City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@owen.mccue)
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After a season spent on the freshman basketball team, Plymouth Whitemarsh forward Michael Pereira was the “hypest kid in the stands” when the Colonials went to the District 1 title game during his first year on campus.

Pereira sprouted into a prospect and player for PW in the two years since, helping guide the Colonials back to the area’s top stage.

The 6-foot-9 forward had his third straight 20-point outing in Tuesday night District 1 6A semifinal, putting up 28 points and 10 rebounds to power No. 5 Plymouth Whitemarsh past top-seed Lower Merion, 58-50, and into Friday’s title game against Conestoga at St. Joe's Hagan Arena.

“I’ve made leaps and bounds this season,” Peirera said. “I’ve leared to play a lot more physical than I was before. I feel like the team’s relying on me in a way that I didn’t see them relying on me earlier in the season. Twenty-eight in the district semis, it’s a great feeling. If I hit a couple more foul shots it’s 30.”

Tuesday’s game pitted District 1’s last two champions against each other. Plymouth Whitemarsh (20-7) won in 2023, defeating the Aces in the semifinals along the way, and Lower Merion (22-5) captured the district crown in 2024.

The reigning champs looked the part early as senior Rashyne Patterson went on a  personal run to put Lower Merion out in front 12-4 after a quarter of play. Patterson, who had 21 points in the game, scored the first bucket of the second quarter, but the PW defense held the Aces without a bucket until less than a minute left in the half.

The two teams went into the half tied 19-19.

Peirera asserted himself in the second quarter with 11 points and five rebounds and a pair of dunks — a statline that would have marked a solid game for the big man before his breakout over the last few weeks.

“I’ve been fortunate to coach a lot of big guys in high school, and they take a while,” PW coach Jim Donofrio said. “What he’s done in the last month and a half is rather fascinating. 

“He’s really coming into his own. It’s easy to say to someone that’s growing like that, ‘Hey just dunk everything,’ but this game’s not that easy, trying to get all that coordination together. I’m just really happy it’s happening this season.”

Leading the defensive charge for PW was junior Jack Hayes, who played a huge role in keeping Lower Merion senior Carson Kasmer (Gettysburg) scoreless until the fourth quarter. He had three big steals in the fourth, giving credit to PW’s White team on scout — Zhaiden Gray, Austin Edwards, Eddie Patruno, Will Pereira — for preparing him for Tuesday night.

“They push me so hard, and I get frustrated, but as you can tell tonight it pays off a lot in the game,” Hayes said. “Defending, I love it.”

“I love getting fired up, making good plays for the team,” he added. “I just want to win. I don’t care how many points I score. I don’t care what I do as long as I contribute to the team, get them fired up, make sure we’re all in check and keep winning games.”

While Pereira went into beast mode, the Colonials star guard Mani Sajid was quiet. Sajid had a thunderous dunk midway through the first quarter, and didn’t find the net again until a baseline jumper with 5:40 left in third.

That’s all he needed to get going, however. The 6-foot-5 guard hit a pair of triples in the quarter, the last of which gave PW a 33-28 lead heading into the fourth. Sajid finished with 13, including 11 in the second half. 

PW extended its lead to 39-31 with about six minutes left in the fourth on a steal and score by Hayes. Lower Merion chipped that back down to two, 42-40, when Patterson hit one of his five triples with 3:10 to go.

Sajid answered with a triple moments later, which proved to be the shot of the game as the Colonials were up double digits by the 1:31 mark and the Aces couldn’t get closer than six the rest of the way. Pereira had nine in the fourth quarter. Sophomore Buddy Denard hit six clutch free throws. 

“It was a slow start for us,” Pereira said. “Going into the game, we knew consistent energy and effort were key. If we had more heart than Lower Merion, we were going win this game because they don’t have a 6-9 big, they don’t have a four-star shooting guard. We’re more talented than them, and we played like it.”

The Colonials lost three of four heading into the district tournament, including an upset lost against Abington and two lopsided defeats to league rival Upper Dublin, which is playing for the Class 5A title on Thursday night.

It’s the type of adversity Donofrio said not many of his really good teams have had at PW. It’s been fun watching the group relieved of some of the pressure, and play the underdog role for once.

“People started doubting us, and the loss to Abington really fueled us to start playing well, and from there we’ve come out to play every night and we’re working harder and harder,” Hayes said.

“The fact that you hang in, and take all this advice and criticism, what can you be afraid of now?” Donofrio said.

The Colonials are the only other team to claim district gold besides Lower Merion (2021, 2022, 2024) in the last four seasons. They’ll be going for District 1 championship No. 8 when they play Conestoga at St. Joe’s Hagan Arena on Friday night.

Pereira’s excited about the opportunity to play a part of program history this time instead of witnessing it.

“It’s an incredible experience,” Periera We have seven district titles in the school’s history. If we add one more, we fill out that banner. It would be a great feeling to be the team that does that if we do that. We’re looking forward to it.” 

By Quarter

Plymouth Whitemarsh 4 | 15 | 14 | 25 || 58

Lower Merion 12 | 7 | 9 | 22 || 50

Scoring

Plymouth Whitemarsh: Michael Pereira 28, Mani Sajid 13, Buddy Denard 6, Jack Hayes 5, Caleb Bridgeman 4, Terron Davis 2.

Lower Merion: Rashyne Patterson 21, Sam’I Singletary 10, Lamont Grier 7, Carson Kasmer 6, Gus Wright 6.