City of Basketball Love

Will Slover (@WillSlover31)
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Germantown Academy clinched its first PAISAA state championship berth since the 2012-2013 season with a 72-58 win over The Hill School on Friday night at Penn Charter.

While junior forward Evan-Eric Longino led the way for GA with 28 points, it was senior guards Bailey Whitman and Devon Goodman who really wanted to get back to the big game to round out their high school careers.

“It feels amazing. Especially with this group of seniors, we didn’t really contribute our freshman year so now it’s a great feeling,” Goodman said.

Even without contributing as freshmen, Goodman and Bailey both remember the thrill of hoisting the state championship trophy and they want to close out their high school career the same way.

“It’s absolutely awesome. It’s the ending that I wanted for my senior season,” Whitman said.

Whitman was the only Germantown Academy starter not to earn all Inter-Ac honors this year, but for Coach Jim Fenerty, it isn’t what shows up in the box score that makes him so valuable.

“I’m so happy for him. He’s kind of like the guy who doesn’t get the notice on our team,” said Fenerty. “We had four all-league performers and Bailey was the one guy who didn’t get it, but he came up huge and has had a terrific season for us.”

One of those things that doesn’t show up in the box score is Whitman’s ability to be a shutdown defender on whoever the opposing team’s best guard is.

“I love playing against the best player, best shooter. I like shutting people down,” said Whitman, who is bound for Connecticut College following graduation.

Shut down is just was he was as he held Bentley College-bound senior guard, Seth Stankewicz to just nine points.

While Whitman was holding things down on the defensive end, it was Goodman who brought the Patriots from a two-point halftime deficit to a 36-29 lead following nine straight points out of the half.

Longino followed up Goodman’s nine consecutive points with 12 straight of his own to extend the GA lead to 12 in the third quarter.

Although it was the offensive outburst of the two stars that helped GA flip the script on Hill, it was the defense of Whitman that helped his teammates get things going.

“It comes from the defensive end. The defense picked up in the third quarter and that led to the offense,” said Whitman

Whitman wasn’t all defense though, as he finished with 11 points and five assists while shooting a perfect 3-for-3 from deep including two threes in the fourth quarter that helped put away the Rams.

“He knocked down some clutch shots today and on defense he really picked it up and lifted our team up out of halftime,” Goodman said of his teammate.

For the Hill School, the team got a huge offensive effort from senior guard Bryce Allen, a New York native who led his team with 19 points.

GA’s opponent in the state championship, Westtown School, will look to rebound from last year’s loss in the same game to The Phelps School.

Although Westtown’s roster features many future Division 1 players, including five-star recruits Mohamed Bamba and Cameron Reddish, the Patriots know that they can’t back down from the challenge

“You have to make the plays,” said Whitman. “I think (Saturday) we will be ready to do that.”