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District 1 6A: Reardon, Howard help push Downingtown West past Hatboro-Horsham

02/24/2017, 11:45pm EST
By Rich Flanagan

Rich Flanagan (@richflanagan33)
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Before the season even began, Downingtown West’s Stuart Ross knew he was going to have to maximize his bench.

Senior Pat Kennedy, who was pegged to be in the starting backcourt, was lost for the season with a torn ACL. Having to conjure up a viable starting five which had lost impact seniors Dom Guerrera (West Chester), Josh Warren (Cornell) and Ryan Betley (Penn) was going to be a major challenge. Ross and the Whippets pressed on, battled and found themselves back in the District 1 playoffs. They won a gritty opening round game against Pennridge then fell to Ches-Mont rival Coatesville in the following round.

The issue wasn’t the 18 turnovers against the Red Raiders, but the fact that senior guard Matt Carson, who had been an integral part of the Whippets’ success, suffered a concussion and was ruled out for the first game of playbacks against Hatboro-Horsham. Again, Ross was going to have to maximize the talent on his roster as much as he could and he got more than he bargained from two players.

Junior guard Davis Reardon went off for six 3-pointers and freshman forward Will Howard posted nine points and seven rebounds to pace No. 13 Downingtown West in its 62-50 victory over the No. 21 Hatters in the first round of the District 1 Class 6A playbacks.

It was the third straight year the Whippets found themselves in this position, but most members of this year’s team had not played major minutes in games of this magnitude aside from senior forward and Ursinus commit George Gordon, who had 14 points and four rebounds in what may have been his final home game.

Ross stressed that he wanted his team to get out to a fast start, something it had not done in its two previous outings in the District 1 tournament.

“We just didn’t want to have the same start we had against Pennridge when we came out a little flat and didn’t have attention to detail on the defensive side of the floor that we like to have,” Ross said.

Howard had a sequence in the third quarter where he scored on a putback then recorded a steal of Hatboro-Horsham’s Jay Davis, who had four turnovers, and took the ball end to end for a layup that gave Downingtown West a 28-26 lead. Over the next three possessions, Reardon nailed a three-pointer followed by baskets by Greg Barton (seven points) and Gordon to push the lead to 37-30 heading into the fourth quarter. Reardon said having several players who can take over a game is one of the best attributes of this year’s team.

“It’s a really big skill of ours. If one guys is off, another can pick up his slack. It shows how deep we are and how much we trust each other to give the next guy [an opportunity,]” Reardon said.

Everytime the Hatters appeared to be making a run, the Whippets had an answer waiting for them. Senior forward Clifton Moore had a big second quarter scoring seven of his 19 points including a three-pointer which banked in just before halftime. On the first possession of the third, Reardon took the momentum away from the Hatters with a trey of his own. 

The 6-foot-10 big man, bound for Indiana, started off strong in the fourth with four free throws then an and-one finish inside to cut the deficit to eight points with 3:54 left. After Moore, who surpassed the 1,000-point plateau for his career in the third, missed the extra free throw, Wayne Anderson hit a runner in the lane and from there the Whippets knocked down free throws (9-10 in the final 48 seconds) the rest of the way.

Hatboro-Horsham (13-12) head coach Ed Enoch, whose team had 18 turnovers, said Downingtown West’s ability to answer his team’s runs with good shots, notably dagger shots from Reardon, was the difference in the game.

“We knew he was good shooter and we left him open a couple of times. Everyone he hit was a big one [because] we were right on the cusp of controlling the game,” Enoch said. “It was bad recognition by our guards.”

Moore posted a double-double with 11 rebounds plus two blocks and Davis had a game-high 20 points and three steals. While the Whippets knew they weren’t going to stop the Hatters’ dynamic pair, they just wanted to make them work for every shot as the two combined to go 14-30 from the field. Howard felt the unit did its job.

“We didn’t really have a specific plan from anything different [we’ve done] all year. We knew that we had to play them hard,” Howard said. “Everyone had to guard and empty the tanks [to get the win.] We knew it could be our last game so we gave it our best.”

Downingtown West (16-9) advances to play Spring-Ford, which survived Garnet Valley in a 93-85 double overtime victory,  in the next round of playbacks with a shot to return to the state playoffs for the first time in two years.

The multiple contributions from players like Reardon and Howard plus the potential return of Carson have the Whippets beaming with confidence heading into the next round and Ross feels the depth is the facet that is allowing his team to hit its stride at the right time.

“It just says that we have a lot of depth. We have competitive practices and we know our junior class as well as the few freshmen we have are ready for that moment,” Ross said. “Will had a couple of big games early in the year so we know what he’s capable of. They know they just have to step up, play their game and the rest will take care of itself.”

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In other District 1 6A quarterfinal action...

No. 8 Cheltenham 64, No. 1 Perkiomen Valley 53
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No. 2 Plymouth Whitemarsh 44, No. 7 Conestoga 29
The defending district champions have become known for their defensive prowess, which Conestoga found out the tough way as the Pioneers couldn’t get to 30 points in the loss. According to PAPrepLive, the Colonials had 14 blocks against just nine field goals made by ‘Stoga, and though 44 points is far from P-W’s best offensive output of the season, that’s certainly good enough when their defense is clicking at that level. It was only a one-point P-W lead after one quarter, but the Colonials held the Pioneers to only two points in the second. Ahmad Williams had 17 points for P-W.

No. 3 Abington 67, No. 11 Penn Wood 49
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No. 4 Coatesville 62, No. 5 North Penn 51
Info coming soon

Playbacks
No. 9 Spring-Ford 93, No. 16 Garnet Valley 85 (2 OT)
It was a crazy night in play-backs, as three of the four games went to extra sessions. Spring-Ford kept its state playoff hopes alive for another game, but not without the best efforts of Garnet Valley, who got buckets from Cade Brennan at the end of both regulation and the first overtime to extend things an extra eight minutes. But a combined 49 points from Noah Baker (25) and Austin Hokanson (24) got it done for the Rams, who will host Downingtown West with the hopes of going to the PIAA state tournament for the third time in four years.

No. 10 Lower Merion 58, No. 18 Central Bucks East 54 (3 OT)
Info coming soon

No. 6 Pennsbury 84, No. 19 Norristown 83 (OT)
Down by six with under a minute to go in regulation, Pennsbury rallied back to force overtime on a Mark Flagg tip-in of a missed free throw with 2.2 seconds to play. In the overtime period, Pennsbury guard Tyler Sessa-Reeves went a perfect 6-for-6 from the line to keep his squad’s season alive. Senior guard Addison Howard paced Pennsbury with 29, while the St. Francis commit Flagg added in another 25 and 6-foot-7 forward Billy Warren scored another 12. Norristown was propelled by a balanced scoring effort from Xavier Edwards (19), Mickeel Allen (15), Mike Dorman (15), and Darius McGowan (15).


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