Author: delcohoops

By Todd Orodenker

A 16-win turnaround from last season meant very little once Strath Haven tipped off with Hatboro-Horsham. So did the seed difference.

Eighth-seeded Strath Haven was beaten — and beaten soundly — by No. 25 Hatboro-Horsham, 68-46, Friday in the first round of the District One Class AAAA tournament. The Hatters advance to play No. 9 Chester next week. The Panthers, despite a remarkable turnaround campaign, are finished.

Hatboro-Horsham (12-11) led 19-7 after the first quarter and 30-19 at halftime. Standout forward Clifton Moore had 28 points, including five 3-pointers. His 6-foot-7 frame helped take care of Strath Haven’s 6-foot-8 beast John Harrar, and teammate Jay Davis did the rest, dropping 22 points, including a handful of breakaway dunks.

“(Moore) played really well, they’re a very well-coached team,” Panthers coach Dave McFadden explained. “I thought they got the shots they wanted, they hit (their shots). The three bomb was our Achilles Heel earlier in the season in one of our other losses — they did their homework.”

Strath Haven (19-5) came out much more aggressive in the second half and got the deficit down to single digits at a few junctures. With each hoop, momentum looked like it could be turning. But before anything could even get close, Moore would hit a big shot.

This happened six different times during the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter. Strath Haven could never get back into the contest.

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By CoBL Staff

In addition to CoBL’s game coverage, here are several other notes and results from around the first night of the District 1 AAAA playoffs:

Top seeds survive upsets
District 1 looked wide-open heading into the 2016 postseason, and the first night of the playoffs certainly seemed to feed right into that notion. Only one of the top six seeds lost, with Abington losing to Upper Dublin, but Coatesville and Ridley barely survived tough contests on their home floor.

The Raiders, who just won the Ches-Mont league title and have only one blemish on their record, barely survived against Bensalem, the No. 32 seed. Trailing 40-39 with just 13 seconds left, Justus Martinez scored a bucket in the paint to give Coatesville the lead.

Then, one stop and two free throws later, the Raiders survived with a 43-40 win to grab their third consecutive win by four points or less. Coatesville will take on CB East Tuesday night.

(click on this link for the full article)

By Bob Grotz

Larry Yarbray has been surrounded by remarkable talent as a coach, a player and on the playgrounds of the City of Chester.

Which brings us to the Campbells.

Khaleeq Campbell put on a defensive clinic Friday night enabling ninth-seeded Chester High to cruise to a 53-27 win over No. 24 seed Council Rock North in District One Class AAAA basketball.

The Clippers (17-6) limited their opponent to just five points — yes, points — in the second half largely due to Campbell’s in-your-shirt D on Riley Thompson, who scored 13 points in the first half.

Yarbray wasn’t surprised to learn Khaleeq is a cousin of Lamar Campbell, who grew up here and played five seasons with the Detroit Lions where he was, you’ve got it, a solid defender.

“Lamar’s a buddy of mine,” Yarbray said. “He played a little bit of rec ball, nothing that serious. Does he remind me of (Khaleeq)? Defensively, yeah. Quick to the ball, keeps guys in front of him.

“I’m not going to say there’s a parallel. But I’ll say this, it’s in their blood. They’re very good. Not just pretty good, very good.”

The Clippers scored the first 11 points on their way to their 15th victory in their last 16 starts.

The Indians (13-10) pulled within 25-20 late in the second quarter on a couple of three-pointers by Thompson, who has the exaggerated Steph Curry follow-through, and a bucket by Will Desautelle.

(click on this link for the full article)

By Josh Verlin

Park head coach Allen Brydges looked at the Upper Merion sideline at halftime and saw exactly what he wanted to see.

The Vikings were exhausted, searching for breath after going up against the Knights’ full-court press for the opening 16 minutes of the teams’ District 1 AAAA playoff first-round matchup on UM’s home court.

Eventually, Brydges knew, that would pay off.

“When we were walking into the locker room at halftime, I thought they were dead,” Brydges said. “We knew at some point our press would give us that run we needed, that little run we had–we knew it was coming, it was just a matter of getting it.”

Though No. 15 Upper Merion weathered the storm well into the fourth quarter, that press finally got to them down the stretch as No. 18 Academy Park pulled off the 53-51 road win.

(click on this link for the full article)

By Ed Morlock

It was not as pretty as the final score may make it look, but the Plymouth Whitemarsh boys basketball team survived the first round of the District 1-AAAA playoffs.

The Colonials beat Radnor, 49-36, Friday night at Colonial Elementary.

“I’m not quite sure what to think,” Colonials coach Jim Donofrio said. “I thought we had a great set of practices. All you can do as a team is get as up as you can – get yourself in the right frame of mind. We seem to be the kind of team that really needs to be on edge and humbled. We seem to be a team that isn’t worthy of believing it should win strong, because we lay eggs when we do that. We seem to relax.

“If we really want to do something special this playoff run, with six seniors on the floor and a kid like Ahmin Williams, who acts like a senior, to have that kind of experience, and you’re home and you have 400 of your closest friends supporting you, you can’t be thrilled with that performance because you got out-hustled on the boards, you got beat to balls, you seemed to be playing to style instead of substance. And you still won by double digits. If that continues this is going to end quickly.”

PW led by one, 24-23, with three minutes left in the third quarter before taking control of game and setting up a second-round home date with Academy Park Tuesday.

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By Matthew De George

Terrell Jones knew why he didn’t start Friday’s District One Class AAAA first-round game.

The Lower Merion forward may not have understood but accepted why he played sparingly in the third quarter. And he couldn’t recall how many shots he’d taken in his unusually disjointed time on the court.

But by the time the ball found its way unsteadily into his hands on an inbounds with 6.7 seconds left in overtime, none of that mattered.

Jones nailed a 28-footer from the top of the key with 2.2 seconds to play, leading No. 11 Lower Merion to a 68-66 win over No. 22 Penn Wood.

(click on this link for the full article)

 

The Saints poured in 36 points in the first quarter to end the Friars’ run in the Catholic League playoffs.

Zane Martin scored a game-high 26 points to lead the Saints. Quade Green added 22 points and the pair combined to hit 10 3-pointers.

John Hargraves scored 16 points for the Friars. Theo Ijeboi chipped in 13 points.

 

By CoBL Staff

The District 1 AAAA playoffs are here, with all 32 teams opening first-round play on Friday night at the higher seeds’ home courts.

Here is everything you need to know about the three-week tournament, which has no fewer than seven or eight teams with realistic championship possibilities–and a few who could make deep runs in the state bracket as boot. A full 10 teams from the bracket–which can be seen in its entirety here–will advance to the PIAA tournament: the eight quarterfinalists plus two others from the eight teams who lose in the second round.

We’ll have our previews of the District 1 Class A/AAA and Class AA brackets, which begin Feb. 19 and Feb. 23 respectively, out next week.

Path to the Final Four
Let’s take a look at each of the top four seeds and see who’s got the toughest road into the semifinals at Temple.

(click here to see the full preview)

By Matthew De George

When Dave McFadden talked to his Strath Haven players for the first time late last spring, he wasted no time addressing the elephant in the room.

“Coach from the minute he came in said, I know what y’all did last year; we’re going to leave that in the past and start fresh right here,” point guard Jahmeir Springfield said Tuesday. “That’s one thing he emphasized.”

So in that spirit, let’s get the background out of the way quickly: McFadden’s first head coaching job was to take over a team that went 3-19 last season, 5-39 over the past two under coach Tom Dougherty. They endured a 19-game losing streak in the Central League around a winless league slate in 2013-14.

That history, no matter how maddening, was just that. There was no changing it, McFadden told his group. The only alternative was to prevent history from repeating itself.

One win at a time, McFadden’s bunch has suppressed any hint that this is substantially the same group that endured last year’s pains. That path leads them to Friday’s first-round District One Class AAAA contest in which No. 25 seed Hatboro-Horsham visits the No. 8 Panthers.

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