Henderson Edges Downingtown West on Free Throws

Junior guard Jason McCormick continued his emergence as a major force for the Henderson High School basketball team Thursday night, hitting a pair of crucial free throws to decide a tense, standings-impact battle against Downingtown West.  The visiting Warriors won, 38-36, to seize second place in the Ches-Mont National Division with a 4-1 mark.

Now 8-5 overall, Henderson overcame a 10-point halftime deficit and McCormick drew the critical foul on a drive to the hoop with 3.3 seconds left.  It was the Whippets’ seventh team foul and McCormick calmly hit both ends of the one-and-one for the two-point margin.  Downingtown West managed a reasonable shot before the buzzer but it hit off the rim, dashing the hopes of the league’s surprise team, now 3-2 in the Ches-Mont National and 8-6 overall.

The Warriors return to West Chester Saturday afternoon for only their third home game, a 1:30 p.m. start against Owen J. Roberts.  Ches-Mont National Division play resumes Tuesday night at Henderson with an intra-city contest against West Chester East.

“Give them credit.  They controlled the tempo,” Henderson coach Chris Bruno said about the Downingtown West team that led by as many as 12 points late in the second quarter.  “We knew what we had to do to stay in it.  We went to our strengths – free throw shooting and finding the open man.”

Twice, the open man was P.J. Costello and he responded with much needed three-pointers to give the Warriors an offensive dimension that has been unreliable for most of the season.  “P.J. has always been a shooter and he’s now finding his niche in the offense,” Bruno added.  McCormick was eight of nine from the charity stripe, a key factor when contrasted with D-West’s three for eight performance.  Last week at Avon Grove, Bruno chose Jason McCormick to shoot two technical foul free throws and he came through in another tight spot.  He finished with 20 points and six rebounds and is now hitting an impressive 80 per cent of his free throws for the season. 

Henderson scored the first nine points of the third quarter behind McCormick and Costello and finally pulled ahead, 28-27, heading into the fourth.  In the final stanza, the lead went back and fourth and D-West was up two with the ball with two minutes remaining when Henderson’s Dave Goodman got a crucial steal and a basket in traffic to tie it at 36-36.  Neither team could score in the defense-heavy final two minutes until McCormick drove the lane and got the whistle.  

“Sometimes it’s dangerous to play with a lead.  Our kids got comfortable,” offered first year Whippets’ coach Jason Ritter, lamenting his team’s five-and-one-half-minute scoring drought in the third period.  “Offensively, we couldn’t get into a rhythm.  Our goal is still the final four of the Ches-Mont and the District Tournament.”

With the win, Henderson has the inside track on that league tourney final four berth along with Coatesville in the National Division, but league play is just now heating up as the regular season heads into its final month.  Great Valley looks to be a lock for the American Division title with the second spot up for grabs.

Chas McCormick added 10 points for Henderson, T.J. White had five rebounds and Goodman contributed five assists.  For Downingtown West, Tony Calamaro had 13 points and Greg Latanzzi 11 and the Whippets controlled the defensive backboards throughout.

In the junior varsity prelim, Henderson topped Downingtown West, 40-37.  Luke Weaver scored 18 to lead Henderson, which also got seven points from P.J. Costello’s brother, Colin, a freshman, who was five for six from the free throw line.

Editor's Correction: The gametime for Henderson’s boys basketball contest against Owen J. Roberts on Saturday is 1:30 p.m.

It was inadvertently reported as 3 p.m. earlier.