PW rallied from 15 points down in the first half to defeat third-seeded Coatesville 56-52. Photos provided courtesy of Greg Lindsay, Larry Small & Michael Rice Photography. Check back for a gallery of photos. CLICK HERE to go directly to Suburban One Sports' BOYS' BASKETBALL GALLERIES.
District 1 6A final
#1 PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 56, #3 COATESVILLE 52
PHILADELPHIA -- Michael Pereira – for close to 32 minutes – had taken a beating in the low post.
If a bloody nose wasn’t proof enough, the 6-10 senior center’s 23 foul shots certainly were. Pereira was the go-to player and literally at the center of Plymouth Whitemarsh’s gutsy second-half comeback in its 56-52 district title win in front of a sold-out crowd in St. Joseph’s Hagan Arena.
“I am exhausted, I’m not going to lie,” Pereira said. “I knew that we needed me to step up to win this game, so I don’t care about the physical toll.”
Pereira scored 18 of his game-high 24 points in the second half and had 10 of those at the foul line. He played a starring role in erasing a 42-29 halftime deficit.
“The whole season, I knew if the refs were calling the fouls, I would get to the line,” Pereira said. “So, every practice I’ve been practicing my foul shots, just trying to see it go through the net, and I’m glad I have been, especially in a situation like this where we needed every one of those shots to win this game.
“This experience as a whole has been great, and I’m more than fortunate to get an opportunity to make those shots.”
Mani Sajid had back-to-back assists on key baskets by Pereira in the fourth quarter – the first knotted the score at 47 and the second gave the Colonials a 49-47 lead with 5:37 remaining.
“He was wearing them down inside,” Sajid said of Pereira. “And he did foul out Max (Hiller), and then he got Larry (Brown) and Jonas (Chester) their fourth fouls, so it was just about wearing them down physically, and that’s what he was doing.”
Also playing a starring role in the win was PW’s defense that allowed just 10 points and only two field goals in the second half. This after giving up 42 points in the first half.
“Coach always preaches defense to us,” said senior Buddy Denard, a catalyst on the defensive end. “Like coach said, PW has always been known for defense, so with us obviously giving up 40 points in the first half, that’s a big no.
“That’s not us at all, and we knew that as a team. We knew we were much better defensively as a team, so we just said, ‘Alright, we’ve got to lock in and not give up anything.’ We caused turnovers, and we started holding them to one shot because they got a lot of second chance opportunities in the first half, and we tried to stay in there as a team, and it worked out pretty well.”
Coatesville – behind the hot hand of sophomore Colton Hiller – led 18-9 after one quarter with Hiller accounting for 11 of those points. The Raiders outscored the Colonials 24-20 in the second to go into halftime with the 13-point lead, and Hiller had 21 points.
“They came out with great emotion, they came out with a lot of energy,” PW Jim Donofrio said of Coatesville. “And (Colton Hiller) is obviously a top guy in the country for a reason. He’s a six-foot-eight sophomore making shots in all kinds of ways,
but at the same time, a basketball game is a long time, 32 minutes, and even in high school, that’s a long time. If you’re going to have your emotional high, I prefer the opponent have it right at the beginning. To have (allowed) 42 at halftime, and I was looking at 47 forever. I was just so proud of these guys.
While the defense was stymying Hiller and company in the second half, Periera just kept finishing one way or another in close. He was asked what his expectations were entering Sunday’s marquee matchup.
“To be honest, I try not to go into the game with expectations because I like to surprise myself,” Pereira said. “I like surprises, and this was a great surprise.”
“Mike comes to play when it’s a big game,” teammate Jack Hughes said. “So I wasn’t surprised.”
“They really don’t have an answer for that size,” Donofrio said. “A lot of teams see him, and they’ll say, ‘On paper, I think we can cover him.’ That’s 6-10 ½ and 280 pounds.
“At halftime, we said to Mike, ‘It’s about time to take your game to one whole level above what you’ve been trying to put together,’ and he picked a good time to do it.”
By the numbers: Michael Pereira scored a game-high 24 points, finishing with five field goals and 14 foul shots in 23 attempts. Mani Sajid had 12 points and five assists, and Terron Davis had nine – seven in a 20-point second quarter.
For the Red Raiders, Hiller led the way with 23 points – 21 in the first half. Chris Allegra added seven points.
Plymouth Whitemarsh coach Jim Donofrio:
--Mani on the mend: “Mani was playing at a level before he tweaks the ankle – I literally said in my mind when we’re playing CB East, and I don’t say this often, but I watched him make a sequence of plays and I said to myself quietly, ‘We can win the state.’ And then he tweaks it, and you can’t. The way he was playing – all this talk about player of the year stuff. He was playing at a level that was unreal.”
Up next: Plymouth Whitemarsh (23-5, 10-0 SOL) will host District 3’s sixth place team, Cedar Cliff, in Saturday’s opening round of the PIAA 6A state tournament (1 pm).
Coatesville 18-24-5-5 52
Plymouth Whitemarsh 9-20-15-12 56
Coatesville (52) – Chris Allegra 2 2-2 7; Lawrence Brown 4 4-6 13; Colton Hiller 6 8-15 23; Jahill Thedford 3 0-0 6; Elijah Walton 1 0-0 3; Totals 16 14-23 52.
Plymouth Whitemarsh (56) - Jack Hughes 2 2-2 6; Mani Sajid 4 3-5 12; Michael Pereira 5 14-23 24; Buddy Denard 1 0-0 3; Micah Thompson 1 0-0 2; Terron David 3 3-4 9; TOTALS 16 22-34 56
3-point goals: C – Colton Hiller 3, Elijah Walton, Chris Allegra, Lawrence Brown; PW – Mani Sajid, Buddy Denard.
What a difference a year makes: They hadn’t forgotten.
None of them had forgotten what it felt like after last year’s District 1 6A title game that saw the Colonials – despite rallying from a nine-point halftime deficit - fall in overtime 54-50 to Conestoga. Nor had they forgotten their coach’s response after the loss.
“I’ll just say after the game, there were cameras on us, so I was real nice to them,” Donofrio said. “And then I sent them all a text on the bus and said, ‘My office, back on the bus,’ and that wasn’t as nice.”
“It’s a feeling you don’t want to have,” senior Jack Hughes said. “Just watching (Conestoga) celebrate. He said to meet him in his office right when we got off the bus last year. It was good for us now and helped us down the road, but during that time, it was pretty brutal. It was rough.”
“Especially after that loss – it was heart-wrenching,” Pereira said. “I am not the type to cry after games, but I definitely cried after that one. That was rough. I remember that was a huge heartbreaker.”
Sunday’s win effectively erased memories of last year’s disappointment.
Defense, defense, defense: Colton Hiller, Coatesville’s high profile super soph, looked as though he was going to own Sunday’s district title game against PW, torching the Colonials for 21 points in the first half and propelling his team to a 42-29 halftime lead. He connected on a variety of highlight reel shots with defenders in his face.
“It’s frustrating, but we watched hours and hours of film on him, and we know he’s a shot-maker,” PW senior Buddy Denard said. “So we didn’t really get down when he made those shots because we knew at some point in the game that was going to happen on this big stage.”
The second half was a different story entirely. Hiller did not have a field goal and struggled mightily at the foul line, connecting on just 2 of 7.
Denard deserves a whole lot of credit for silencing the sophomore standout.
“Buddy’s a great story because a year ago he just wanted to be so aggressive and leaning and go-for-steals kind of guy, and his discipline in the last two months has really come full circle,” Donofrio said. “He’s got a toughness about him and a confidence.”
Point guard Jack Hughes also shared responsibility for silencing Hiller.
“He’s huge and he’s really strong compared to last year when we played them and he wasn’t as strong,” Hughes said. “It’s hard to guard a 6-8 kid when you’re not even over six feet.
“I think Buddy was tremendous on him – strips and steals, so that was huge for us. Colton’s first half was really good, so just having Buddy be able to stop him and throw me on him sometimes to switch things up so he sees different looks.”
--The sixth man: PW’s large student second was not permitted to rush the court at the final horn, so the players took the trophy to their fans – the PWHS Hooligans.
“Just being able to celebrate with our families, our fans - in my opinion, they help us out so much,” senior Jack Hughes said. “I love to just feel the energy from the crowd and play off it.”
Mike Pereira added, “Especially in a game like this where it’s super high stakes and you need everyone chipping in – even the crowd trying to get into the other players’ heads. They’re the best.”
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