Delcohoops.com

By Ed Morlock

Plymouth Whitemarsh had its full compliment of starters on the court for the first time this season in Friday night’s playoff opener.The Colonials looked like they’ve been playing together for years.

Each member of the starting five made a meaningful impact in a 62-37 win over Haverford in the first round of the District 1-6A playoffs at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School’s Gym West.

Senior guard Anthony Straface was the missing piece for most of the season, dealing with a Grade 3 high ankle sprain. He knocked down his first three-pointer of the game and hit three total from beyond the arc, posting 13 points in his first action in a few weeks.

“I had all the confidence in the world,” Straface, who returned for four games a month ago before needing to sit out again, said. “I work on my game all the time.”

“Injuries can obviously alter things,” PW coach Jim Donofrio said. “A season is a season — take what it gives you — but in many ways the younger guys have benefitted from all the opportunities, but you can see when a guy who’s a pretty good high school basketball player can put the ball in the basket. There’s a lot of kids who can play the game, work hard at the game, play well but there’s only so many guys that can actually put the ball in the basket consistently. When you lose that kind of guy on a team that was in a rebuild anyway — it’s been that much more of a challenge to try to figure out pieces.”

(click on this link for the full story)

By Jack McCaffery

For almost a year, Kevin Funston had a fear. By Friday night, it would become real.

The first-year basketball coach at Bonner & Prendie, Funston was an assistant last year to Jack Concannon. So that was him on the bench at the Palestra last February, watching a last-half-second opportunity fail, watching Roman Catholic celebrate a two-point victory in the Catholic League championship game, and watching the looks on the younger Friars’ faces.

He knew they were kids.

They would be back. Soon.

“Yeah,” Funston half-sighed, almost a year later. “And I think it kind of hurt us this year. I think our guys forgot how hard the journey was.”

There will be no journey back to the Palestra this year. That was decided in the Friars’ 73-62 playoff loss Friday at Neumann-Goretti. There will be opportunities in the District 12 playoffs, and then in the PIAA state tournament. But, at Bonner, at any Catholic League school, there is only one real goal: Get to 33rd Street and scissor those nets. In that order.

(click on this link for the full story)

By Rich Flanagan

The looks on the faces of Isaiah Wong and his Bonner & Prendergast teammates were unfazed but aware.

Still fresh in their minds was the loss to Roman Catholic in the closing seconds of the Philadelphia Catholic League championship game last season. With a core group back aside from Ajiri Johnson (Rider), the Friars had all the pieces in place for another run at a league title.

By the end of the night Friday, the focused looks turned to disappointed glares.

Isaiah Wong had 23 points, seven rebounds and three steals and Donovan Rodriguez chipped in a career-high 19, but it was not enough as Neumann-Goretti’s swarming zone defense limited the Friars offensive attack in the second half on its way to a 73-62 victory in the Catholic League quarterfinals.

Wong scored 14 of the Friars’ 28 points in the opening half, including a basket off an inbounds play to give his team a 28-27 advantage with under 20 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Ja’Cor Smith (17 points) dropped in one of his three 3-pointers to end the half, and the Saints led by two going into the break.

(click on this link for the full story)

By PAPrepLIVE

The Haverford School drew closer to completing a perfect season Saturday.

Christian Ray poured in a team-high 20 points in leading the No. 1 Fords to the semifinal round of the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association tournament with a 67-59 decision over eighth-seeded Academy of the New Church.

Haverford School (26-0) clinged to a one-point lead through two quarters, but caught fire in the third period and outscored ANC by nine points, 22-13. In the quarter, Ray tallied six of his points and Jameer Nelson netted seven of his 14. Jameel Brown also helped the cause with six of his 16 points coming in the third stanza.

(click on this link for the full story)

By Owen McCue

The Hill School came into Friday’s PAISAA first round matchup against Episcopal Academy with an early-season loss on its mind.The Blues fell to the Churchmen by one in the final seconds when the two teams met in December, and Hill wanted to show EA just how far it had come in the past few months since the defeat.

“We tried to forget about that, and we wanted to play with an edge, a chip on our shoulder,” Hill sophomore forward Gabe Dorsey said.

The Blues, who are the reigning PAISAA champs, accomplished their goal early, delivering a mighty punch in the first quarter and never letting EA back into the game on the way to a 69-50 win. Hill will play the Shipley School in the second round on Saturday at 4 p.m.

“It was definitely on our mind because we improved so much from that last matchup,” Hill senior forward Xavier Mayo said. “We wanted revenge and payback for a tough game that we lost last time. We were definitely thinking about that, and we were hungry to win.”

(click on this link for the full story)

 

  

By Delcohoops.com Staff

High school basketball at it’s best is certainly the PIAA playoffs.  The first rounds have been set, beginning tonight, and will continue through the District One Finals and then on to the coveted PIAA State Championship series.

There are two ways on Delcohoops.com you can track what is going on in the playoffs.  Our Schedule page will show all Delaware County playoff games.  We will show the teams playing and game locations as well as start times.  Our PIAA District One Playoff Brackets page (click on the D1 logo on the right hand side of this page) will allow you to look at all brackets which involve Delaware County teams as well as all other scheduled playoff games.

Of course we’ll be broadcasting at least one playoff game a week as the Delaware County teams continue in the playoffs.

A note to fans who own small businesses in the area.  Costs to broadcast these games are much higher due to fees required by the PIAA. The PIAA fees alone can be as high as $200 a game.  If you would like to support our broadcast efforts drop us a note at delcohoops@aol.com for per game pricing information.

A note to Athletic Directors, Coaches, fans and family of non-Delaware County teams. As teams advance (and are sadly eliminated) our broadcast crew is looking to broadcast games, when available, outside our area.  If you would like us to consider broadcasting your playoff game, and are willing to pay the PIAA fees involved, we would be happy to consider your request. Send your request to delcohoops@aol.com.