from Dequan Pelzer, who made just 1 of 8 shots. Pelzer missed 5 of 6 attempts from beyond the arc.

showed up in a huge edge at the free throw line. P-W made 20 of 33 free throws compared to 13-for-15 by the Patriots. Oakman and Barnes both fouled-out for Penn Wood.

in the Plymouth Whitemarsh win was Aiken's 3-pointer early in the second half.
It's highly unlikely coach Jim Donofrio ran that play for the 6-11 pivot.
Putting Aiken on the perimeter opened up the lane for Whis Grant.
With Oakman or Darian Barnes defending the high post, the Patriots couldn't match-up in the lane.

the Temple U. coach. A commitment from Aaron Brown would make his day.

all on Oakman, who fouled out with 4 points, 5 rebounds and 8 turnovers.
The Patriots had plenty of open looks.
Tyree Johnson (15 points) missed 12 of 16 shots in his last high school game.
Aaron Brown (15 points) missed 11 of 15 shots.'

made the Patriots shoot just 14.3 percent in the third quarter (2-for-14) and 20.6 percent (7 of 34) in the second half.
That was the game.

trophy draped with net while his teammates jump to give it a rub.
That was Penn Wood - last year.

in a row while Colonials get their state title medals. It's the ultimate look of sportsmanship by Clyde Jones and his players.

on a basketball scholarship. Martelli can use a shot-blocker and low-post threat.

and first in 13 years.

with 17 points, a game-high 11 rebounds and 3 assists. The 6-0 senior still hasn't got a college lined up yet.

The 6-11 center tallied a game-high 19 points and 5 blocked shots to go with 7 boards.

is just about over.

... "It's all over ... It's all over ... "
Penn Wood playing hard and showing class. No cheap shots, just hustle.
By the way, Oakman finally is back in - with 23.7 ticks left.

and a 9-point lead, Colonials fans give their team a standing ovation.
Grant makes another free throw to push the lead to 10.

cuts Colonial lead to 7 points with 1 minute left.

on a lob from Grant makes it a 9-point Plymouth Whitemarsh bulge with 1:30 left.

with 1:54 left puts Colonials in double bonus. Whis Grant makes 1 of 2 for 7-point lead.

and layup cuts the Colonials' lead to 50-44 with 1:58 left.
Clyde Jones is mapping out his two-minute plan - and Oakman isn't part of it.

drive to hoop.
Unless the Patriots catch fire - a tall order trailing by 8 with 2:19 left - the Colonials have their third state title.

with 3:12 to go keeps P-W ahead by eight points. Penn Wood needs a miracle.

30-12 in the last 15-minutes, 45-seconds.
Wow.

of 1-and-1 boosting P-W lead to 46-40 with 4:26 left.

but Will Brown is in-and-out with a jumper, and Aiken gets the miss.

front half of 1-and-1 with 5:07 left, his Patriots in a 44-40 hole.

If Patriots are going to repeat as Class AAAA state champions, junior Darian Barnes is going to have to shutdown Aiken, who has 15 points and 6 boards.

3-plus minute Patriots scoring drought. P-W lead cut to 5 points.

a 43-36 bulge with 6:15 left in the season.

and Patriots need him bad.

in first minute of final frame. Aiken's free throw give Colonials 5-point bulge with 7:14 left.

too long. Hard to believe they led by 10 points late in the second quarter.

entering the final frame.

with 1:21 left on a drive by Aiken. But Will Brown quickly knots it at 36.

except for 6-8 Darius Barnes, who's defending the 6-11 Aiken.

slams in a miss to knot the game at 34 with 3:37 left in the third quarter.
Timeout, Clyde Jones and Penn Wood

and Penn Wood protecting a 34-32 lead in third quarter.

has not been the difference-maker Chris Vito anticipated. Oakman has 7 turnovers and just 3 rebounds with 4:48 left in third quarter.

in to cut the Penn Wood lead to 30-29 a minute into the second half. Patriots look like they'll give him that shot all night

the battle on the boards, 13-9.
Whis Grant leads P-W with 9 points, 8 in the second quarter.

for second half.
Aaron Brown leads Penn Wood with 9 points. Will Brown and Tyree Johnson have 8 each. Hard to believe they're leading after making just 9 of 23 shots from the field. Then again they're a perfect 7-for-7 from the foul line.

and Marcus Badger's trey create a 5-point swing late in first half cutting Patriots lead to 30-26 at the intermission.

of game, 27-18, thanks to 5 quick Aaron Brown points on a 3-point play and two free throws as well as a 3-point bomb by Dequan Pelzer. The only downer now is Tyree Johnson seems to have lost his jumper.

jump shots or capitalizing on opportunities in the paint says DT High School basketball beat writer Chris Vito.

20-18 with 4:10 left in the half.

if not a bit too tight as far as ticky-tacky calls. This officiating crew is NOT giving up the big first step. In their eyes it's traveling.
Five. traveling calls with 5:27 left in first half: 3 for Penn Wood, two for P-W.

says Daily Times sports columnist Jack McCaffery. Pretty good execution at both ends, solid coaching and guys playing hard. Clyde Jones, the Patriots' coach, has his guys ready.

after one quarter.
Tyree Johnson's 6 points, 5 from Will Brown and 4 from Aaron Brown pace the Patriots.
C.J. Aiken tops Colonials with 4 points, all of them early.
Patriots: 4-of-12 from the floor but 4-for-4 from the line.
Colonials: 4-of-10 from the floor and just 1-for-4 from the line.

kept the Colonials' explosive guard off the scoreboard until there was 1:11 left in the opening frame. Grant dropped 23 points on Penn Wood in the District One championship game.

after making their first three field goal attempts.

and Penn Wood has a 10-6 lead. Though they're getting hammered on the offensive board, they're doing almost everything else right.

give Penn Wood a 10-4 lead. But Patriots gave up third basket on the offensive glass. Jaylen Bond's tap cuts gap to 10-6.

Johnson hits again. Patriots 3-for-3 from the floor

on a Tyree Johnson jumper but C.J. Aiken gets it back with back-to-back dunks.

Saint Joseph's Hawks basketball coach Phil Martelli is in the house taking in the game with his kids.

for Daily Times columnist Jack McCaffery. Jack used to make the trek almost weekly to cover the Penn State football team. He car pooled with, in no particular Sportswriter Hall of Fame order, Bill Lyon, Ralph Bernstein and Joe Juliano.
As the late great Bernstein used to say, "Two eggs, poached, two slices of toast and a cup of coffee ... that's all I need."

rolled down press row to say hello. Good luck, Rap. Plymouth Whitemarsh looks bigger than life courtside,

Not much in the way of basketball socialites at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Nothing to match the appearance of Donyel Marshall, the former Sixer, who attended the Friday night game featuring his son Marquis, a 6-2 guard from Reading.
But Penn State women's coach Coquese Washington took in Wood's win over Indiana and St. Francis (Pa.) coach Susan Robinson also was present.

The Class AAA state title game preceding Penn Wood-Plymouth Whitemarsh is a wrap. Archbishop Wood rolled to a 10-point win over Indiana.
Archbishop Carroll has got to be wondering, what if>
Carroll defeated Wood in the Catholic League championship game. They then lost to Wood in the state quarterfinals.

John P. Murphy (Philadelphia), C. Scott Reese (Exton) and Robert J. Cleighton (Horsham) are officiating the boys final.
All are from District One.

District title for Delco's , District One's and maybe Pennsylvania's best basketball team.

Penn Wood solid on both ends down the stretch, with Tyree Johnson hitting almost all his free throws down the stretch.

The Patriots are on the verge of winning, though PW's Whis Grant hit a 3 to keep the Colonials alive. But Johnson just hit 1 of 2 at the line, and now time is ticking down.

Seven seconds left in the OT session, the Pavilian isn't rocking because the heavily partisan Plymouth Whitemarsh crowd is quiet.

Penn Wood leads 53-49, has the ball on a timeout ... and is about to win the district title that eluded it a year ago, when Norristown beat the Patriots before the Patriots went on a state tourney run.

Penn Wood's experience is really showing up in the OT. Aaron Brown deadly from outside. There's a timeout with 53 seconds left, Penn Wood holding a 4point lead at 49-45 but Plymouth Whitemarsh's Whis Grant at th eline for the last of a three-shot foul (kind ofa weak call on Tyree Johnson).

Right into overtime. Will Brown's last-second runner hung on the rim for a while, then started to fall off. And even though Oakman tipped it back in, it was after the buzzer, so the game goes OT.

Penn Wood's big problem is foul trouble. PW's big problem is its kids don't seem to know what to do to win. They've missed a ton free throws.

Penn Wood is in lots of foul trouble, with Darian Barnes just fouling out ... and Oakman having four fouls. But the game is tied at 41, with 1:15 left ... Colonials ball.

Plymouth Whitemarsh still has been hurting itself with missing easy shots and free throws, helping Penn Wood hang in. But the Patriots have really helped themselves by playing superb defense at times.

Shawn Oakman has just missed two crucial free throws with 3:50 left, so the game remains tied here late in the fourth quarter ... right up until Aiken just spun in a layup. Plymouth Whitemarsh leads 39-37 with 3:19 left in regulation.

Clyde Jones unleashed Shawn Oakman from the bench for the third quarter and it paid dividends, especially on the defensive end. Oakman has done a nice job on C.J. Aiken ... and PW kept going cold.

Penn Wood, with nice contributions offensively from Will Brown and Oakman took the lead briefly, and now just trail 31-30 after three quarters.

Jones' gamble with keeping Oakman benched in the first half seemed to pay off. He still is only at two fouls and has been much more intense.

Thanks to Plymouth Whitemarsh's strange second-quarter malaise, the Colonials have but a 21-16 halftime lead ... although Penn Wood kept its big man Shawn Oakman chained to the bench for the entire quarter.

He has two fouls, and has played less than 3 minutes in this game. The Colonials started turning the ball over, suddenly couldn't get it in to Aiken, couldn't hit free throws ... and then went really cold, shooting 2 of 12 in the quarter.

Gotta wonder what Clyde Jones is waiting for. His guys are trying to come back -- it's 17-11 right now, but Oakman and his two fouls have been on the bench for more than a full quarter's time now.

Penn Wood, by the way, according to stat guru Anthony "Boy Genesis" SanFilippo, shot just 2 of 16 from the field in the first quarter.

By the way ... Aiken could easily start for that Phil Martelli crew right now.

Everyone knew Plymouth-Whitemarsh was going to be hard to bring down. The Colonials have lost just once this season, and not to any team around here.

They're well on their way to keeping that record intact. After one quarter, it's 16-6, including a 12-2 run for the last 5:48, with Shawn Oakman sitting on the Penn Wood bench for 5:09 of that time.

The inside domination by the Colonials was clear, with Aiken's slamma jamma after finding a loose ball just before the buzzer quite an impressive exclamation point.

Just one quarter gone, however.

... is not a good one for Penn Wood. It's been made by Plymouth Whitemarsh's 6-10 forward and Saint Joseph's commit C.J. Aiken, who scored a couple of earily baskets, including a dunk, and also has put Penn Wood stud Shawn Oakman in immediate foul trouble.

The Colonials have burst out to a 10-4 lead in the first quarter.

Then again, Penn Wood coach Clyde Jones is always dressed to the nines.

Ignore that headline, kids. It's an old saying. Even before my time. What it means here is Plymouth-Whitemarsh's warmup duds are sharp.

Penn Wood's warmup duds are red T-shirts.

Ah, but clothes don't make the winning men. Intros for the teams are about to commence. The Pavilion is packed. That means about 245 people are in the stands in this Big East basketball house (just kidding ... about 345).

Turns out, it was Abington that had enough to finish. The Ghosts simply buckled down and used size to their advantage, while the Panthers' comeback plans were derailed by a failure to hit from outside. By the time the blizzard of free throws went down, the Abington girls had marched off to a 54-44 victory for a district title.

I'd call it an upset ... and I'd be right. A quick look at the district brackets showed Cheltenham to be a strong top seed, while Abington was No. 6, and started its long road to the district title by knocking out Ridley and Lower Merion in succession.

Congrats.

Now to the medal presentations ... and eventually, a high flying Class AAAA boys game that everyone has been waiting for.

Greetings high school basketball followers. This is Daily Times sports editor Rob Parent looking somewhat alive from inside the Pavilion on the campus of Villanova University (my best Brent Musberger intro there), camped at courtside awaiting the start of the District One Class AAAA boys championship game between defending state champion Penn Wood and favored powerhouse Plymouth Whitemarsh.

Quite a good crowd at the Pavilion, which is so small it's not hard to have a good-sized crowd here. And since we're some 45-50 or so minutes away from tap-off, people are still streaming in. Those who choose to watch instead of rush off to buy soft pretzels can see a terrific Class AAAA girls title game right now between perennial contender, the short and speedy Cheltenham, against a bigger Abington team.

Abington had a pretty big lead at halftime, but Cheltenham made quick work of it in the third quarter, and now has whittled it to 41-35 midway through the fourth quarter. Turnover capitalization and fast break effectiveness have turned the tide of this game, as Cheltenham's speed is making all the difference.

Still has to finish, though.

As for the next game, Penn Wood (22-3) is hoping its balance can offset the many faceted offensive attack of the Colonials (25-1).

We'll check in closer to game time.

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