first quarter.

It did not matter, as six Speedboys grabbed rebounds and five scored to give the team a 14-5 lead and a 12-6 rebounding advantage with 1:40 left in the first quarter.

Makel Butts came off the bench to score all 12 of his points in the first half when he also had three of his team-high four steals. He had 10 points in a span of 3:40 during the second quarter to turn a 16-16 tie into a 35-22 lead.

Paczewski, who made his last five 3-point attempts of the half, had two 3-pointers and Cumbo one in the last 1:25 of the second quarter.

“We started off slow,” said Cumbo, who led Dallas in rebounds (eight) and assists (six). “They started hitting shots in the first quarter, and we really didn’t get our offense going.”

Paczewski had five points in the last 26 seconds of the third quarter and finished each of the first three quarters with a 3-pointer. When he hit with two seconds left, it tied the game 48-48 going to the last eight minutes.

“I think when it was tied up going to the fourth quarter, we knew that the fourth quarter is always our quarter,” Paczewski said.

Dallas coach Mark Belenski said he gained confidence in the fact his team stayed close early when it was not shooting well.

“The second half we played defense and made shots,” Belenski said. “As long as we could stay close with them, I felt like it’s our home court, we’re going to make shots when we need to make shots.”

District 1 champion Unionville is up next for District 2 runner-up Dallas (21-7) on a neutral court in Tuesday’s second round. Unionville (24-2) pounded Manheim Central 56-31 Friday.

The win by Dallas was part of a 5-0 night by District 2 boys teams and a 10-1 overall record for the district. The only loss was when the defending state Class 3A champion Dunmore girls fell to Hughesville 39-38.

By Quarter

West Philadelphia 14 | 25 | 9 | 13 || 61

Dallas 13 | 18 | 17 | 23 || 71

Scoring

WEST PHILAELPHIA (61) – B. Williams 1 3-3 6, Washington 4 0-1 9, Coulibaly 9 1-1 19, Hopkins 1 0-0 2, Howard 2 3-5 7, Butts 4 2-2 12, McKie1 0-2 2, Mcallister 1 2-4 4, Gibbs 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 11-18 61.

DALLAS (71) – Nocito 2 0-0 5, Faux 1 0-0 3, Paczewski 10 0-2 28, Cumbo 7 6-9 23, N.Williams 2 3-5 7, Farrell 1 2-2 4, Zapoticky 0 1-2 1, Dale 0 0-0 0, Karosa 0 0-0 0, Jones 0 0-0 0, Ackourey 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 12-20 71.

3-point goals – WP 4 (Butts 2, B.Williams, Washington), DAL 13 (Paczewski 8, Cumbo 3, Nocito, Faux).

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PIAA 5A Boys (local games)

First Round (Fri., March 8)
12-1 Imhotep Charter 64, 1-6 Pottstown 46
12-2 Archbishop Ryan 67, 1-4 Sun Valley 43
1-1 Unionville 56, 3-8 Manheim Central 31
2-2 Dallas 71, 12-3 West Philadelphia 61
2-1 Abington Heights 91, 12-4 Bonner-Prendergast 64
11-2 Whitehall 62, 1-3 Phoenixville 46
3-5 Exeter Township 67, 1-2 Upper Dublin 60
1-5 Radnor 63, 11-1 Pocono Mt. West 44

Second Round (Tue., March 12)
1-1 Unionville vs. 2-2 Dallas
12-2 Archbishop Ryan vs. 1-5 Radnor
3-5 Exeter Township vs. 12-1 Imhotep Charter