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By Matthew DeGeorge

The tactics for Shad Kyem were pretty simple Thursday night, no halftime session with the dry erase board needed.

The Penn Wood guard had Academy Park’s Naseim Harley shadowing him in their District 1 Class 5A first-round contest. Harley had three points, three fouls and six missed shots in the first half. So Kyem resolved to take the game to a player already on his heels, figuring that getting the best of one of the Knights’ leaders would bring the rest of the team down with him.

Kyem did just that, scoring 12 of his 16 points in the third quarter and keying a 73-48 runaway win for the eighth-seeded Patriots.

Penn Wood (15-8) advances to Saturday’s quarterfinals, where it will visit top-seeded West Chester East with a spot in the state tournament on the line. The seventh win in Penn Wood’s last nine outings ends the season of No. 9 AP (15-8). Thursday served as the rubber match between the Del Val rivals, with Penn Wood winning by seven points at home Jan. 10 and AP taking the return meeting by eight Jan. 29.

This one didn’t remain that close for very long. Kyem set the tone.

(click on this link for the full story)

Webmaster’s note: The PIAA first round 5A District One game between Academy Park and Penn Wood 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 Christopher Vito

Shane Cohen admits he floats comfortably between two roles for Lower Moreland, scorer and facilitator. He also might just very well float.

The senior collected a fourth-quarter pass on the baseline, took a single dribble, and double-clutched a lay-up. Cohen hung in the air long enough to convert the shot and draw a foul. The old-fashioned 3-point play helped Cohen cross the 1,000-point, career-scoring threshold, and served as the offensive highlight in a game loaded with them.

Cohen’s 26 points, six assists, and four rebounds boosted the top-seeded Lions to a 76-46 rout of fourth-seeded Glen Mills in a District 1 Class 4A semifinal. Lower Moreland (21-3) will face Pope John Paul II in Saturday’s district championship game.

“He’s the (Bicentennial Athletic League) MVP. He goes as we go, in many ways,” Lower Moreland coach Seth Baron said of Cohen, his top scorer. “That being said, we’re very talented. We have 12 seniors. We’ve been building toward this season.”

The Lions shot 29-for-52 overall, good for 56 percent. From beyond the arc, they were nearly as efficient. They made 45 percent of their 3-pointers, connecting on 10 of 22 attempts. And they didn’t miss from the foul line, knocking down all eight free throws.

(click on this link for the full story)

By Bruce Adams

Sun Valley’s four senior starters stood tall in the Vanguards’ 82-65 win over Phoenixville Thursday night in the opening round of the District 1 Class 5A boys basketball tournament.

Vinny DeAngelo lit up the scoreboard with 31 points, and fellow seniors Isaac Kennon and Marvin Freeman chipped in with 14 each. The trio was tough on the boards Thursday night, too.

“DeAngelo, Freeman and Kennon have been our top rebounders for the last three years, but our unsung rebounding hero is Lance Stone,” Sun Valley head coach Steve Maloney said. “He’s barely 6-foot, and he pulled down some big ones in the second half tonight.”

Sun Valley (16-7) maintained a small lead against Phoenixville (11-12) most of the night, then exploded for 31 points in the final quarter.

“We’ve scored the ball pretty well this season, but we spent the last two weeks working on defensive assignments,” Maloney said. “I thought our defense was good tonight. Dom Valente had a good defensive game, he’s taken about 20 charges for us this year.”

(click on this link for the full story)

By Peter Sena

Unionville has had plenty of leading men in big games this season, usually Bo Furey-Bastian or Wyatt Hockenberry.Thursday night, it was Drew Lenkaitis’ turn to lead the Indians to victory.

The Unionville senior scored 21 points on the night — including 17 in the first half — as the Indians rolled over Radnor, 60-46, in the first round of the District 1 Class 5A playoffs.

The third-seeded Indians will host a familiar foe in No. 6 Sun Valley in Saturday’s quarterfinals, after the Vanguards beat Phoenixville. A win on Saturday would secure a state tournament berth.

“We played really hard, it’s just a byproduct of how hard we’ve worked,” Lenkaitis said. “We just got to play hard and keep things going. Our coach (Chris Cowles) told the seniors today could be our last game. If there’s anything you need to do, it’s ‘no regret’ effort and just leave it all out on the court. The game was all about trusting my teammates and trusting what our coaches taught us to do.”

(click on this link for the full story)

By Matt Smith

Tyler Rossini doesn’t worry about scoring points in bunches. Delaware County Christian School’s senior shooting guard plays with a team-first mentality, and if he’s lucky enough to get a few open looks per game, so be it.

Rossini wants to do what’s best for all five players on the floor. It’s not about getting his shots and padding his stats.

“My teammates do a great job of setting me up,” he said. “I just want to look to get the ball inside as much as possible.”

The big man for DC is Obinna Nwobodo, who gets plenty of touches in the lane. The offense runs through junior wingman Jackson Piotrowski, who Valley Forge Military Academy zoned in on in Thursday night’s District 1 Class 2A semifinal contest without much success.

Jamal Hairston is the heady point guard who directs the offense, and power forward Jacob Bronkema is your typical grinder who fights for rebounds and plays tough defense. Rossini is the team’s marksman. He wasn’t aiming to drop in 20 points on this night, but the opportunities were too good to resist.

(click on this link for the full story)

By Bob Grotz

Critics could say that Penncrest cruised to a 67-36 win over Pottstown Thursday in the first round of the District 1 Class 5A playoffs largely because the Trojans didn’t walk into Kaufman Gymnasium until 11 minutes before the scheduled tipoff.Certainly, it didn’t help the visitors. A couple of wrong turns in the height of rush hour traffic when you’ve committed to Route 202 in King of Prussia can ruin anybody’s evening.

Just don’t try selling the theory to Lions senior Malcolm Williams, who said the difference between the fourth-seeded Lions and their 13th-seeded opponent was hanging in the rafters.

Williams nodded toward the 2017 and 2018 District 1 basketball championship banners won by the Lions, after he had scored 26 points Thursday, two more than the Trojans managed through three quarters. There never was a doubt in his mind that the Lions would live to play another day.

(click on this link for the full story)

By Matthew DeGeorge

You had the Division I signee on one side, a player who someday soon will likely be paid to play basketball. You had raucous fans filling the gym and the colors of two of Pennsylvania’s most storied basketball programs lining the benches.Everything Tuesday night, except for the comically early juncture of the playoffs at which the game transpired, about Plymouth Whitemarsh’s voyage to Chester screamed district final.

And in harkening back to a clash of PIAA titans for the 17th time in postseason play, it was the truest and most reliable facet of the rivalry that ultimately won the day: A little signature Chester defense.

The Clippers forced 24 turnovers, including four in a frenetic stretch in the fourth quarter that led to eight unanswered points and the decisive momentum swing in a 77-73 classic of a District 1 Class 6A second round victory.

The win is the 14th straight for the sixth-seeded Clippers (18-4), who advance to the quarterfinal to take on No. 3 Lower Merion. The win also books Chester’s 26th states berth in the last 27 seasons.

(click on this link for the full story)

By Bruce Adams

Lower Merion clinched its ninth consecutive PIAA 6A state berth – the longest current streak in District 1 6A boys’ basketball – with a 65-56 win against visiting Conestoga Tuesday evening in the second round of the District 1 6A tournament, and it was a hard-earned victory, thanks to a persistent Pioneer squad.

While Lower Merion led for nearly the entire game, the Pioneers hung tough with some potent three-point shooting, and the visitors trailed by only three points (57-54) with two minutes left.

Lower Merion senior guard Jack Forrest, who scored 22 points, said, “We know Conestoga is going to hit shots, they’re big-time players. We just had to get some stops; and down the stretch we got some needed buckets and sunk our free throws, which was really important. Conestoga is a great team, this is the third time we’ve played them this year [all LM wins], and every game has been close, every game has been a battle, and we’re just lucky we got this one.”

Aces head coach Gregg Downer was asked what his first reaction was when the final buzzer sounded at the Kobe Bryant Gymnasium.

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

 

By Matthew DeGeorge

Based on games reported to the Daily Times through Feb. 17; Minimum half team games played.

Points

Christian Ray, Haverford School 23.3
Isaiah Wong, Bonner & Prendergast 23.0
Vinny DeAngelo, Sun Valley 22.3
Matt Dade, Episcopal Academy 20.4
Karell Watkins, Chester 20.2
Malcolm Williams, Penncrest 17.5
Aaron Thompson, Glen Mills 17.4
Enoch Clark, Ridley 17.3
Tommy Gardler, Marple Newtown 17.2
Alex Capitano, Episcopal Academy 16.4

(click on this link for the full stat listing)

By Bob Grotz

The snapshot Garnet Valley can hold onto until next year is of point guard Carl Schaller.

He scored a game-high 22 points Friday night while wearing a mask protecting the nose he cracked a few weeks ago playing defense, not taking the ball to the rack or slamming on the brakes before knocking down pull-up jumpers. The 5-foot-7 penetrator is a big part of the team’s future.

Entertaining as it was, it still wasn’t nearly enough for the 14th seeded Jaguars, who were outmuscled 61-48 by a Downingtown East squad that also will have a height advantage over second-seeded Coatesville when they meet in the second round of the District 1 Class 6A tournament.

What would be interesting, if we may play devil’s advocate, is a guy with Schaller’s skills getting the ball to Downingtown East bigs Andrew King (6-6), Dylan Rowe (6-5) and Tariq Kalim (6-4) say, next Tuesday at Coatesville.

(click on this link for the full story)