City of Basketball Love

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
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What do 66 free throws, 31 turnovers, three foul outs and two fan ejections add up to?

For Jim Donofrio’s Plymouth-Whitemarsh Colonials, the result was a twelfth consecutive win to start the season and a seat alone atop the Suburban-One American division.

More importantly, it added up to one of the wildest games of the District 1 season, one in which the Colonials prevailed over division foe Cheltenham by a final score of 64-62 on a last-second reverse layup by senior Mike Lotito.

“We’ve been doing that a lot in practice, a hand-off play that we set up with me and Oakley (Spencer) in the corner because it gets kind of a quick look,” said Lotito, a mobile 6-6 forward. I can hand it off to him and he can quick shoot, or I can go in for the reverse layup. I figured it was a good option with little time left on the clock, and luckily I went out, contorted in mid-air, and luckily it went in.”

“You don’t know what’s going to happen there at the end, basketball is a heartbreaking game. We could have easily been on the other end of it,” Donofrio said. “I think it’s great to have our guys focused, win or lose this game.”

Lotito, who led his team with 14 points, was met by a swarm of Plymouth-Whitemarsh students after a Khalil White full-court heave fell short, and the buzzer sounded.

“It was emotional,” Lotito added. “All these guys have been coming to our games since I was a freshman and sophomore, and that’s kind of the first time I got to experience playing the whole game, being out there with this district playoff atmosphere, because I missed the districts last year with my injury, so I had to sit out, and it was really painful watching my team play without me. It was indescribable when that last buzzer went off.”

For Donofrio, a man who has seen many an electric atmosphere in his many years as a basketball coach, he witnessed a much-needed improvement in discipline out of his team.

“We talk about it a lot; as much experience as we have in these kind of moments, you’ve got to live through them,” he said. “We weren’t thrilled with ourselves up to this point, so there was a big emphasis on concentration, a big emphasis on using your emotions to stay disciplined, and not using your emotions to do something uncharacteristic. We were much better at that tonight.”

The Colonials (12-0, 6-0 Suburban One) spent the last 10 minutes of play without their star, Xzavier Malone, who fouled out with 13 points, most of which came in the third quarter.

According to Donofrio, a minor tweak in Malone’s hip kept him out of their recent game against Springfield.

“It was a great lesson for Xzavier tonight,” Donofrio remarked. “He’s a marked guy, and injured or not, he’s going to have to perform. He’s used to seeing games like that, but having to figure it all out it was just five percent less than what he usually does, and that was enough to neutralize.”

Not long after he fouled out, two different fans in attendance were escorted from the gymnasium. Due to that emotional string of events, the entire final quarter was played in a raucous, playoff-style environment.

During that fourth quarter, Cheltenham (9-3, 5-1 Suburban One) made only two field goals, but used a string of six free throws to cling to its lead. A dagger three by White tied it at 62 in the final minute, but Lotito’s clutch play on the final possession was enough to sink the valiant Panthers.

White, a senior guard, led all scorers with 19, while teammate Justin Sutton added 16.

Those two seniors were on the same Plymouth-Whitemarsh court as their team got smacked by forty by in last year’s district playoffs, With that in mind, head coach John Timms--who preaches the phrase “sustained focus”--was pleased to see his team handle the hostile environment calmly.

“I feel good, actually,” he said. “I like the way my team responded, in the playoff atmosphere, on the road, going against a top team in the state, you couldn't ask for a better game. We pushed it down to the last possession, and that’s what we prepared for, a one or two possession game. It came down to that.”

While the Colonials and Panthers might not see many atmospheres as wild as this one, they certainly will have their share of tests going into the remainder of their schedule and into the postseason.

For Donofrio’s always-targeted team, the record is still untarnished, and it’s going to take a hungry mindset to keep fending off teams’ best effort.

“People want to beat you,” he said. “You’re 11-0, but more importantly in our league we’ve been fortunate to have a number of league titles and we’re just going to be marked, and you have to learn how to wear that. You have to learn how to have a chip on your shoulder and say, ‘you’re coming after us? Well, guess what, we’re coming after you too.’ If you don’t get that, somebody will get you.’”