Garnet Valley’s Brady Krautzel drives to the basket against Lower Merion’s Jayden Robinson during the District 1 Class 6A final Saturday at the Liacouras Center. (Austin Hertzog – MediaNews Group)
By Matthew DeGeorge
By the final minute of Saturday night’s District 1 Class 6A final, the scoreboard rang true in a very specific way for Garnet Valley.
The 14th seed was trying to complete its fourth straight win over a top-six seed, and it had struggled, to put it mildly, against No. 1 Lower Merion. It was shooting south of 30 percent from the field. It had trailed by as many as 15 early in the second half. A tough climb against a 26-1 foe that had beaten them twice this season was steepening by the moment.
And yet, with 25.2 seconds showing on the clock at the Liacouras Center, Garnet Valley was … within five points. One LM mistake, one hot-shooting mini-spurt, one freak high school basketball series of bounces, and maybe things would get interesting.
They didn’t, Lower Merion completing a 57-49 win and lifting the trophy. But for Garnet Valley, in its first district final of this magnitude, had proven a point: Even in a defeat where it was downright displeased with the way it played, the Jaguars belonged.
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