City of Basketball Love

Will Slover (@WillSlover31)
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After holding onto a comfortable lead for much of Friday night’s PIAA District 1 6A First Round playoff matchup, Norristown saw its hope at extending its season by at least two more games slipping away slowly as the lead that was once 12 was down to three with just under three minutes left on the clock.

“We just got out of our element and we weren’t doing the things that got us there,” Norristown head coach Mike Evans said. “I told the guys that basketball is a game of runs. We made a run, they were going to make a run and the team that makes the last run is going to win the game.”

Thankfully for the 19th-seeded Eagles, they had one more mini-run left in the tank to close out the contest and hold on for a 51-43 win over the 14th-seeded Downingtown East Cougars.

“We stopped their run and capitalized and made the foul shots down the stretch to close it out,” Evans added.

Foul shots were huge for this young Norristown team, who only has two seniors in the rotation, in the late-going as the visiting team went 12-of-15 (.800) from the line in the fourth quarter to secure the victory.

“That’s huge because we don’t shoot foul shots that well,” Evans said. “For them to step up and hit those shots down the stretch says a lot about the team and the guys doing it.”

The two players hitting a majority of those big shots were guards Mike Dorman and Xavier Edwards.

Dorman, a junior who comes off the bench, scored all eight of his points from the line, including going 6-for-6 in the final frame.

Edwards on the other hand, is a do-it-all sophomore for the Eagles and his going 5-for-6 from the stripe in the last quarter is only a taste of what Norristown’s starting point guard brought to the table on Friday night.

Edwards cashed in for a team-high 15 points in the win, while also grabbing three rebounds, dishing out two assists and being a huge part of Norristown’s stout defensive effort that interrupted Downingtown East’s passing lanes all night.

“He’s our engine,” Evans said of the first-year varsity player. “We’ll go as far as he takes us and he’s our leader out there. He orchestrates the whole offense and we feed off of his energy so that’s what gets us going.”

Although shining in his first district playoff appearance on the road would be something most sophomores would be thrilled about, the humble Edwards is just happy his team left victorious on Friday.

“Just trying to get the win, that was about it. Trying to score and keep them from scoring and come out with the win.” Edwards said. “It was nice to come in here and get a win. It was very, very nice.”

Although this inexperienced Norristown team, whose oldest members still saw little varsity time last season due to the nine seniors on the 2015-16 team, showed no signs of immaturity in the early going, holding onto a 37-25 lead after three quarters, the wheels began to fall off for the Eagles as the fourth and final frame got underway.

To open the fourth, Downingtown East went on a 13-4 run, which was propelled by nine of Malik Slay’s 13 points, to cut the lead to three, 41-38, with 2:55 to play.

After this run is when Norristown’s timely free-throw shooting kicked in to expand the Eagles’ lead until a blunder on an inbound pass led to a quick Downingtown East bucket and Norristown’s lead was down to 47-43 with under a minute to play.

“We’ve been growing all year playing with this young team, we’re inexperienced,” Evans said. “I just tell them next play. Don’t worry about that play move onto the next one and that’s what we did. We turned the ball over, we made it up on defense or we made it up on the next play on the offensive end.”

Make it up on the next play is exactly what Norristown did, as Evans’ Eagles drilled their next four free-throw opportunities and locked down the win.

Although sometimes the unfamiliarity with teams in district play can create problems for some teams, Norristown’s young team coped well with the challenge.

“When you go into a situation and you haven’t seen a team play and you don’t know their style of basketball, film doesn’t show you everything so it’s hard to get a feel,” Evans said. “But I think we handled it well. Defensively, we played well tonight and I think we did a great job dealing with it.”

Defense was another strong point for Norristown tonight as the Eagles held Downingtown to 17-of-54 (.314) from the field and 0-of-13 from beyond the arc, on top of causing havoc with their athletic and lengthy man-to-man defense.

While this win guarantees at least two more games for Norristown, it spells the end of the season for Downingtown East, who showed promise after starting the season off 11-0 before a 3-9 finish saw the Cougars end the year with a 14-9 record.

On top of wanting to extend its season, Downingtown East was also trying to make school history in tonight’s game as it was the first time the school ever hosted a district playoff game and a win would have also been the first district win in school history.

Not on Norristown’s watch though, as the Eagles had other things in mind.

“It feels good to come in here, especially with a young, inexperienced team on the road. If we have to play spoiler, then we have to play spoiler because we’re trying to get better as we go on,” Evans said.

Leading the way for Downingtown East in the loss was 6-foot-7 freshman Andrew King, who finished with 17 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks and two assists.

Up next for Norristown, who improves to 13-9 on the season with the win, is a Tuesday night clash with former league foe (Norristown made the switch from Suburban One to PAC-10 this season) third-seeded Abington.

“We’re familiar with Abington,” Evans said. “I know the coaches really well, we played ball together so we know each other really well. It should be a good game.”

In other District 1 6A action:

No. 9 Spring-Ford 59, No. 24 Avon Grove 54
A balanced scoring attack from Noah Baker (16), Nestor Diaz (11), Ryan Fitzpatrick (11) and Austin Hokanson (10) propelled the Rams to victory. Leading the way for Avon Grove was an 18-point outing from Aldred Russo. Spring-Ford moves on to face No. 8 Cheltenham on Tuesday.

No. 10 Lower Merion 70, No. 23 Central Bucks South 57
Seniors Noah Fennell and Terrell Jones had 16 apiece for the Aces, who jumped out to an early lead and never let CB South threaten at Kobe Bryant Gymnasium. Next up, a Central League rematch against No. 7 Conestoga.

No. 11 Penn Wood 59, No. 22 Neshaminy 51
A late run from Penn Wood overcame a four-point Neshaminy lead late in the fourth quarter behind the efforts of Pernell Ghee, who finished with 18 points, and Vincent Smalls, who chipped in another 17. The duo’s strong play was enough to overcome a 26-point showing from Neshaminy’s Chris Arcidiacono. Penn Wood’s win gives it the opportunity to travel to No. 6 Pennsbury for the next round of action.

No. 13 Downingtown West 69, No. 20 Pennridge 64
The Whippets welcomed senior George Gordon back from a concussion, and the Ursinus-bound 6-7 forward led the way with an even 20 points as Downingtown West sets up a big-time Ches-Mont clash with Coatesville in the next round. Matt Carson added 15 points for Downingtown West, including two 3s; Kyle Yoder had 13 points to lead Pennridge, which was without his younger brother, talented sophomore guard Sean Yoder.

No. 17 Garnet Valley 49, No. 16 Methacton 45
Click here for game coverage

No. 18 Central Bucks East 39, No. 15 Council Rock South 36 (2OT)
The Patriots went on the road to fellow Suburban One squad CR South and pulled the upset, though it took an extra eight minutes of action -- including a scoreless first OT. Junior Kyle Cassidy came up big late, scoring all of his game-high 15 points in the fourth quarter and OT sessions. Senior guard Austin Thomas led CR South with 12 points.

No. 21 Hatboro-Horsham 34, No. 12 Central Bucks West 32 (2OT)
The Indiana-bound Clifton Moore was unstoppable in this double overtime thriller as the 6-foot-10 forward finished with a near triple-double of 20 points, 10 rebounds and nine blocks. Brandon Cruz added in nine points for the Hatters and Jake Schalki reeled in nine rebounds. Hatboro-Horsham will be welcomed in the next round by fellow Suburban One League foe No. 5 North Penn.