City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH — Jim Donofrio has been waiting all season to see his supporting cast around superstar Mani Sajid step up to the moment. 

Friday night, they had no choice. Sajid was out sick, the latest victim of a bug that’s been going around the Plymouth Whitemarsh boys squad since someone picked it up during the team’s December trip to Arizona. His absence left the Colonials without their standout junior guard and Division I prospect as well as one of the region’s most electric scorers. 

Going up against a deep and aggressive Cheltenham squad, Plymouth Whitemarsh’s supporting cast couldn’t be passive. They had to step up and handle the moment.

“When you have someone like Mani, the center of attention and center of focus and trying to get your team right with that, it’s been such an interesting challenge the first half of the season,” Donofrio said. “And these guys, playing off of him, sometimes they acquiesce too much, they’re too kind. 

“For us to hit our potential, you’ve got to start getting more self-confidence offensively. It’s a unique opportunity when Mani can’t make it tonight.”

For the first eight minutes, Donofrio’s squad did the exact opposite — but with the help of junior guard Terron Davis, the Colonials flipped the switch, raced past the Panthers and held for a 60-54 home win on Friday night. 

The opening quarter was an ugly one for Plymouth Whitemarsh (10-4), which turned it over nine times as Cheltneham (8-3) raced out to an 18-8 lead. 

That’s when Davis stepped in. 

The 5-foot-11 guard got downhill on the Colonials’ first few possessions, finishing a couple tough buckets and then an and-one to get the PW crowd right back into the game. While he was at the line, a substitution error by Cheltenham led to a six-men-on-the-court penalty; Davis finished his own 3-point play and then hit the two foul shots for the game’s final lead change.

When Davis picked off a Cheltenham pass a couple minutes later and coasted to a layup the other way, the run was 15 straight points and a 23-18 edge, which grew to 33-24 by halftime, a 25-8 quarter. Davis’ 11 points in that frame were the only 11 he tallied on the night, but they were no doubt the biggest 11 of the game. 

“I just like to bring the energy to the court and change the score because I know we were down,” he said. “I mean, I usually do that, when I come in, I’m not going to lie.”

He’s not wrong: Davis has had similar stretches in games against Neumann-Goretti and Methacton in the first two games of the season, but it had been a bit of a quiet stretch for the junior. That can be the case for many of Donofrio’s reserves and role players, with nine different players hitting the floor Friday night; with a number of options, most of whom are upperclassmen, it can be tough to rise above the pack. 

“There’s guys on the bench who are like ‘just give me a minute,’” Donofrio said. “I know we’ve got 16 guys [...] really, it’s a horse race, you’re all neck and neck and neck, and it’s tricky. Sometimes you get a minute, 30 seconds, two minutes. It’s the old-school way.”

Led by Davis, the PW bench contributed 28 points. Senior guard Tyriq Taylor had eight of those, senior wing Caleb Bridgeman added seven points and four rebounds; each hit a second-quarter 3-pointer to add to the deluge. 

Senior guard Jack Hayes, who’s become Sajid’s most reliable backcourt mate this season, hit double figures with 10 points, adding six rebounds, four assists and two steals. Junior forward Michael Pereira, after a quiet first half, got rolling with a couple dunks in the third quarter and finished with 12 points, though Cheltenham generally handled the 6-9 Division I prospect well despite a size disadvantage. 

The Panthers got 24 points from sophomore guard Kamal Mason, who scored 16 points in the fourth quarter to keep it close, adding five rebounds, three steals and two assists. But after the first quarter, Cheltenham struggled to get offensive rhythm and didn’t make open shots, while PW only committed six turnovers in the final three quarters. 

“They’ve had trouble understanding how precise a game plan can be with personnel — this one goes left, and that one does this, why aren’t we following that? There was a lot more of that tonight, which was really impressive,” Donofrio said. “And on offense we looked really cool as a cucumber in [our] press offense. I didn’t have to do anything.”

Plymouth Whitemarsh is through a late December and early January gauntlet that included current Catholic League leader Bonner, trips to Coatesville and Upper Dublin and three games against quality West Coast opponents at the Cactus Jam in Tuscon (Ariz.). Currently No. 8 in the unofficially District 1 6A rankings, they’ve got to take care of business with eight remaining games against District 1 squads, starting with trips to Neshaminy on Tuesday and Central Bucks East on Friday. 

The regular-season finale, a home game against Upper Dublin, will be a good barometer of if the Cheltenham win did anything for PW, which lost at UD by 20 on Tuesday.

“This is one of the most challenging schedules I put together,” Donofrio said. “You play one of the top teams in the Seattle area and you have [Neumann]-Goretti and Bonner and then you turn around and go back-to-back Coatesville and Upper Dublin — it’s more about, whether we win or lose these, are we getting smarter and are we getting tougher and are we getting better?”

He’ll find out soon enough.

By Quarter
PW:    8   |  25  |  11  |  16  ||  60
CHS: 18  |   6   |  10  |  20  ||  54

Shooting
PW: 21-46 FG (4-12 3PT), 14-19 FT
CHS: 23-51 FG (5-16 3PT), 3-8 FT

Scoring
PW: Michael Pereira 12, Terron Davis 11, Jack Hayes 10, Tyriq Taylor 8, Caleb Bridgeman 7, Eric Conicello 5, Buddy Denard 5, Ehab Ahmed 2

CHS: Kamal Mason 24, Osei Johnson 7, Salim Kelly 6, Justin Ezeukwu 5, Xavier Willoughby4, Jaeden Mosley 3, Tyree Martin 2, Mark Hill 2, Kendall Jackson 1