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By Matthew DeGeorge

Tyler Norwood’s answer to a question he was expecting is succinct.The last time Norwood stepped foot in the gym at Marple Newtown was the first round of last year’s PIAA Class 5A tournament, a wretched shooting night for the Penncrest guard that provided an anticlimactic ending to a Player of the Year campaign. So did he think about that at all ahead of Wednesday’s return trip?

“Every day,” he said.

His latest adventure at Marple Newtown wasn’t so excruciating, at least emotionally.

Norwood scored a game-high 20 points, exiting after three quarters with an ankle injury that permitted only a brief late cameo to stanch a Marple run, as Penncrest sprinted to a 61-41 Central League win.

(click on this link for more game stories and scores)

By Tyler Sandora

Throughout the early season, defense has been Neumann-Goretti’s biggest weakness.

Although the Saints were off to a 5-3 start entering their Catholic League opener at Archbishop Carroll on Tuesday night, they’ve been held back by their defense — or lack thereof — to begin the second half of various games.

At a holiday tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina a week ago, the Saints held Asheville Christian Academy to 53 points in the first game, but then dropped two consecutive matchups to Lincoln (NY), and Providence Day, both games only losing by a combined 13 points.

“We have been stressing we were very poor defensively in parts of games in Carolina,” head coach Carl Arrigale said. “Our offense was good, but we didn’t dig in defensively.”

But in their first game back in the state and on the opening night of Catholic League play, the Saints looked just like their normal selves.

(click on this link for the full story)

By Matthew DeGeorge

Bonner & Prendergast’s dual low-post threats took care of business in Tuesday’s Catholic League opener, with both Tariq Ingraham and Ajiri Johnson posting double-doubles in an 80-54 controlling of Conwell-Egan.

Johnson scored 18 points, Ingraham added 14 and both grabbed 10 rebounds for the Friars. Isaiah Wong led all scorers with 21 points, and Donovan Rodriguez chipped in nine for Bonner & Prendie (8-2, 1-0).

Also in the Catholic League:

(click on this link for more game stories and scores)

By Michael Bullock

While we brought you our six preseason packages in those anxious days immediately preceding the start of the 2017-18 campaign, here’s a look at our third all-inclusive set of rankings for each and every classification.

So, enjoy, squawk and even ponder. There’s plenty more results to come.

Appearing below are all six of our top 10s, with PIAA district and this season’s record displayed in parentheses. Only those schools competing for PIAA state championships are eligible for ranking purposes.

CLASS 6A

Princeton recruit Drew Friberg dropped in 28 points and snagged eight rebounds on Thursday, leading No. 5 State College past Germantown Academy 68-56 in the finals of State High’s Kiwanis Holiday Tournament. Brandon Clark added 12 points for the Little Lions, two more than teammate Ryan McNulty.

(click on this link for the complete rankings)

By Matthew DeGeorge

Three times during an interview last Friday, Matt Lindeman emphasized his central thesis. “The Del Val is going to be fun this year,” the Penn Wood coach said after his team’s 48-47 win over Frankford at Interboro High School.

Part of the reason was on display for the previous 32 minutes — an inexperienced Penn Wood team learning the ropes in a league full of teams in similar positions.

But a more fitting illustration was seated about 10 feet to Lindeman’s left in the form of new Interboro coach Conrad Kirkaldy, keeping the book for the first game of five in the Big Game Hoops Showcase, a day that would end with Kirkaldy’s Bucs snapping a 53-game losing streak with a victory over Abington Friends.

The standings tell a tale of impending intrigue, but even more poignant are the myriad connections between the league’s six coaches.

Lindeman and Kirkaldy were assistants together for seven years at Penn Wood under Clyde Jones. When Jones left for Girard College in 2016, Lindeman took over the top job after 10 years as Jones’ assistant.

Jones left Girard after one season (and one trip to the PIAA Class A final) and landed at a resurgent Chichester. Among his assistant coaches is Chester All-Delco and longtime Clippers assistant Jimai Springfield.

(click on this link for the full story)

By Josh Verlin

Despite starting off its defense of the District 1 Class 5A tournament with seven wins to open the season, Penncrest still felt it had plenty to prove. After all, the Lions had replaced three starters from a year ago, and were relying on several players who previously had played few if any varsity minutes.

Mike Doyle’s squad was presented Saturday evening with an opportunity to make quite a statement, indeed: a game against one of the state’s storied programs, Chester, playing in ostensibly a home atmosphere at Widener University in an event — the 13th annual Pete & Jameer Nelson Classic — named for one of the Clippers’ all-time greats.

And whether they were proving something to themselves or to the rest of the local hoops community, the message was clear: Penncrest is for real.

(click on this link for the full story)

(Webmaster’s note: The Penncrest vs Chester game was our Game-of-the-Week and can be heard on our Archives link by clicking on the player below)

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