City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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Ish Horn was ready to go home.

After 32 minutes of regulation and two four-minute overtime periods, the Plymouth Whitemarsh senior had seen enough of the Bonner-Prendergast Friars.

Plymouth Whitemarsh had a two-point lead at the end of regulation and the end of overtime, but the Colonials gave up baskets to Friars’ junior forward Tariq Ingraham to extend the game in both situations.

When senior Alan Glover hit him deep with an inbounds pass with 14 seconds left, Horn knew he had to end it. He took one dribble, rose up and slammed the ball in with his right hand to secure Plymouth Whitemarsh’s 64-60 double overtime win against Bonner.

“I was tired of them,” Horn said. “They were not going away. Something had to do it.”

Plymouth Whitemarsh looked to be taking control of the game in the third quarter when the Colonials went on a 6-0 run two minutes in to go up by double digits. Bonner answered with a 9-2 run to end the third trailing 37-34.

Led by junior guard Isaiah Wong, who had eight of his 18 points in the fourth quarter, Bonner came all the way back to tie the game at 43-43 with 3:39 left. The two teams exchanged leads during the final minutes, but Plymouth Whitemarsh held a 50-48 advantage with 4.4 seconds left.

After Wong inbounded him the ball Ingraham took two dribbles toward the left elbow and banked in a jumper over Colonials’ 7-foot-2 forward Naheem McLeod before the buzzer.

In overtime, Horn hit two free throws with 2:04 left to give Plymouth Whitemarsh another two-point lead. The Colonials’ clung to the advantage until Ingraham tipped in an offensive board with six seconds left to tie the game and send it to another overtime period.

What was the message in the huddle after another emotional letdown?

“Don’t worry about it,” said senior Ahmad Williams, the game’s MVP. “It’s like a new game. As long as you got chance to win the game and bounce the ball, you should be fine.”

Glover found McLeod with about 40 seconds left in overtime to put Plymouth Whitemarsh up four. After two free throws from Bonner sophomore guard Tyrese Watson made it another two-point PW lead with 14 seconds left, Horn’s dunk made sure Ingraham didn’t get a third try at extending the game.

The win against the Friars moved Plymouth Whitemarsh to 7-0 on the year. They knocked off Archbishop Wood last Saturday, and after Friday’s win against Bonner, take on Neumann-Goretti on Sunday at Chestnut Hill.

The daunting schedule has a purpose. Coach Jim Donofrio set it up to prepare the Colonials for a hopeful state title run.

“He put this schedule up to test us,” Glover said. “It’s like a replica of the state playoff run, so we wanted to see how we can do early in the year, so we can fix ourselves for March.”

After the win Glover flexed his arms, clapped his hands and let out a yell. Williams raised his arms in the air in triumph like Rocky Balboa.

The celebration didn’t last long, though. There were late game turnovers and other fine details to discuss with Donofrio.

The Colonials have large goals which take precedence over a win in December, no matter how big or close of a victory it was.

“No, I didn’t enjoy it, but we're used to that,” Horn said of the locker room after the game. “It don’t matter how much we win by, he’s always on us about what we can do better...Until we play our perfect game, he’s gonna complain.”