Month: February 2023

By Matthew DeGeorge

There wasn’t anything fancy about it. No schemes, no pressing, no tunneling the ball to find weaknesses.
What Chester Charter Scholars Academy planned to do defensively in Saturday’s District 1 Class A final was simple as can be: When Phil-Mont Christian had the ball, make it so it wouldn’t anymore.

“It’s just hard work and being there for each other,” senior guard Jayden Williams said. “Help the helper. We work hard, and we want to get steals.

“With Williams leading the way, Chester Charter forced 19 turnovers, wreaking enough havoc early to withstand the Falcons’ fourth-quarter charge and emerge with a 70-64 win at Harriton High School.

From start to finish, the Sabers (19-5) made life miserable for any Falcon holding a basketball. They forced 11 turnovers in the first half, 15 in the first three quarters. Before things went pear-shaped, the Sabers led by as many as 21. denying Phil-Mont’s primary facilitator Jack Svvider.

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By Matt Smith

Garnet Valley star Haylie Adamski has long ago accepted the fact that every team is focused on stopping her on the basketball court. The sophomore sensation has faced double-and triple-team coverage all season.

Adamski missed four of her first five shots in a District 1 Class 6A playback Saturday afternoon. She was unsettled as the Jags fell behind by double digits.

Moreover, Adamski recorded her third foul 51 seconds into the second period. If the 20th-seeded Jaguars wanted to overcome No. 21 North Penn and punch their ticket to the PIAA tournament, Adamski had to be on the floor and not sitting the bench with foul trouble.

“I just have to stay composed,” Adamski said. “Once I got my third foul pretty quickly in the second quarter. I had to back up on defense a little bit. But also my teammates stepped up and that is what got us going on our end. The face guarding from the other team, I am used to that. It’s been that way the whole season.”

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By Bob Grotz

When the buzzer sounded Saturday afternoon, the crowd spilled onto the floor to celebrate a new chapter in Radnor basketball history.

The Raptors won their 26th straight game, breaking the school mark of 25-0 set in 1961. The 66-52 District 1 Class 5A semifinal win over Rustin vaults the Raptors into the district final next Saturday against Unionville at Temple University’s Liacouras Center.

The last time Radnor started this well, it won a district title with a coach who wound up having the arena named after him. Then again, the late Ellis Dwyer not only captured the District 1 Class A title in 1961, but over a 30-year span, he registered seven district pennants among 524 victories … when he wasn’t teaching mathematics.

It’s safe to say Dwyer, who hailed from Twin Oaks and played at Chester High, would have been proud of current coach Jamie Chadwin, much like the Raptors are for giving them meaning.

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By Owen McCue

In fourth grade, Nathan Lapp walked into a tryout for the Deep Run travel team and spotted a tall kid with curly blonde hair he didn’t recognize.

The kid was Hoyt Bultje, who just moved into the area from Wisconsin and is now captaining the boys basketball team at Dock with Lapp after eight years of playing hoops together. The longtime friends hope they have a few more games left together.

The Pioneers and their senior captains kept their seasons and careers alive Saturday at Harriton with a 65-55 victory over Delco Christian in the District 1-2A championship — the Pioneers’ first district title since 2020.

“Me and Nate have played together since fourth grade,” Bultje said. “We’ve had a basketball relationship for a while, which has been good. We always just seem to click well. When we came to high school, it was great to be on a team with him. I knew a couple of the other guys growing up, played in rec leagues and stuff like that. It’s great to be here right now senior year, last shot, to be with them.”

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By Rob Parent

Akhir Keys took an in-bounds pass with his team down three points, his packed home gym’s game clock showing 10 seconds, his mind telling him one thing — go get a tie.

Chichester’s long road to a second-half comeback against Unionville looked scripted at that point, and as Keys drove left down the sideline to avoid flailing defenders, all looked right when he pulled up for a good look, attempting another late escape act the senior guard had pulled several times already this season.

Yet Chi’s district title hopes would cruelly go in, then out with the ball.

“If I made that shot,” Keys said, “we probably would have won.”

It was the last best chance for the Eagles, who afterward would get a last-prayer launch from way out, well off the mark at the buzzer, enabling the Longhorns to hold on to a 75-72 victory Saturday in a District 1 Class 5A semifinal thriller.

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By Matt Smith

Sky Newman and Aniya Eberhart proved Saturday why they are one of the best guard tandems in District 1.

Most of the time the Fords can rely on their three forwards to carry the scoring load. It’s a rare sight when Caroline Dotsey gets held to under 15 points, but Saturday was one of those nights for Delaware County’s leading scorer.

Newman and Eberhart are at their best when the team needs a lift on offense.

While Dotsey, her sister Rian and power forward Mollie Carpenter were kept at bay, Eberhart drilled two 3-pointers and Newman provided a basket in the opening quarter of a District 1 Class 6A quarterfinal with No. 10 Springfield. Eberhart and Newman’s contributions set the tone in No. 2 Haverford’s 56-31 win.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

The word that came to mind when watching Jacob Nguyen Friday night was control.

Control for the 6-4 Spring-Ford guard to get shots up over the zone defense that Garnet Valley started with in a District 1 Class 6A quarterfinal. Control to see a GV defender trying to run him off the line, pump-fake and dribble into the lane for a silky jumper. Control to help the Rams come close to shutting out Garnet Valley’s leading scorer, Jake Sniras.

It was part of a thorough controlling of the No. 8 Jaguars, Spring-Ford into the district semifinals with a 56-38 win.

Nguyen supplied 22 points on 9-for-15 shooting, including 5-for-6 from inside the arc, deploying his array of floaters and his uncanny length around the goal.

But more impressive may have been his shadowing of his close friend Sniras. His fellow sophomore entered the game as the Jags’ leading scorer at 17.1 points per game, including four massive points in the second overtime of the Jags’ states-qualifying second-round win over Methacton Tuesday. 

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By Andrew Robinson

Googie Seidman may yet have the last laugh.

If the Haverford senior guard was going to have a chance to pass his older brother John on the program’s all-time scoring list, the Fords were going to need to play a couple more games. John Seidman – the originator of the younger Seidman’s distinctive nickname – has given his little brother plenty of good-natured ribbing about their hierarchy too.

So, Googie Seidman went out and had the best scoring game of his career on Friday, pouring in 36 points as the No. 21 Fords downed No. 20 Abington 66-54 to secure a PIAA bid in their 6A playback bracket game.

“We’re really excited, we still have something to prove,” Seidman said. “We didn’t achieve what we wanted to but luckily, we got into the state tournament so we’re still really hungry.”

Seidman scored the majority of his team’s points but it was far from a one-man show. 

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By Matt Smith

Upper Darby’s modus operandi in preparing to face Lower Merion for the fourth time was to force Aces star Sam Brown to drive to the basket. The Royals couldn’t allow the senior guard roam free on the perimeter.

Suffice to say the plan failed in Friday’s District 1 Class 6A tournament quarterfinal. Brown and the No. 2 Aces had a field day en route to an 88-56 victory over the 10th-seeded Royals.

Lower Merion hosts No. 3 Plymouth Whitemarsh in Tuesday’s semifinal. Upper Darby, which has already clinched a PIAA tournament berth for the first time since 2018, will travel to North Penn in the playback round and will compete for fifth place.

“They outplayed us and they worked harder than us in every aspect of the game. And once we got down, we just stopped playing basketball together,” Royals coach Bob Miller said. “(Brown) hit his first five (3-pointers), I think. Obviously, the game plan is to make him go to the basket instead of just standing there shooting 3s. We don’t know what it is.”

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By Jack McCaffery

The goals were arranged in order, all the better for the check marks of success. There would not be one without the other.

So it was Wednesday with a 55-29 victory over Marple Newtown in the District 1 Class 5A quarterfinals that the Radnor boys basketball team achieved another: A second consecutive trip to the PIAA tournament.

Behind 11 points apiece from Danny Rosenblum and Henry Pierce, the top-seeded Raptors improved to 25-0 and earned a spot in the Saturday’s district semifinals, good for an automatic bid to the tournament.

Though dropping to 12-12, the No. 9-seeded Tigers remained alive and will shuffle into the play-back round Saturday, where a win will return them to states.

“We had two goals,” Radnor coach Jamie Chadwin said. “One was a district championship. The other was a state championship. And you can’t go for the state championship without qualifying for it. So this is a step that way.”

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