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Alex Capitano made sure Episcopal Academy’s losing streak came to an end.

Capitano poured in 40 points to help the Churchmen snap a six-game slide with an 87-73 victory over Western Reserve in the seventh-place game at the Mercer Invitational at the Hill School.

Capitano hit six 3-pointers and was 6-for-7 from the free throw line. Sam Malloy added 16 points and Matt McCarthy chipped in with 11 for EA.

In other nonleague action:

Shipley 61, Haverford School 56 >> The Gators shot 9-for-10 from the free throw line and outscored the Fords, 25-20 in the fourth quarter.

Christian Clover poured in 15 of his game-high 26 points in the fourth to try to keep the Fords in the game. Tyler Seward contributed 12 points.

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

Akeem Taylor came through when Chester needed him most.

Taylor hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the game with South Philadelphia High to overtime, then tallied the first four points of the extra session to put the Clippers up for good in a 79-74 nonleague victory.

Taylor set his career-high as a Clipper with 24 points. (He’d had three 30-point games as a sophomore at Chester Charter School for the Arts). Rahmee Gilbert added a career-best 23 points, and Fareed Burton and Karell Watkins added 13 points each. All the points came from Chester’s starting five.

Southern took the lead into halftime thanks to a 30-13 edge in the second quarter, but Chester stormed back with a 27-11 third quarter, powered by 10 points from Gilbert and nine from Taylor. Gilbert was 11-for-13 from the line, and Chester (4-1) converted on eight of its 12 trips to the charity stripe in the extra session.

In other nonleague action:

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

By Josh Verlin

Lower Merion senior Eli Rothman rattles the numbers off with ease.

“Eleven new guys, 11 seniors who left…4500 points left our team, and only 39 return.”

That’s the stark reality for Gregg Downer’s Aces. For the last four years, the proud program on Montgomery Avenue has been all about its 2019 class, a group which started with five freshmen on the varsity squad and grew to one short of a dozen by the time they were done. And it wasn’t just the size of the class, it was the talent: eight of those freshmen are playing sports in college, including six playing hoops.

Sharpshooting wing Jack Forrest is at Columbia, high-scoring guard Steve Payne doing a prep year at the Perkiomen School with either a D-I or D-II scholarship in his future, forward Josh Martin is playing at Penn State-Harrisburg, guard Julian Hairston at West Chester, guard Theo Henry at Tufts, guard Darryl Taylor at Northampton CC. Two others, Matt O’Connor and Jalen Goodman, are on the football team at Villanova.

That left the 2019-20 cupboard, as Rothman noted, pretty bare on returning production.

(click on this link for the full story)

Carl Schaller posted a double-double with a game-high 28 points and 10 rebounds to propel Garnet Valley to a 75-52 Central League victory over Upper Darby.

Schaller drilled five of the Jaguars 11 3-pointers. Neel Beniwal added 15 points including two triples and Ryan Louden had seven points for Garnet Valley (4-1, 3-1).

AJ Tucker and Iyan Joshuasville netted 10 points apiece while Shareef Jones Jr. scored nine for the Royals.

Also in the Central League:

 

Radnor 43, Marple Newtown 32 >> Jaamir Stewart had 21 points and three steals and Jack d’Entremont chipped in seven points and four rebounds as the Raiders continued their strong start to the year.

Lew Robinson added five points, six boards and a block for Radnor.

Eric McKee led the Tigers with 10 points and Ben Davis added nine points.

Webmaster’s note: Missed the game? Listen to the entire game on our archive file listed below. Go to our Broadcast Archives page for all game archives.

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By Josh Verlin

After graduating an 11-man 2019 class that had made up the majority of the varsity roster –– and production –– for the last four seasons, Lower Merion certainly has a new look. But the Aces are just as dangerous, as they proved on Tuesday night as they welcomed one of the other Central League front-runners to the Bryant Gymnasium, took a good shot from Garnet Valley and bounced back for a 69-58 win.

Keep an eye out on Wednesday for a feature story on the Aces and their massive project of adjusting and learning, but in the meanwhile, here’s a report about their win and some notes and stats on two teams which look primed to make a run at a league title in a couple months, as well as a photo gallery down below.

There’s no missing the Aces’ biggest new addition, literally. At 6-foot-9 and 250 pounds, sophomore forward Demetrius Lilley is the first big-time post player since Darryl Reynolds graduated in 2012, and he’s bigger than Reynolds. Garnet Valley did a decent job on the impressive young post player early on, but LIlley’s size was too much for the Jaguars; I had him with 19 points and 21 rebounds, the Aces’ staff had him for 23 boards. Either way, it was a massive night on the glass for Lilley, who was 8-of-18 from the floor and 3-of-4 from the foul line, with a number of his misses eventually finding the hoop on second or third-chance efforts.

Webmaster’s note:  Our December 19th Game-of-the-Week will feature Upper Darby vs Garnet Valley.

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

By Matt Smith

Tairi Ketner had a team-high 17 points and John Camden had 12 points including a pair of triples as Archbishop Carroll held off West Catholic, 63-60, in its Catholic League opener.

With 10 seconds remaining, the Burrs had five opportunities to tie the game but could not convert. A final half-court heave at the buzzer also did not fall. Dean Coleman-Newsome also had 12 points, and Anquan Hill added 11 points for the undefeated Patriots (4-0, 1-0).

Also in the Catholic League:

Cardinal O’Hara 70, La Salle 62 >> Anthony Purnell and Tre Dinkins poured in 19 points each, and Kevin Reeves was the third scorer with 13 points as the Lions led by 19 at the break.

In the Bicentennial League:

Christian Academy 96, Faith Christian 56 >> Grant Sareyka tallied 24 points and six assists, and Isaiah Mitchell poured in 14 points and six assists of his own for the Crusaders, who hit six 3-pointers and shot 17-for-24 from the free-throw line.

In the Ches-Mont League:

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

By Matthew DeGeorge

Joey Paoletti summed it up pretty succinctly Tuesday night. His Marple Newtown team trailed by nine at halftime against winless Springfield. And the culprit, from a team perspective, was easy to spot.

“We had four shots inside the paint in the first half,” the junior guard said bluntly. “We knew we needed to drive the ball, so we tried to get inside and tried to get some quicker buckets.”

Paoletti summarized it so well because he was the one who had executed it just as tidily.

Paoletti scored all 11 of his points in the second half, waking the Tigers from a barren first half to rally past Springfield, 47-43, in a taut Central League affair.

Against the 3-2 zone deployed by the Cougars, Marple Newtown was lulled out of any offensive rhythm. At halftime, when they trailed 26-17, they had just one two-point basket — a putback of a missed 3-pointer — and one empty trip to the free-throw line. A 5-for-14 showing from the 3-point line was clearly not enough.

Enter Paoletti, a guard not afraid to tough it out in the post. It took him a while to feel out the gaps in the zone and find the donut hole in the middle. It took no time to assert the will to make his presence in there known.

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

By Kev Hunter

Happy but not satisfied.

Souderton Area’s 6-0 start has Big Red pleased with its hard-earned results, but wanting more.

“Definitely a good start,” said the Indians’ Dominic Natale. “We’ve been working a long time for this so it’s good to see that our hard work pays off, but we’re onto the next game.”

Big Red’s latest victory, a rousing, come-from-behind 68-65 win over Academy Park, saw the Indians battle through a fourth quarter with multiple lead changes and go ahead for good with a minute to play, then survive one final push by the visitors.

“We had been letting up a lot of points, more than we would typically like,” Natale said. “So that was our main focus – defense and get the stops. And work off of that offensively.”

(click on this link for the full story)

By Carter Fillman

Entering this season, there might not be more of a striking difference between two teams in the Catholic League than there are between La Salle and Cardinal O’Hara.

Looking back to last season, the Explorers ventured into the Catholic League championship before being upended by Roman Catholic, then made it to the state semifinals before falling to Pennridge. That group was led by seniors Zach Crisler (Rice), Konrad Kiszka (Prinecton), Allen Powell (Rider), and Titus Beard (Georgian Court) who led the school to a 17-0 start. Those four, with the addition of multiple other seniors, made up approximately 83% of the Explorers’ scoring on the year. The lone returner and starter is 5-10 senior guard Jake Timby, who recently committed to play at Catholic University.

On the flip side, Cardinal O’Hara was in the cellar of the PCL narrowly missing the opportunity to snag one of the final playoff spots as they finished 3-11 in league play. But that’s not to say they weren’t competitive, as they played tight games in losses to Carroll (72-70), McDevitt (73-68), Ryan (45-40), and the aforementioned La Salle (70-64). 

(click on this link for the full story)