City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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With three games left in the 2023-24 season, Pottsgrove was on the verge of making the District 1 5A tournament. The Falcons were 11-8, trying to finish in the top 12 out of the district’s 23 5A schools and earn that postseason bid.

Win a couple, and they were in. Instead, they lost all three, finishing No. 13 in the district, the same 11-11 record as No. 12 West Chester East but fractions of a point behind in the district formulas, which factor in strength of schedule. 

This year, the Falcons are determined to settle their postseason fate well before February — and then make a whole bunch of noise while they’re there. 

“No doubt, that’s been the big sticking point, that we missed it by a game or two last year,” Pottsgrove coach Scott Palladino said. “That’s been one of our goals this year. Obviously we want to make the league playoffs and qualify for districts this year, and even go to states — I think we have the ability to do it, I really do.”

Pottsgrove’s 74-46 win over crosstown rival Pottstown on Thursday night moved the Falcons to 9-1 on the season and 4-1 in the Pioneer Athletic Conference’s Frontier division, Palladino’s squad doing so in impressive fashion. 

Pottsgrove forced 28 turnovers, getting 20 steals alone from its starting five, all of whom contributed near-equally to the win. The Falcons won every quarter, getting the edge comfortably into the high 20s early in the fourth quarter before the bench took care of the last six minutes. 

Junior Deymein Doctor led the way with 15 points, the 6-foot-5 guard adding seven rebounds, seven steals and two assists. His classmate Greg Rosenberger, added 11, with three assists and two rebounds. Senior Julius Marshall joined them in double digits with 10 points, adding four rebounds, and junior Bryce Phillips stuffed the stat sheet with 10 points, five steals, four assists and four rebounds. 

Kamal Curry, the other senior in the starting lineup, scored eight points with eight rebounds, five steals, two blocks and an assist; he also had the highlight plays of the night, back-to-back dunks to send Pottsgrove into the locker rooms with a 39-22 lead.

Palladino said that balance has been the case all season long, with five different leading scorers over the first five games of the season. Throw in senior wing Cam Waller, who scored nine points against Pottstown and is providing quality depth after missing last season due to injury, and it’s a tough group to guard.

“You can’t key on one of us and that’s the beauty of our team. They trust each other and if it’s not their turn that night, they don’t care, they’re going to get their buddy involved. It’s been fun to watch, the unselfishness is just fun, it is.”

Equally fun to watch were the number of dunks Pottstown threw down, the result of an aggressive 1-3-1 trap defense which deployed Doctor up top to great effect. Many of those 20 steals ended up as easy buckets on the other end, each one another energy boost to the Falcons bench, which had plenty to cheer about all night long before getting into the game themselves at the end.

“We just try to get run-outs, get dunks, because that really sets the tone of how we play,” Marshall said. “We get dunks, it just brings energy to the team, and it brings the other team down.”

“We’ve gotten a lot better at it,” added Doctor, who threw down a couple fastbreak slams of his own. “Last year we would play the 1-3-1 and wouldn’t get as many steals and disruptions, but this year we’re really tipping all the balls and getting dunks [...] we’re more confident in our defense and our speed and ability to get in (passing) lanes.”

Pottsgrove’s been gaining momentum the last couple years under Palladino, who first coach at Pottsgrove from 2006-16 before leading Pottstown from 2018-21, returning to Pottsgrove immediately thereafter. The Falcons won six games two years ago and improved that total before the calendar hit 2024 last year; now they’re only two wins from matching last year’s tally.

Doctor and Marshall both said the team has been confident since early in the 2024 offseason, when they played the likes of Coatesville and Lower Merion close during various leagues and tournaments, even without having the full roster available. They won their first five of this year, four in blowout fashion, before their only setback to date against defending PAC champion Phoenixville on Dec. 13, the Phantoms hitting 14 3-pointers in a 74-70 win at Pottsgrove.

The Falcons have won their next four by no fewer than 15 points each. 

“I know last year and my sophomore year, [in the] first half we (played) good, second half we’d play worse,” Marshall said, “and this year we’ve started to play better in the second half, and that’s a main focus of what coach wants — in the third quarter, take off.”

The first half of Pottsgrove’s regular season ends on Saturday with a road game at Upper Moreland (8-2), another 5A program, currently No. 7 in the unofficial district rankings. Pottsgrove, with Thursday’s win factored in, is fifth. Plenty of tests remain, including games at Perkiomen Valley (Jan. 7), Pope John Paul II (Jan. 14) and the trip to Phoenixville on Jan. 21, which could very well be for the Frontier division title. 

Six teams make the PAC playoffs, so a second-place division finish would earn them a postseason spot for the first time since a state playoff berth in 2019. Of course, Pottsgrove’s already thinking bigger.

“We better win districts, because if we don’t, I’m going to be mad,” Marshall said. “We better go far.”

By Quarter
Pottstown:    11  |  11  |   8   |  16  ||  46
Pottsgrove:  19  |  20  |  16  |  19  ||  74

Shooting
Pottstown: 17-37 FG (4-11 3PT), 8-20 FT
Pottsgrove: 32-74 FG (3-17 3PT), 7-15 FT

Scoring
Pottstown: Yashir Wood 16, Elias Butler 13, Kamrin Robinson 10, Mikell Williams 5, Syncere Whitehurst 2

Pottsgrove: Daymein Doctor 15, Greg Rosenberger 11, Julius Marshall 10, Bryce Phillips 10, Cam Waller 9, Kamal Curry 8, Thomas Sambrick 6, Jamir Jefferson 3, Eric Smith 2