Delcohoops.com

By Matthew DeGeorge

POINTS

Christian Ray, Haverford School 23.3
Vinny DeAngelo, Sun Valley 23.0
Isaiah Wong, Bonner & Prendergast 22.8
Matt Dade, Episcopal Academy 20.4
Karell Watkins, Chester 19.9
Malcolm Williams, Penncrest 18.4
Enoch Clark, Ridley 17.3
Aaron Thompson, Glen Mills 17.2
Tommy Gardler, Marple Newtown 17.2
Alex Capitano, Episcopal Academy 16.4
Greg Vlassopoulos, Garnet Valley 15.7
Tehron Phillips, Christian Academy 15.1
Jackson Piotrowski, Delco Christian 14.8
Davantae Smith, Penn Wood 14.7
Jameer Nelson, Jr., Haverford School 14.7

(click on this link for all the top scorers, 3points scorers, and free-throw percentages)

By Delcohoops.com Staff

We are very fortunate to have 13 Delco High School teams competing in the PIAA State Championship playoffs. It certainly makes Delaware County the leader in high school basketball. However, it can be very confusing to keep up with the teams, their games, dates, times, etc.

While our pages are primarily following Boy’s basketball we are now including the Girl’s in the playoff schedules and articles through the end of the playoffs.

In an effort to make it a bit easier we have two ways of viewing the contests.  The easiest is to go to our Schedule page.  There you will find all playoff games involving Delco teams listed by date and then by time.  Locations of the game are also shown.  All games are played at neutral sites and some are quite a distance from Delaware County. This is also where you can see which game(s) we will be broadcasting.

The second, more complete picture, can be found by the PIAA State Championship logo that appears on the top right sidebar of this page. That will take you to a page listing all FULL brackets where a Delco team is still contending.  Once a bracket no longer has a Delco team competing (elimination) we will no long post the bracket.

On a final note, your Delcohoops.com broadcast team had a terrific day yesterday covering three of the four District One finals.  Two of those finals involved a Delco team: Garnet Valley (girls) and Sun Valley.  Both won their games and titles.  However the 6A boy’s game was possibly one of the most thrilling games and finishes we have ever witnessed and took place in front of a crowd of 7,000 die-hard fans.  We have posted the 2-minute call by our terrific Play-by-play announcer Dave Burman as he calls the final second of the first overtime period.  Enjoy!

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By Matt Smith

Steve Maloney heard the questions when he signed on five years ago to coach the Sun Valley boys basketball program.

What was he thinking?

Never mind that Sun Valley is his alma mater, Maloney was tasked with rebuilding a program from the ground up.

“I had people tell me, ‘Why are you taking that job?'” Maloney said. “I had a nice assistant’s job at Strath Haven under (Tom) Dougherty. But I took the job.”

Maloney wanted the challenge because he knew what was around the corner. He saw the potential of several middle school players at the time, who today are responsible for leading the program to a piece of the Ches-Mont League title and, after Saturday’s 65-54 win over West Chester East, its first District 1 championship.

“There was an energy resurgence back into the program,” Maloney said. “We knew this (senior class) had a chance to be good, but we didn’t know we’d be wearing gold medals around our neck. “

Those now-senior players are Lance Stone, Vinny DeAngelo, Marvin Freeman and Isaac Kennon. All four were in the starting lineup at Temple University’s Liacouras Center and did what Maloney never thought was possible five years ago.

(click on this link for the full story)

Webmaster’s note: The PIAA District 1 –  5A Championship game between Sun Valley and W.C. East was our Game-of-the-Week and can be heard in its entirety below or on our Archived Broadcasts link listed in the menu at the top of our page.

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By Matt Smith

Garnet Valley coach Joe Woods likes to remind his players that fast starts are very important.

The cliche is you can’t win a game in the first quarter, but you sure can lose it.

“Our only loss this year, to Villa Maria, was a Saturday afternoon after a Friday night game and we weren’t ready to play. We got down 11-0 and we lost by 11,” Woods said Saturday. “So, I’ve been preaching all year: you lose games in the first quarter, are you going to let it happen? Good teams are going to jump you. We want to jump teams.”

The Jaguars won the program’s first District 1 championship Saturday at Temple University’s Liacouras Center, 63-53, over Neshaminy. Twenty of the first 23 points were scored by Garnet Valley.

That’s how you start a game.

(click on this link for the full story)

Webmaster’s note: The PIAA District 1 –  6A Championship Girl’s game between Garnet Valley and Neshaminy was our Game-of-the-Week and can be heard in its entirety below or on our Archived Broadcasts link listed in the menu at the top of our page.

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By Tom Ignudo

Abington senior guard Lucas Monroe was terrified.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

Sun Valley coach Steve Maloney and his players weren’t happy when they left the court against West Chester East on Jan. 5.

After leading for long stretches, they let the game slip away in double-overtime, their third loss in four games after an 8-0 start.

But if the disappointment of that night doesn’t add any fuel to the fire of Saturday’s rematch in the District 1 Class 5A final, it’s only because the Vanguards don’t lack for motivation.

“I think it helped us,” Maloney said Friday. “We were able to see where we made mistakes before. We were up five or seven the whole game, made some mistakes on our end, both offensively and defensively, and they capitalized on it.”

The top-seeded Vikings (21-5) and No. 6 Sun Valley (18-7) square off at 2 p.m. at Temple. For both teams, reaching the Liacouras Center was among the primary season goals. Sun Valley’s path has included what fifth-year coach Maloney calls a “chip on their shoulders” stemming from his first team going 4-17.

(click on this link for the full story)

Webmaster’s note: Delcohoops.com will audio broadcast LIVE today’s Sun Valley PIAA District One’s championship game.  Our broadcast begins at 1:45 PM.