City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)

––

WEST CHESTER, PA — Mike Young did not hesitate. The Downingtown West coach knew exactly where to categorize the Whippets’ 40-29 Ches-Mont League National Division victory over West Chester East on Tuesday night, placing it firmly in the ugly department. Young also did not hesitate to address the fact that good teams sometimes must win ugly games to produce sweet results.

It is what arrived for the Whippets against a defensively stubborn, physical East team, battling through behind a combined 10 fourth-quarter points from Kylee Domsohn and Hayden Blair. More so, the victory placed Downingtown West atop the PIAA District 1 standings on Tuesday, January 6, becoming the first team in PIAA District 1 Class 6A to reach 12 victories.

The Whippets got there behind a game-high 11 points from Domsohn, along with eight each from Blair and Ellie Dexter. Downingtown West threw a small committee of defenders against East’s excellent 6-foot freshman wing Kayla Holman, who finished with a team-high nine, six coming in the fourth quarter despite what seemed like waves upon waves of defenders coming at her.

Primarily, West’s Domsohn, Addy Lefever and Macie Osunde went where Holman went, never leaving an inch between them.

“We knew this game would be like this, ugly, scrappy, defensive, because West Chester East is a very good team,” Young said. “Kayla Holman is very good, and (East head coach) Erin (Listrani) does a very good job preparing them. I told the girls we would have to grind out every defensive possession. Obviously, our focus was on stopping Holman. You can’t cover her alone.

“Everyone did a great job of helping, and we did a great job of challenging her at the rim without fouling. But East’s perimeter defense is terrific. They play good on-ball defense, which in the first half we did not respond to very well.”

Both teams combined to shoot 9 of 31 in the first half, with three three-pointers made.

But for the Whippets, not being their best, with a big push from East involved in that, and still winning carried some weight. There were times when West did not help itself. The Whippets were sometimes stagnant on offense, sometimes even running into each other, and other times they were fluid, hitting cutters through the lane, finding open teammates down low on backdoor passes.

“There is always room for improvement. We did stand around sometimes, and we could have shot more consistently,” Domsohn said. “We’re pretty far into the season where we have to stop running into each other. These are things we will address and improve on. I personally could have played better defense and took better shots.”

Blair was pleased the Whippets won, but the 5-foot-7 junior point guard who runs the team sees a lot of improvement ahead in playing overall better defense and on getting open when teammates are trapped.

What makes the Whippets go is when things got tense in the fourth quarter, Domsohn and Blair started to raise their levels. It was Blair’s turning layup that gave the Whippets a 33-24 edge with 1:36 to play, and Domsohn’s three free throws in the final minute that sealed it.

“When the game is on the line, I shut everything off and I’ll do what it takes to win,” Blair said. “I’ll find out whatever is working in that game, in that time, and I’ll stick to it.”

Not much was working offensively for either team. Stingy, physical defense had something to do with it. Though the final score read 40-29, this game was far more competitive than that. Only four points separated the two teams early in the fourth quarter, when Blair and Domsohn found an added gear.

Listrani said she liked the fight she saw in her team. Over the last few games, she wanted to see her team tighten its defense, and facing a team like Downingtown West would be a real test.

The Vikings passed. The 40 points is the second-lowest amount West has scored this season, the lowest coming in the Whippets’ only loss to rival Downingtown East back on Dec. 16 in a 39-34 setback.

“This was an ugly, tough game, and I liked our fight,” Listrani said. “We defended well against one of the top teams in the district, and it showed. Our execution lacked a little, but when you are fighting and defending someone with the speed of Blair, it wears you down. For as much as we fought, we got worn down, and then had trouble moving on offense.

“We were stagnant. It didn’t matter what we were calling. It was hard for us to generate anything offensively. We knew how they were going to defend Kayla. I told her, even as a freshman, her name is out there. This is what she has to expect.”

That left an opening for gritty Carly Bickle to score from the outside, finishing with eight points.

“The message is we need to pick ourselves up and bouncing back,” Listrani said. “We’ll see them again.”

By Quarter

Downingtown West (12-1, 4-1 Ches-Mont League):  5  | 9  |  8  | 18 || 40

West Chester East (6-6, 3-2 Ches-Mont League):  8  | 4  |  6  |  11 ||  29

Scoring

Downingtown West: Kylee Domsohn 11, Hayden Blair 8, Ellie Dexter 8, Addy Lefever 6, Kelsey Meenan 5, Eme McComsey 2.

East: Kayla Holman 9, Carly Bickle 8,  Abby Drucis 4, Kayla Cochran 3, Siena Sweeney 2, Madison Rodriguez 3.

~~~

Joseph Santoliquito is an 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 BlueSky here.