PANTHERS PULL AWAY FROM PW

Cheltenham uses second-half rally to advance in District 1-6A quarters

After a tightly-contested first half Friday night against visiting PlymouthWhitemarsh, Cheltenham used an 8-0 run to tighten its grip on this District 1-6A Quarterfinal.

“The guys were able to catapult that into a lot of good plays and good basketball,” said Panthers coach Patrick Fleury. “They were sharing the ball. Moving forward, I’m very proud of our guys.”

Third-seeded Cheltenham pulled away to an impressive 5240 victory over No. 22 PW, advancing to Tuesday’s semifinals at No. 2 Lower Merion.

The Colonials will now enter district playbacks to determine seeding for states.

The Panthers battled to a 27-23 lead over the Colonials and then made its biggest push coming out of the break.

“I think we need to have that same sense of urgency throughout the game,” Fleury said. “We need to be more assertive with what we want to do. We need to do a better job of getting to the basket and finishing.”

Rasheem Deary led Cheltenham with a versatile game that included a trio of three-pointers and a team-high 15 points. Brandon Bush had 14 points for the Panthers and Josiah Hutson added 12.

Most impressive about Chelten

KEV HUNTER/MEDIA NEWS GROUP Cheltenham takes the court during its district quarterfinal with Plymouth-Whitemarsh on Friday.

KEV HUNTER/MEDIA NEWS GROUP Cheltenham’s Elias Walker (left) is guarded by PW’s Zende Hubbard during their game on Friday.