Author: delcohoops

By Tim Hindin

It took quite a sequence of events for Academy Park’s Nakim Stokes to hit the game-winning layup in Friday night’s District 1-AAAA ninth place game against Hatboro-Horsham.

With about 40 seconds left and leading by two points, all the Hatters had to do was hold the ball and take a trip to the free line to win the game. But Academy Park’s high-pressure defense forced a turnover, as it had all game, and that led to a run out lay to Stokes to tie the game.

“I think our last eight possessions, seven of them were turnovers,” Hatboro-Horsham coach Ed Enoch said. “When we had to make plays we didn’t. Give them credit, they made plays when they had to and we didn’t.”

The pressure of the Knights won again on the next possession as Stokes hit another layup very similar to the first that put Academy Park up 72-70 with seven seconds left.

“We were getting the pace going, we were getting turnovers, we were just (giving up) so many easy layups,” Academy Park coach Allen Brydges said. “I just said to my assistant coach I got to go home and watch the last 45 seconds because I don’t even know what happened.”

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By Pete Schnatz

In the postgame tranquility beneath the Liacouras Center Tuesday night, Stanley Davis required only a matter-of-fact inflection.
“Chester is back,” the senior guard said, minutes after spearheading Chester’s 74-62 triumph over Ridley in a District One Class AAAA semifinal.
Its return to the district’s elite after a one-year sabbatical is without question. And it’s fitting that one of the longest-entrenched members of the group provides the welcoming party for what the Clippers hope is a championship reintroduction.
No. 9 seed Chester will chase its 25th District One title Friday night at Temple University against No. 2 Plymouth Whitemarsh. Tipoff is at 8 p.m.
The rankings and records seem to indicate a favorite. But drill down to the teams’ cores and you may find those figures deceiving.
Since Jan. 1, Chester (20-6) has fewer losses, winning 18 of its last 19. Only the Clippers boast four double-digit postseason wins, none a particularly close scrape. Plymouth Whitemarsh (24-2), with its four-point survival against Academy Park in the second round and its one-possession revenge on Central Bucks West in the semis, can’t stake such a claim.
Their semifinal advancements contrasted sharply. Where PW suffocated Lower Merion and put them away at the free throw line in a ragged 53-42 win, Chester sailed past Ridley, never allowing the Green Raiders closer than eight points in the final 14 minutes.
The teams’ history is weighty. Plymouth Whitemarsh, which last won districts with the John Salmons-led 1998 squad, has lost in the final three times since, including last season to Abington. It dropped the final in 2010 (in overtime to Penn Wood, which it then avenged in the PIAA final) and in 2007 to Chester, 70-62.

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By Matthew De George

With the benefit of hindsight, instances of promise were obvious in Delco Christian’s up-and-down season. Few shone as brightly as the Jan. 6 encounter with Phil-Mont Christian.

Shorthanded due to injuries, the Knights hung tight with the Falcons — who were then soaring toward Bicentennial League supremacy — in a 79-70 setback.

The Knights can rectify that near-miss Saturday at noon, when they play for the District One Class A title against top-seeded Phil-Mont at Council Rock South High.

Though the vagaries of the Bicentennial’s hodgepodge membership makes district seeding notoriously unreliable, there’s little doubting that Phil-Mont deserved the No. 1 ranking. The Falcons are riding a 24-game winning streak, last losing to Church Farm Dec. 10, the only blemish on a 27-1 record.

Phil-Mont trounced No. 4 Collegium Charter, 67-34, in Tuesday’s semifinal, booking passage to states.

The Falcons are a daunting matchup. They play fast with four players averaging in double-figures, led by 6-foot-8 forward Sean Griffin’s 15.5 points per game. The length of 6-foot-5 Osaze Thornton and 6-foot-4 David Giuliani create problems, while senior guard Noah Baldez helps keep all the offensive horses pulling in the same direction.

Delco Christian, however, is no stranger to the underdog drill. As the No. 4 seed last year, it upset No. 1 Christopher Dock in double-overtime in the semis to get to states before handling Jenkintown, 50-41, in the final.

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Stanley Davis Jr., one of two Chester players to record a double-double, drives for a basket in the third quarter of the Clippers’ 74-62 win over Ridley in Tuesday night’s District One Class AAAA semifinal at Temple University’s Liacouras Center. (Digital First Media/Pete Bannan)

By Matthew De George

Nearly 14 months ago, Chester’s 2014-15 boys basketball season crumpled to the ground against Plymouth Whitemarsh.

Without Khaleeq Campbell, who tore his ACL at Widener University Dec. 29, 2014, the Clippers were a rudderless ship, lacking a vocal leader and the true point guard to orchestrate an arsenal of talented but youthful talents needing on-court stability and direction.

Fast forward to the present — to a Chester team a day from renewing acquaintances with PW in Friday’s District One Class AAAA title game — and having Campbell sit the bench for foul trouble or a brief rest still isn’t viewed as ideal. But where last year Campbell’s absence invited chaos, this year, it’s just another sub in the 12-man rotation.

One major reason for that shift is Stanley Davis.

Davis’ ability was on full display Tuesday in No. 9 seed Chester’s 74-62 handling of No. 4 Ridley in the semifinals, powered by Davis’ 16 points and 10 rebounds. The game pivoted on a 10-4 run to finish the first half (part of a 19-6 spurt bridging the interval) that turned a tight game into one where Chester never trailed by fewer than eight. Davis fueled the distancing as Campbell sat with two fouls in a whistle-marred first stanza.

“Right now, he’s playing a little bit better with his head than with his heart, because he’s a Chester guy,” coach Larry Yarbray said. “He’ll give you 120 percent. He’s going all out, he wants to win so bad, he’s trying everything, and sometimes he tries to do it by himself. But he’s slowing down a little bit and making good decisions.”

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By Dennis C. Way

Last year Plymouth Whitemarsh High’s basketball team got a taste of the pressure, the pace and yes, the fun of the PIAA District One Class AAAA playoffs.
This year, the Colonials want to see the gold medal.
They moved one step closer Tuesday night with a 53-42 win over Lower Merion in a contest that gave the championship hopefuls a mouthful of what it takes to win it all.
With the victory, the Colonials moved into the district final, where they’ll play the winner of Tuesday’s second semifinal between Chester and Ridley.
And to their credit, the Colonials looked in the face of some early adversity and responded just like a seasoned team should – with calm when it was needed, with explosiveness when it was needed and with the look of a team that knew what it will take.
“Last year, at this point in the season (the Colonials) were still cheering on the bench,” said Colonials head coach Jim Donofrio. “We were happy to be here.
“This year these guys have that confidence. It’s there.”
There was reason for it not to be.
The Aces rattled the Colonials early with full-court pressure, and PW did not respond favorably.
“We were so awesomely bad,” Donofrio said. “When you’re a team that traps and presses, teams tend not to trap and press you.”
But PW would not stay dazzled.
Instead, they overcame their early shakiness, and came back strong, primarily behind the scoring of Xavier Malone.

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Hatboro-Horsham’s Jay Davis goes up for a shot past Pennridge’s Stephen Lowry during their game on Tuesday, Feb 23, 2016. (Bob Raines/Digital First Media)

By Mike Cabrey

After winning as many games as it lost in the regular season, the Hatboro-Horsham boys basketball team has found something that works in the District 1-AAAA Tournament.

“We always had the talent, but it was kind of like selfishness. Now, we’re starting to play as a team,” Hatters junior Clifton Moore said. “Everybody’s getting an even distribution of points and we’re trusting each other.”

And after Tuesday night, Hatboro-Horsham now finds itself in PIAA postseason play for the first time in 13 seasons after knocking off its third top-eight seeded team in districts, this time Suburban One League Continental Conference rival Pennridge.

Brian McEachern’s layup in the final minute of the 9th/10th place semifinal put the Hatters up one while a Davis steal led to two free throws for a three-point edge with 12.4 seconds left. The Rams had a look at a game-tying three, but the shot hit iron and visiting Hatboro-Horsham held on for a 46-43 victory.

“We’re back on the map,” Moore said. “We got the guys, we got the guys. We plan on going far in states, too.”

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Stanley Davis Jr., one of two Chester players to record a double-double, drives for a basket in the third quarter of the Clippers’ 74-62 win over Ridley in Tuesday night’s District One Class AAAA semifinal at Temple University’s Liacouras Center. (Digital First Media/Pete Bannan)

By Matthew De George

A junior by age and a battle-hardened veteran by reputation, Jamar Sudan grasped quickly the gameplan points the Chester coaching staff were drilling home this week.

It took all of one possession for the forward to put them into action, setting the tone for an authoritative Clippers performance.

Sudan was one of two Clippers with double-doubles, scoring 16 points to go with 11 rebounds in pacing No. 9 Chester to a 74-62 win over No. 4 Ridley in a District One Class AAAA semifinal at Temple University.

The win moves Chester (20-6) into Friday’s final against No. 2 Plymouth Whitemarsh, which downed Lower Merion, 53-42, in the first semi. The final is 8 p.m. at the Liacouras Center.

Sudan set the tone immediately, attacking the hoop off the bounce for a pair of old-fashioned three-point plays to tally Chester’s first six points. Even though the foul trouble that plagued a whistle-happy affair encroached on him in the second quarter, he stayed true to his coaches’ mantra.

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Khaleeq Campbell (above) and Chester will play Plymouth-Whitemarsh on Friday night for the District 1 AAAA Championship. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

By Jeff Griffith & Kyle Loedel

After one surprising “down” year where Chester didn’t make the PIAA state playoffs for the first time in over two decades, the Clippers are proving the orange and black is still very much a force in southeastern Pennsylvania boys’ basketball.

A 74-62 District 1 AAAA semifinal victory over the fourth-seeded Ridley Raiders Tuesday night at the Liacouras Center, has put No. 9 Chester within one win of adding another district title to a trophy case that already includes 11 of them.

This, of course, is just one year removed from an underwhelming finish for Chester; the 2014-15 Clippers ducked out early in last year’s district playoffs and fell two wins short of locking up a state bid.

It wasn’t a horrible season by any means, especially factoring in the loss of point guard Khaleeq Campbell in mid-Decemebr to a season-ending injury. It just wasn’t the Chester people are used to.

However, Tuesday night was a bit more remnant of the Clippers that have ruled district one over the past several decades.

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