Ridley’s Luke Showalter, left, runs up court after a basket against Upper Darby in a game last season. (Pete Bannan – MediaNews Group)
By Matthew DeGeorge
You might not look at what Ridley’s boys basketball team had endured the last two years and expect them to come up with winning plays away from home.
But the underclassmen that toiled through a five-win season last year and a 2-18 campaign in 2021-22 are better for those tribulations. And with a change of voice, a program that won just one of its last 32 Central League games the last two years already has two this young season.
Behind Austin McCaughan’s shooting and Luke Showalter’s half-court headiness, Ridley outlasted Upper Darby, 66-61, Thursday in a battle of teams finding their footing early.
There’s still plenty on that to-do list for Ridley (2-4, 2-3 Central) under first-year head coach Allen Brydges. But the Green Raiders’ ability to navigate a fourth quarter in which neither team led by more than one possession and overtime without a turnover speaks volume to the value of experience.
Brydges, the long-time head coach at Academy Park and a former assistant of Upper Darby boss Bob Miller, only took over in the fall, with little time to install new concepts. Much of the early development owes to a refreshed mindset and strengthened bonds in a senior-laden huddle, in a league where most teams are building anew.
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