Month: March 2016

By Mike Mayer. Webmaster

Another great season of high school boy’s basketball has concluded and all of us at Delcohoops.com were proud to bring you all the local articles and stories from around the county.  Our web site has enjoyed over 75,000 hits this year and we were able to bring you 22 game broadcasts (with over 10,000 listeners) featuring the best high school basketball athletes our county offers!

None of this could have been done without the generosity of our sponsors.  It is their contributions that allow us to bring you these web pages and broadcasts at no cost to you and without any tax payer dollars.  If you ever have a need for any of their services please give them a call and tell them you appreciate their support of Delaware County high school basketball!

A word of thanks to all the Athletic Directors in the County which made their facilities available to us and whose cooperation was essential.

To our sensational play-by-play announcer, Dave Burman, who spends hours going over numbers (stats) and players and who manages to give insight and history of the game in Delaware County.  His enthusiasm for high school sports and the kids who play them is contagious. You only need to hear his calls to share in his excitement of the game.

To our late entry, Mark Jordan, who joined our broadcast for color commentary as the playoffs started. As the long-time girl’s basketball coach for Radnor, Mark brought a basketball ability to see the game as coaches see them and managed to share those thoughts during our broadcasts. We believe he was a great addition to the quality of our games.

Our overwhelming appreciation to Brenda Jean Burman (Dave’s wife) who attending every game with us and volunteered to hand-out rosters to the fans, check the starting line-ups, put up signs, help clean up after every game. She also took photos and videos and was our “go-to” person during the game when the rest of us were tethered to head-sets and mics. We couldn’t have done it as well without her!

Finally, to the young men and women we covered, who played their hearts out, win or lose, for the last four months.  These young athletes and their family and friends are the reasons we spend the time and effort on these pages and our broadcast.  We want their athletic endeavors to feel special and we hope we have achieved our goal.

See you in November!

 

 

By Pete Schnatz

In her storied high school career up until Friday, Kelly Jekot had garnered two state Player of the Year honors, hoisted two PIAA Class AAAA state championships and secured a scholarship to Villanova.
On a basketball court, Jekot usually gets what she wants. Against Cardinal O’Hara, the Cumberland Valley senior wanted a third state crown, and no one was going to deny her.
Jekot was simply dominant, powering the District 3 champion Eagles to a 57-34 manhandling of District 12 champion O’Hara. The senior guard scored 28 points on a ludicrous 11-for-15 shooting, plus seven rebounds and four assists. She had a direct hand in 15 of the Eagles’ 22 baskets.
“When she’s making shots like that, she’s unguardable,” said O’Hara’s Kenzie Gardler.
“I don’t know what the stats were, but it was pretty close to perfection,” added Mary Sheehan, who drew the short straw of shadowing Jekot in the first of several plans of attack devised by coach Linus McGinty. “They came out from the get-go, and they were dominant. …
“If they’re making shots, I don’t know how you’re going to stop them. I don’t know if anyone’s cracked that one yet.”
It wasn’t until early in the fourth quarter that O’Hara started outscoring the Villanova-bound Jekot, much less the rest of an Eagles roster riddled with Division I talent.
O’Hara threw everything it had defensively at the 6-foot guard. They went big and small. They pressed, face-guarded and tried to deny possession.
But try as it might, O’Hara (26-4) had no answers. The Lions denied Jekot in the post in the first half, so she hit four 3-pointers without a miss. When they closed out on open looks on the perimeter, she put the ball on the deck, driving to the hoop and kicking to available shooters. Couple that with O’Hara’s lack of height requiring constant help defense on 6-foot-1 forward Addie Kirkpatrick (12 points, 10 rebounds), and there were just too many problems for the Lions to solve.
Even the familiarity from AAU — Jekot and her younger sister, Katelyn, play for the Comets, the same squad that O’Hara’s star-studded core has brought to national acclaim — didn’t help.
“I had a height advantage, so I tried my best to work it in the post and shoot it from the outside as much as I could, even though they were limiting my shots,” Kelly Jekot said.

(click on the link for the full story)

By Matthew De George

Mary Sheehan gazed down the court with a look of steely determination Friday night.

There were no tears, no sobbing, as you’d expect from a Cardinal O’Hara group that had marched to the PIAA Class AAAA final with a roster devoid of seniors, then ran up against the three-time champion buzzsaw that is Cumberland Valley.

But the intensity radiating from Sheehan’s visage was neither devastated nor angry. It was merely confident, as she and fellow junior Hannah Nihill shifted under the weight of the PIAA runner-up trophy they’d just been presented.

“I said to Hannah, ‘That’s going to be us. I want that to be us,’” Sheehan said after O’Hara’s 57-34 setback at the hands of a dominant Cumberland Valley squad. “And she agreed that’s what we want.”

If Sheehan needed a mirror to reflect her feelings, it stood 60 feet down the court, having a third gold medal in as many years draped around her neck. For the three seniors on Cumberland Valley’s squad — including two-time state player of the year and Friday’s MVP Kelly Jekot — the championship journeys began with loss.

Jekot, who scored 28 points to go with seven rebounds and four assists in a phenomenal performance, reminisced to a formative juncture in the Eagles’ coalescence into a state champion: Losing to Spring-Ford on the Giant Center court three years before.

(click on this link for the full article)

 

By Michael Bullock

Waiting for head coach Carl Arrigale to join them in their Giant Center locker room before they really cut loose, Neumann-Goretti’s basketball-playing Saints had a plan in place when their remarkably successful skipper finally arrived.

Yep, the ice bucket still was sporting plenty of the wet stuff.

And while the game plan was to lay in wait for the suspecting Arrigale to enter before unloading the jug’s chilly contents, a giddy bunch of Saints failed in their first attempt to drench their head coach. Honestly, it was the only thing N-G didn’t convert all night.

Or so it seemed.

“We picked the wrong guys to do it,” cracked laughing senior Zane Martin.

With Martin bucketing 33 points and Quade Green nearly popping a triple-double (25 points/9 rebounds/8 assists), hot-shooting Neumann-Goretti spent Friday night peppering Mars 99-66 en route to its third straight PIAA Class AAA boys’ basketball championship and its sixth state title in seven seasons.

(click on this link for the full article)

By Aron Minkoff

For the PIAA Class AAAA season finale two teams–from two opposite sides of the state and spectrum–will clash for the right to be called champions.

One team, an inner-city public school team out of Pittsburgh, making its first ever appearance in the state championship game: Taylor Allderdice. The other, a highly-touted Catholic school out of Philadelphia looking to win back-to-back state titles: Roman Catholic.

Perhaps the only thing that these two teams have in common is the desire to be wear gold around their necks, not silver.

“They are excited to play the best,” Allderdice coach Buddy Valinsky said of his Dragons. ”Roman is the best around and has been the last two years. So they are really excited to play the team that is considered the best in the state.”

All season long, either Allderdice or Roman Catholic have been ranked first in AAAA all season by CoBL, with Roman holding the top spot through the first five weeks of the season, before Allderdice took the spot on January 11 and has not given it back.

In a way, this is destiny. This is the exact showdown that many anticipated and wanted to see as the season waned on.

(click on this link for the full article)

By Matt Smith

Cardinal O’Hara goes after its first PIAA Class AAAA championship Friday night.  Here’s a glance at the big matchup with reigning state champion Cumberland Valley

Cardinal O’Hara (26-3)
District 12 Champion

Probable Starters: G Hannah Nihill (5-5 Jr.), G/F Mary Sheehan (5-11 Jr.), G Kenzie Gardler (5-6 So.), G Maura Hendrixson (5-9 So.), G Lauren Leicht (5-4 Jr.) or G Molly Paolino (5-6 So.)

Cumberland Valley (28-3)
District 3 Champion

Probable Starters: F Morgan Baughman (5-10 Sr.), G Morgan Frazier (5-5 Sr.), G Katie Jekot (5-9 Jr.), G Kelly Jekot (6-0 Sr.), Addison Kirkpatrick (6-0 Jr.).

What To Watch: The Eagles are vying for their third consecutive PIAA Class AAAA championship, led by the Villanova-bound Kelly Jekot, who is the two-time Gatorade Pennsylvania Girls Player of the Year. O’Hara thrives in stopping athletic players such as Jekot, an excellent ball handler who can drive and shoot, but the Eagles have three of those players. St. Joseph’s verbal commit Katie Jekot, who is Kelly’s sister, and Morgan Baughman have shot the ball extremely well during CV’s postseason run.
O’Hara has weapons all across the floor, with Sheehan (12.5 ppg.), Nihill (11.1 ppg.) and Gardler (10.5 ppg.) leading the way. Nihill is the engine that makes O’Hara go; if she’s bottled up, the Lions will have a difficult time. Gardler (48 3-pointers) and Hendrixson (49) have to hit shots early to establish a tempo, and the Lions can’t afford to find themselves playing from behind the whole way. A five-point deficit to Cumberland Valley is not the same as a five-point deficit to North Penn.
Sheehan will be a major factor inside the arc. If she can score inside the paint and control the glass, the Lions will be in good shape.

When: Friday, 6 p.m.

Where: Hershey’s Giant Center

Who to Follow: Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) and @DelcoSports on Twitter.

 

By Matt Smith

Cardinal O’Hara faces a mammoth challenge Friday night in the PIAA Class AAAA championship game.

The Lions will try to put a stop to Cumberland Valley’s dominance, while also facing the expectation of becoming the first team at their school to win a state championship.

Cumberland Valley (28-3) is a seasoned squad with the championship pedigree. The District Three champs are going after their third consecutive PIAA Class AAAA title, a team oozing with Division I talent and experience.

To suggest O’Hara (26-3) is a decided underdog in this, its second state finals appearance, wouldn’t be a stretch. But that doesn’t belie the fact that O’Hara is equally deserving and capable of going the distance.

At the start of the season, O’Hara and Cumberland Valley were considered the two favorites in PIAA Class AAAA. In fact, according to PennLive.com’s weekly state rankings, the Eagles and Lions were Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in the preseason. Both programs have lived up to the hype, setting up a date with destiny at Hershey’s Giant Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 o’clock.

O’Hara began its campaign with eight consecutive victories before falling to Delaware powerhouse Ursuline Academy in mid-January. Its only other defeats were to Catholic League rivals Neumann-Goretti in the regular season, and Archbishop Wood in the semifinal round of the Philadelphia Catholic League playoffs. Both N-G and Wood are playing for state titles this weekend, as well. O’Hara has won 14 of 15 games, including a 48-41 decision over North Penn in the state semifinals Tuesday.

(click on this link for the full article)

By Matthew De George

In the many twists and turns of Tuesday night’s PIAA Class AAAA girls basketball semifinal, the contributions of Cardinal O’Hara’s Kristen Denoncour could easily get overshadowed.

It isn’t necessarily a new feeling for the junior forward. And while even the boxscore of O’Hara’s 48-41 win over North Penn barely affords Denoncour a passing glance, she remains a sizeable if understated cog in the Lions’ run to the Friday’s state final in Hershey.

Blink and you might have missed Denoncour’s statistical input Wednesday night — two rebounds, one block, no shot attempts. She played sparingly, a few minutes in the second quarter with Hannah Nihill nursing two fouls, then spot duty in the second half to bolster O’Hara’s defense down low.

But Denoncour is one of the foundational elements that helps the talented guards flourish. And when O’Hara runs up against defending state champion Cumberland Valley Friday night (Giant Center, 6 p.m.), she could occupy a big role, literally and figuratively.

Denoncour flies under the radar with all of O’Hara’s scoring threats and Division I talents. But she does a lot of the dirty work that gives those attack-minded perimeter players freedine to operate.

(click on this link for the full article)

By Matthew De George

When Linus McGinty convened the Cardinal O’Hara huddle after three quarters in a tie game Tuesday evening, he had good news and bad.

The bad news was that forward Mary Sheehan had yet to get on track against North Penn in the PIAA Class AAAA semifinal. The good news was that even without her, the Lions were on level terms with eight minutes to play.

And the better news was that a player of Sheehan’s caliber had no intention of continuing to go so quietly.

Sheehan came to life in the fourth quarter, scoring seven of her nine points and powering O’Hara to the state final with a 48-41 win at Spring-Ford High School.

The District 12 champs (26-3) advance to Friday’s final at Hershey’s Giant Center, where they’ll meet defending champion Cumberland Valley. The Eagles eked by North Allegheny, 43-42, Tuesday night, on a pair of last-second free throws.

(click on this link for the full article)