Author: delcohoops

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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By Andrew Robinson

Gabby Casey and Olivia Boccella were there for the lows, so they were going to be there to lead Lansdale Catholic to new heights.

Their first year playing together — when Casey was a sophomore and Boccella a freshman — ended with a 2-11 record at Lansdale Catholic. Two years later, they were the top seed in the league and needed one more win to deliver the Crusaders to their first berth in a Catholic League girls basketball title game, so once they got going, nothing was going to stop them.

LC’s core duo combined for 38 points as the No. 1 Crusaders downed No. 4 Archbishop Carroll 53-39 at St. Joseph’s University City campus — formerly the University of the Sciences — Tuesday night in the league semifinals.

“It’s great, we’ve got a great group of girls and everybody loves each other and has each other’s back,” said Casey, a senior. “I think that’s really what pushes us, even when we’re down, and even when we’re up, just in all aspects together and just playing LC basketball, just nothing compares.”

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By Mike Cabrey

Casey Harter kept Garnet Valley at bay until she and the Souderton girls basketball team put it together offensively in third quarter of Wednesday night’s District 1 Class 6A second-round contest.

Harter collected 13 points to send the host No. 4 seed Indians into halftime up four. But after the break, Big Red clamped down the No. 20 Jaguars’ offense while Harter scored the first five of the 9-0 run to push Souderton’s lead into double digits, which would blossom into a 53-31 victory.

“I think we were more focused on offense and defense,” Harter said. “We weren’t playing as a team on defense which is something that we really have to do and I think we were all focused on the same page in the second half and we all brought it together.”

Harter, a Northwestern commit, finished with a game-high 25 points while Erin Bohmueller added 10 points as the Indians (22-4) earned a berth in the PIAA Tournament for the second straight season and the sixth time in seven years.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

Basketball is a game of runs, players tell you often.

There’s a pertinent addendum down Chichester way: Once in a while, it’s a game of zones. And the one the Eagles deploy is as pesky as any around.

Chichester eventually shot its way past the dogged zone defense Holy Ghost Prep employed, then turned on what is becoming a signature 1-3-1 to pull away in the District 1 Class 5A quarterfinals, 71-61, Wednesday night.

The win books Chichester (20-3) its second consecutive trip to the state tournament – otherwise known as its second ever trip to states – and a District 1 semifinals Saturday afternoon at 1 against Unionville. No. 7 Holy Ghost enters playbacks to vie for the remaining two states spots.

A two-point game at halftime, Zaiyin Keys shot over the zone on the first possession of the third to give Chichester a 36-31 edge. He canned a triple early in the fourth, as did Vince Wildrick, off a behind-the-back feed from Maz Sayed to put Chic ahead, 54-45.

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By Bob Grotz

It wasn’t a masterpiece, but Haverford’s 47-29 win over Methacton Wednesday kept the Fords perfect this season and on track to claim the District 1 Class 6A girls title.

Caroline Dotsey scored 18 points to lift the Fords, who take on Springfield Saturday at 6 p.m. in the quarterfinals at Juenger Gymnasium.

“It wasn’t pretty, especially the second half,” Fords coach Lauren Pellicane said. “But I thought we had a really good second quarter that helped us separate ourselves a little bit. We didn’t turn the ball over, we got shots and I think we put 18 points up in the second, and that was the difference in the game. We held on in the second half. It wasn’t clean, we missed some shots but hey, it’s the district tournament. Sometimes that happens. It’s how we respond to it.”

The scrappy Warriors worked hard throughout the first quarter to grab a 12-10 lead on a 50-footer by Cassidy Kropp at the buzzer. Warriors pivot Mairi Smith got the Fords’ attention by blocking their first two shots and scoring five points, including a 3-pointer.

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By Missy Dougherty

“That was the most nervous I have ever been in my life,” Springfield (Delco.) senior Anabel Kreydt said as she described her trip to the free throw line with a tie score and half a second left on the clock in Wednesday night’s District 1 6A second round girls basketball contest between the host Cougars and visiting Conestoga. 

Asked if she had any calming thoughts running through her head with the outcome of the game essentially on her finger tips, Kreydt shared the contents of her internal pep talk.

“I was telling myself you have the whole community behind you,” she said. “Everyone on the bench is into it. You just have to kind of block everything out … think to yourself – confidence, you got this – you only need to make one.” 

Kreydt did indeed come up with the one shot that Springfield needed, as she drained the first of two shots at the line to cap off a 32-31 stirring come-from-behind victory by the hosts.

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