Delcohoops.com

By Matthew DeGeorge

 Just in case his play didn’t deliver the gist of it, Tyree Corbett had one more message to share Saturday afternoon at South Philadelphia High.Corbett and his Lincoln teammates had heard the rationalizations explaining away last week’s District 12 championship game win over Roman Catholic, the Catholic League champ. He’d gathered whispers about luck, about a Roman hangover following a last-second win in a tense Catholic League finale, about how a city Class 6A title wasn’t all that important and maybe even fluky.

The Rail Splitters heard all of it. And in response, Corbett and company delivered a stirring testimonial.

The final margin showed a 67-46 win over Upper Darby in the opener of the PIAA Class 6A tournament. But a game where the margin crept to 37 points early in the fourth quarter wasn’t nearly that close, and Corbett made sure that was known.

“We came out here knowing we were going to blow them out,” Corbett said. “We sent a message that there’s no luck. Any person or any time you come out and play basketball, we play like it’s their last, and that’s what we did today. We’re going to play every game like it’s their last. We’re going to play hard and show everybody that we can’t be beat and we can beat every team and Roman wasn’t just luck.”

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By Rich Flanagan

 Mike Walker’s first season as Delco Christian head coach has had its ups and downs.In the Bicentennial League playoffs, his team downed Phil-Mont Christian before being upended by Lower Moreland. They rebounded to defeat Calvary Christian and Dock Mennonite to claim the program’s third district title. They were coming into the state playoffs, the fourth qualification in five seasons, with some momentum. But their stay was short-lived.

Despite 16 points from Tyler Penley and 12 points and six rebounds from jackson Piotrowski, Delco Christian was routed by Constitution, 86-53 in the opening round of the PIAA Class 2A Tournament.

The Knights struggled against the full-court pressure put on by the Generals as they committed 20 turnovers. Constitution (17-11) had four players score in double figures: Keshaun Hammonds (27 points), Damon Wall (13), Jabari Merritt (12) and Archbishop Carroll transfer Jahmir Marable-Williams (11).

Constitution, last year’s Class 2A runner-up, played like a team looking to get back to that title game. They recorded 16 steals and led by as many as 37 points.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

Malcolm Williams’ voice trails off in a bout of sheepishness. Even at the lower volume, the point comes across.“When he’s not on, we can score,” Williams said. “A lot of people think we can’t score. But we can.”

The “he” for the last two seasons — the last two District 1 Class 5A championships — has been Tyler Norwood. And for three quarters Friday night at Interboro, Norwood wasn’t exactly Norwood.

But Penncrest’s winning ways flowed on without interruption.

Norwood weathered those rocky quarters to finish with 20 points. But it was the defense of the Lions, their dogged rebounding and ability to share the ball that made the difference in a 49-36 win over Shippensburg, the 10 seed out of District 3, in the first round of the PIAA Class 5A Tournament.

Williams set the tone early for the Lions (26-3), who notched the program’s first PIAA victory since 1968 and usurped that team’s record for most wins in a season in school history. Williams scored eight of his nine points in the first half, including seven in the first quarter, tossing in a pair of jump shots. His 3-pointer in the first, with the Ship defense giving him acres of space and daring him to shoot, was the first in his varsity career, in game no. 58.

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By Bob Grotz

Right or wrong, Chester High basketball coaches are measured by how they fare in state competition.And so it is with Keith Taylor, the program’s rookie head coach.

Taylor didn’t just get the Clippers ready to battle Martin Luther King and 6-foot-9 giant William McNair Jr. Friday night in the first round of the PIAA Class 5A playoffs at South Philly High. He got them to play the way he did when the Clippers were a force in the state playoffs.

The Clippers scored almost half of their points on hustle plays in a 61-47 upset of the Cougars, who still are wondering how in the world they could be so much bigger, and so less effective.

Whether the Chester points came from loose balls, offensive rebounds or steals, backdoor inbounds passes or blind look passes, the Clippers (19-8) turned a four-point halftime lead into a 15-point cushion before spending the last 3:37 largely at the free throw line.

Webmaster’s note: The Abington Heights vs Chester PIAA 5A Round 2 playoff game is this week’s Game-of-the-Week and can be heard LIVE right here on Delcohoops.com. Our game broadcast will begin at 7:45 pm.

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By Ed Morlock

playoffs Friday night at Bensalem High School.The Patriots face Lampeter-Strasburg in the second round Tuesday at a site and time to be determined.

Carroll’s Luke House hit three three-pointers to start the fourth quarter and help the Patriots build a 15-point lead, 54-39.

“We have a kid like Luke House,” Carroll coach Paul Romanczuk said, “he gets in foul trouble early and nothing was going right for him. He goes he scores 20 in the second half alone. I can’t say enough great things about him.”

The Trojans came roaring back with a 14-2 run to make it 56-53.

House hit a pair of free throws to push the lead back to five and Wiss’ Zach Reiner responded with a layup to make it a one-possession game again with 2:54 to go.

The Patriots rattled off four straight — a pair of Keyon Butler foul shots and an AJ Hoggard runner — to make it a seven-point game, 62-55, with 1:35 left.

Wiss wasn’t done yet. Max Rapoport hit a three — his fourth of the fourth quarter — and Reiner split a pair of free throws to get the deficit back to three, 62-59.

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By Harry Chaykun

Bonner & Prendergast coach Jack Concannon didn’t want to look at how teams were seeded before the Friars’ game against District 3’s New Oxford Friday night in the PIAA Class 5A tournament.“Any team that gets this far is a good team,” Concannon said of the No. 9 seed opponent. “They must have won something. What did they make, 10 3s? And we only made one.”

As the Friars showed, games aren’t won only by 3-point shooting. Bonner & Prendergast (23-4), the District 12 champion, did enough other things to earn a 56-45 decision over the Colonials (20-9) to earn the chance to play in a second-round game Tuesday night. It’s the Friars’ first PIAA tournament win in program history, the Catholic League only joining the state tournament proceedings in 2008-09.

The Friars missed six shots and turned the ball over six times in the opening period and fell behind, 15-10. The used a better defensive effort to outscore New Oxford in the second period, 20-8. Junior Isaiah Wong, who filled up the statistics sheets with 22 points, 12 rebounds, seven steals and a pair of assists, was 4-for-4 from the floor — one from deep range — and added three free throws to get 12 of his points in that second period.

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