Marple Newtown’s Bryan Bogen, left, congratulates Matt Gardler after he hit a free throw to essentially ice the game against Sun Valley Friday night.(Pete Bannan – MediaNews Group)
By Matthew DeGeorge
Everybody in the gym at Sun Valley Friday night assumed, with less than a minute to play and the Vanguards trailing by three, that the ball would find its way to Chris Kwaidah.
Unfortunately for the Vanguards, that number included Marple Newtown’s Matt Gardler, the one player with the ability to stop it from happening.
For all of Gardler’s outstanding offense in a 23-point outing, it was a defensive moment – jumping the passing lane, getting fouled and making two free throws – that iced No. 9 seed Marple’s 53-50 win over No. 8 Sun Valley to open the District 1 Class 5A tournament.
“He was on fire the whole game,” Gardler said of Kwaidah. “He couldn’t miss a shot. I knew after I saw the flare screen coming that I didn’t want him to get the ball and shoot that final shot and have someone else shoot it. I just jumped the pass.”