WHITEMARSH – The final two minutes of regulation and all four minutes of overtime belonged to Wilson in the first round of the PIAA-6A state playoffs against Plymouth Whitemarsh Saturday afternoon.
The Bulldogs erased a four-point deficit with baskets by Correll Akings and Luke Levan to force the extra session and won the overtime period, 7-2, to beat the Colonials, 56-51, at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.
“This means everything,” Wilson senior Madyx Gruber, who scored a team-high 16 points, said. “You don’t really see us much in states. It means a lot. I’m very proud of my teammates.”
“I’m just so proud of these guys,” Wilson coach Matt Coldren said. “They’ve worked so hard. We’re not the most athletic team, we’re small, but they’re just tough, they love each other. They fight and grind. They grind games out. I thought we grinded this game out. It wasn’t pretty but I’ll take it.”
Gruber put (3-5) Wilson ahead for good when he split a pair of free throws with 1:48 left in overtime. After (1-2) Plymouth Whitemarsh missed two free throws, Gruber beat the press by finding Levan all alone for a basket and three-point lead, 52-49, in the final minute of OT.
PW missed a three-point attempt to tie the game and Wilson beat the press again. This time it was Cam Zullinger all alone for a breakaway layup to extend the Bulldogs lead to five, 54-49.
PW’s Caleb Bridgeman made it a one-possession game, 54-51, with a long two-point jumper, but Levan was fouled with 5.7 seconds left and made both to close out the win, 56-51.
“We just had to stay composed,” Gruber said. “We knew that we can’t have the pressure get to us. We have to get stops on D and it ultimately leads to easy buckets on offense.”
Late in the fourth, Akings cut Wilson’s 49-45 deficit in half with 1:33 to go. The two points capped a seven-point fourth quarter for the junior, who finished with 13 points.
After a PW turnover, Wilson called timeout with 13.7 seconds to play facing a two-point deficit. Tommy McFadden inbounded to Gruber in the backcourt and he gave it back to McFadden at the far-side wing. Two defenders followed Gruber running around a pick set by Levan and McFadden found a rolling Levan all alone in the paint. The 6-foot-6 senior forward went up with his right hand and tied the game, 49-49, with less than five seconds to play.
“We knew they were going to try to double me on the flare screen,” Gruber said. “We just had our big guy slip and (Levan) was wide open.”
“We were looking for (Gruber), who’s our guy,” Coldren said, “but they did a heck of a job on him and made him work, but he opens things up for other guys because he draws so much attention. Kudos to Madyx for not pouting, because (PW’s Jack Hayes) did a great job on him… but we just did enough to win.”
PW’s half-court heave was off the mark at the buzzer.
Wilson’s defense was able to silence Plymouth Whitemarsh for a pair of long stretches in the second half.
The first came in almost an eight-minute stretch spanning the third and fourth quarters. PW’s Jack Hayes made a basket to put his side ahead, 39-35, with 3:15 to go in the third. Mani Sajid hit a pair of free throws for the Colonials at 6:35 of the fourth, but that’s all they’d score until Sajid’s layup with 3:17 left in the game, which trimmed a Wilson lead to 45-43. Wilson outscored PW, 10-2, during the 7:58 stretch.
“I’m thankful that we overcame the third quarter,” Coldren said. “The third quarter we struggled offensively. (PW) is very aggressive defensively and I thought we were a little bit tight, but as the game went on I kept telling them, ‘I believe in you, be confident you’re going to make the shot we need to,’ and guys did. They were resilient. That’s what I’m most proud of.”
The other long sequence came in the final minutes of regulation and into overtime. Sajid made two free throws to put PW up, 49-45, with 1:55 to play. PW had four more possessions in regulation – two turnovers and two missed shots. In overtime, PW missed its first five shots from the field, turned the ball over twice and went 0-for-2 from the foul line before Bridgeman trimmed a five-point deficit to three, 54-51, in the final seconds. It was a 9-0 run for Wilson.
“The only thing I can say is it was a microcosm of character traits we saw all year,” PW coach Jim Donofrio said, “that you quietly hope are dissipating and going away and being replaced with understanding of what it takes to close out games and… how physically strong you have to be and understanding that the opposition is going to raise their game. I just think too many times this year that the kids did a pretty good job of comprehending how they had to improve themselves only to be faced the very next game with a higher level of that challenge.”
Sajid led Plymouth Whitemarsh with a game-high 19 points and Michael Pereira added 12.
Sajid had a dominant stretch in the fourth quarter when he went on a personal 8-0 run to turn a 45-41 deficit into a 49-45 lead on four possessions. He sliced through traffic for three layups before hitting two free throws with 1:55 to go.
Pereira did most of his damage in the third quarter. In the quarter he totaled eight points, four blocks and six rebounds. He was key to a 12-2 run that saw PW turn a 33-27 deficit early in the third into a 39-35 lead in just 3:35 of game time.
Wilson will face (10-1) McDowell, a 72-40 winner over (7-3) Pittsburgh Central Catholic, in the second round Wednesday.
Plymouth Whitemarsh’s season ends with a 20-9 record. The Colonials final two games were an overtime loss against Conestoga in the District 1-6A final and Saturday’s overtime loss to Wilson in the state opener.
Wilson 56, Plymouth Whitemarsh 51 (OT)
Wilson 16 15 5 13 7 – 56
Plymouth Whitemarsh 11 16 12 10 2 – 51
W: Gruber 5 2-4 16, Etim 1 0-0 3, McFadden 2 -6 8, Akings 5 0-0 13, Levan 5 2-2 12, Zullinger 1 0-0 2, Glover 1 0-0 2. Total 20 8-12 56.
PW: Hayes 1 0-2 2, Sajid 6 6-6 19, Pereira 5 2-4 12, Denard 2 0-0 5, Ahmed 0 0-0 0, Thompson 2 0-0 4, Davis 2 0-0 5, Bridgeman 2 0-0 4. Total 20 8-12 51.
3-point goals: W: Gruber 4, Etim, Akings 3. PW: Sajid, Denard, Davis.
Source: Berkshire mont