Author: delcohoops

By Matthew DeGeorge

Conversations about separate PIAA championships for public and private schools, no matter how vociferous the proponents, have always reached the same dead end.

Pennsylvania’s General Assembly, so goes the well-worn logic, would never allow it. The legislature, via Act 219 of 1972, bound together private and public schools under the PIAA; any procedural decoupling of state champs runs counter to that law, by letter or spirit, and opens the threat of litigation or worse.

This week, a maneuver to remove that legislative impediment has presented itself.

State Representative Scott Conklin (D-77) of Centre County intends to propose a bill that would amend that statute in a way that could give the PIAA the ability to crown separate champions.

“One of the reasons we’re doing that is that the PIAA has said that they’re worried that they’d be open to litigation if they pursued this,” Conklin told the Daily Times Thursday. “By passing this piece of legislation, we (would) now allow the PIAA to set these tournaments up, that they can’t be litigated against.”

(click on this link for the full story)

By Matthew DeGeorge

No matter how hard Penncrest tries, there is no happy ending, just heartbreak, when it plays Lower Merion.And so, it was here Wednesday night.

Instead of losing dramatically at the buzzer, which is where the series was stuck for the last handful of games, the Lions welcomed the final buzzer as the Aces put together a game for the ages to win their third straight Central League championship.

Jack Forrest scored a game-high 17 points, Steve Payne contributed a dozen points and seven assists and Josh Martin added 10 points and 12 rebounds to lead Lower Merion to a runaway 63-31 triumph, the Aces’ sixth Central League title in eight years.

What was left of the partisan crowd began singing Queen’s “We Are the Champions” with much too much time left on this school night.

(click on this link for the full story)

Webmaster’s note: The Central League Boy’s Championship game between Lower Merion and Springfield 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 Matt Smith

In terms of size and all-around skill, few teams in the area can match up with Garnet Valley.

Certainly, the Emily McAteer-Brianne Borcky combo has presented nightmares to many teams ever since the four-year varsity standouts were freshmen. Just one Central League team — Springfield — has figured out a way to beat Garnet Valley during that span.

In last year’s Central League final, Springfield capitalized on several Garnet Valley turnovers (14 of them after the first quarter), hit timely shots and held McAteer and Borcky to a quiet 15 points each. The result? Garnet Valley’s incredible streak of four consecutive Central League championships was over, and Springfield’s reign had begun.

“We never forgot last year,” McAteer said Wednesday, “and ever since the first day of practice, we did everything we could to get it back.”

The Jags’ comeback mission, initiated in offseason open gyms, was completed Wednesday night at Harriton. GV’s all-senior starting lineup of McAteer, Borcky, Jillian Nagy, Morgan Falcone and Madi McKee captured their third Central League title with a 57-52 victory.

Webmaster’s note: The Central League Girl’s Championship game between Springfield and Garnet Valley 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.

(click on this link for the full story)

 

 

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By Matthew DeGeorge

The 2019 PIAA Class 6A tournament will take place without one of the stars of the 2018 postseason.

Roman Catholic guard Lynn Greer III is ineligible for the tournament after an application for a hardship waiver was rejected, according to several officials with the PIAA.

Though Roman Catholic is still exploring legal avenues around the ruling, the PIAA’s stance is that the star guard is ineligible for district and inter-district competition. He can play for the Cahillites as they pursue a second straight Philadelphia Catholic League title, in which they open play as the top seed Friday. But he is ineligible for the District 12 placement game and for the PIAA tournament.

The 6-3 junior point guard transferred last spring to Oak Hill Academy, a national basketball power and boarding school in Virginia. But he never settled in there and returned to Roman before the 2018-19 season began without playing a game for Oak Hill.

(click on this link for the full story)

  

By Delcohoops.com Staff

The PIAA District One Playoff brackets are set.  Click on the PIAA logo (or click on the PIAA logo above) on the right border to see the brackets for 2, 4, 5 & 6.  We will update them at the games are played!

 

By Matthew DeGeorge

When Ridley finished Tuesday’s loss to Lower Merion, it found itself outside the District 1 Class 6A playoffs, in 25th place for a 24-team field.

After Friday’s win against KIPP-DuBois, added at the last minute to give the Green Raiders a full 22-game schedule, the Green Raiders had bounded into 24th.

Now, it appears that the Green Raiders are once again on the outside looking in.

Due to a discrepancy in opponents’ records for the purposes of calculating bonus points, Ridley is back in 25th place, per the rankings on the District 1 website as of Sunday evening.

As of press time Sunday, brackets for the District 1 boys basketball fields in all six classifications were not released, pending verification and finalization of records. The information is slated to be released Monday, and pending review, will be made official.

The updated district rankings have Ridley, at 13-9, again dropping below North Penn (9-13) in the race for the final berth in the District 1 Class 6A field. The difference, aside from four games in a traditional set of standings, is a margin of 0.101 power points, giving the Knights the edge.

(click on this link for the full story)

By Matthew DeGeorge

Listening to Ny’mire Little talk, his hands gesticulating and eyes wide with intensity, it’s hard to believe energy would ever be something the Archbishop Carroll guard would lack. But Sunday afternoon, as Little so passionately described, the general intensity of his Patriots in their regular-season finale at Cardinal O’Hara wasn’t at the elevated, sustained level he wanted.

So when given the chance to alter the trajectory of the game, Little and his backcourt mate Kiyl Mack made it happen with a dose of electricity.

The duo combined for 15 of Carroll’s 19 fourth-quarter points, including the decisive run early in the final frame that the Patriots rode to a 72-70 Catholic League win.

With the victory, Carroll (13-9, 9-5) clinches the seventh seed in the Catholic League playoffs. It’ll host Father Judge Wednesday in the opening round, denied a bye to the quarterfinals only by Archbishop Wood’s buzzer-beating win over Archbishop Ryan Sunday.

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

By Matthew DeGeorge

It was a small sequence with two minutes left in a game that had been decided, but it still illustrated the unrelenting control Malcolm Williams and Isaiah Rice exerted for Penncrest Saturday.On one end, Williams stole the ball from a Conestoga player, then dished to Rice, who was fouled. Rice hit the first free throw, missed the second, only for Williams to scoop up the rebound, get hacked and head back to the line.

Those free throws helped salt away a 54-46 win for Penncrest in the Central League semifinal at Marple Newtown, booking the second-seeded Lions (17-5) a spot in Monday night’s championship game against regular-season champion Lower Merion (7:45 at Harriton).

Rice and Williams accounted for 17 of the Lions’ 19 fourth-quarter points. On both ends of the court, whether via Williams’ varied offensive game or Rice’s court vision or their collective muzzling of Conestoga leading scorer Zach Lezanic, the pair dictated the game.

(click on this link for the full story)

Webmaster’s note: The Central League Boy’s Championship basketball game on February 11th will be broadcast LIVE right here on Delcohoops.com. Pre-game begins at 7:45 PM.

By Matt Smith

As Jordan D’Ambrosio played on one good ankle Saturday, Springfield teammate Belle Mastropietro erred on the side of caution.

D’Ambrosio took a hard fall to the floor, but kept going after Haverford at less than 100 percent. Mastropietro picked up her fourth foul early in the third quarter, even though the officials called for a foul she didn’t commit on two occasions.

For three quarters, it was an agonizing, crummy, day for Springfield’s senior captains.

So, it wasn’t a big surprise the Cougars were involved in another defensive and low-scoring slugfest with Haverford, the second year in a row the teams clashed in the Central League semifinals at Marple Newtown. D’Ambrosio and Mastropietro weren’t in tip-top form, but Springfield came back to win, 33-30, and will take on No. 1 Garnet Valley for the league championship Monday at Harriton.

(click on this link for the full story)

Webmaster’s note: The Central League Girl’s Championship basketball game on February 11th will be broadcast LIVE right here on Delcohoops.com. Pre-game begins at 5:45 PM.

By Matthew DeGeorge

Christian Ray scored 19 points, in the process becoming Haverford School’s all-time leading scorer and leading the Fords to a 51-46 win over Camden Saturday.

Ray has 1,578 points in his three seasons with the Fords, the All-Delco and La Salle commit passing Henry Fairfax for first on the school’s list. He’s led the Fords to back-to-back Inter-Ac League titles and helped them finish the regular season Saturday with a 24-0 record.

Jameer Nelson Jr. added 13 points. Jameel Brown tossed in 10 points, and Asim Richards added nine for the Fords, who trailed by seven at halftime.

In the Bicentennial League:

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