Category: Latest News

 

By Andrew Robinson

Quickly, Alexis Eberz thought of the photo.

It’s a bit of an extended family picture at Finneran Pavilion on one of the first trips to Villanova she can vividly remember all the details of.

“It’s us with the former coach at Villanova, Harry (Peretta), we were little, like really little,” Eberz said. “I think I was in second grade. That’s the first one I really remember.”

She certainly won’t forget the details of her latest trip, Alexis and her sister Kayla turning back the clock and putting in another vintage Eberz performance on the Finn’s hardwood Monday night.

Alexis scored 30 points, 26 of them after halftime, and Kayla added 16 as No. 3 Archbishop Carroll stopped No. 2 Archbishop Wood’s dreams of a Philadelphia Catholic League repeat with a 57-45 win over the Vikings in the PCL semifinals.

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By Olivia Valania

“Get revenge,” said freshman Archbishop Carroll guard Kayla Eberz. 

A year ago, Eberz sat in the stands of the Palestra and watched her sister Alexis Eberz and the Carroll team suffer a tough loss in the double-overtime stunner 2024 PCL Championship game against Archbishop Wood. 

Monday night, with Eberz now joining her older sister on the court, it was Carroll who came out on top in a 57-45 victory over Archbishop Wood in the 2025 PCL Semifinals at Villanova’s Finneran Pavilion. 

This punched the Patriots a ticket to yet another Catholic League final. However, they do not want a repeat of last year. They know that full “revenge” cannot come until they walk out of the historic Palestra crowned as champions.

“Our goal is to win at the Palestra,” said Eberz. “Watching last year’s game, seeing how it ended. We want to win this and get it back.”

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By Josh Verlin

The Catholic League semifinals are set. 

The PCL quarterfinals on both the boys and girls’ sides went almost all chalk, with the only upset coming as girls’ No. 5 Cardinal O’Hara pulled out an overtime win at No. 4 Lansdale Catholic on Thursday evening. That sets up four fantastic matchups next week: the girls’ semifinals on Monday at Villanova’s Finneran Pavilion and the boy’s semifinals on Wednesday at the Palestra. 

The PCL championships will be that following Sunday, Feb. 23, at the Palestra. 

Here’s a look at all four PCL semifinals: 

Girls’ Semifinals: Mon., Feb. 17, Villanova University
1) Neumann-Goretti vs. 5) Cardinal O’Hara (6:00 PM)

It’s been a decade since Neumann-Goretti’s last hoisted the Catholic League championship trophy, the Saints winning back-to-back years in 2014-15 for the program’s first title since the 1970s. But Andrea Peterson’s squad finds itself the favorites entering the semifinals after going unbeaten in the regular season. That includes a 51-50 win over O’Hara back in December, which saw Neumann-Goretti overcome a three-point deficit in the final minute to pull off the win on its home court. 

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By Matt Smith

Chester High senior Ja’Mya Muhammad is well aware of her team’s tendency to start games at a slower pace.

“We tend to start off slow instead of already being fast from the jump,” Muhammad said. “After we see what we are working with, we just play. We do what we do best.”

What the Del Val League champion Clippers do best is push the tempo, using their speed and relentless energy to wear down opponents. That’s exactly what 12th-seeded Chester executed in Friday’s District 1 Class 6A first-round matchup against No. 21 Methacton. After a sluggish opening quarter, the Clippers shifted into high gear, turning up the pace and surging to a 57-47 victory.

Chester (19-4) will travel to fifth-seeded Downingtown East for a second-round game Wednesday at 6 p.m.

Friday’s win was the Chester girls basketball program’s first district playoff victory since the 2008-09 season.

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By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)

Neither Springfield (Delco.) nor Unionville are strangers to low-scoring, grind-it-out type games. 

The two opponents in Friday’s District 1 5A first-round game could have been looking in the mirror: not the most laden with talent in the district but determined to out-tough and out-work anybody they come against. Even if it doesn’t look pretty. 

“It felt like we were playing ourselves, kind of,” Springfield sophomore TJ Valletti said.

The result wasn’t pretty: it was low-scoring and grind-it-out indeed, possessions long and buckets few and far between.

It ultimately came down to which team made winning plays — and on this particular night, it was Springfield (Delco.). With Valletti and his Cougar teammates controlling the boards and locking down defensively, Springfield survived Unionville, 37-28 to keep its season going. 

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By Josh Verlin
Ella Stinger was super-nervous before the biggest game yet of her high school career, the 2025 Bicentennial Athletic League championship game. Addie Smith made sure that she had nothing to be worried about. 

The Delco Christian senior wing came out firing and hitting, her four straight 3-pointers getting the Knights off to a hot start they never looked back from in a 53-36 win over Renaissance Charter in the 2025 Bicentennial Athletic League championship game. 

Less than two hours after the Delco Christian boys won their first-ever BAL title, the girls followed suit, with Smith and Stinger leading the way. 

“A lot of hard work built up to it,” Stinger said. “I felt sick to my stomach in the beginning, I was like ‘oh my gosh,’ I was very nervous.”

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By Matthew DeGeorge

Ryan Keating has played with Matt Gardler long enough to know when the time is coming.

Much as Gardler, the 1,000-point scoring guard, finds getting his teammates involved to be his primary role, there are games that demand he call his own number and simply be the best basketball player on the floor. Keating can sense when those stretches are about to arrive, and he knows what he and his Marple teammates must do to complement Gardler’s star turns.

In Friday’s District 1 Class 5A opener, the time dawned in the third quarter, Gardler pouring in 12 of his game-high 23 points to put away No. 12 Strath Haven, 64-40.

“He just starts hitting shots, and you can tell he’s in rhythm,” Keating said of Gardler. “So, you know, give him the ball if he’s open, just help him do what he does.”

The win sends fifth-seeded Marple (18-7) into next Wednesday’s quarterfinals at No. 4 Upper Moreland, with a states berth on the line.

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By Matt Smith

When Olivia Gicking finds her rhythm early, it usually bodes well for the Marple Newtown girls basketball team.

The sophomore guard wasted no time making an impact in the first quarter Saturday, pouring in 10 points in the quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers, to set the tone in a District 1 Class 5A tournament first-round matchup at Sun Valley. Gicking finished with a game-high 21 points, leading the ninth-seeded Tigers to a 55-46 victory over the No. 8 Vanguards.

“I think it just helps me calm down a little and gives us energy,” said Gicking, who shot 5-of-12 from the field and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line.

But Gicking wasn’t the only one with the hot hand for the Tigers (11-12).

Freshman Evie Grimste proved she was more than ready for the moment in her first district playoff game. With both teams struggling to take care of the ball in the second quarter, Grimste provided a spark, knocking down all three of her shots in the period, including a triple and an and-1 play. She scored eight of her 11 points in the quarter, helping to keep the Tigers steady at a critical juncture.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

For the seventh time in eight seasons, Chester is the Del Val champion. But something about this year’s group looks different.

Namely, it’s the two freshmen logging vital minutes.

When crunch time arrived last week against Penn Wood, coach Keith Taylor had no qualms about turning to freshmen Ramee Davis and Zahir Clayton. More often than not this year, they’ve delivered.

They’ll need more of that in the District 1 Class 6A tournament, where Chester is the No. 15 seed, opening the tourney Friday night by hosting No. 18 Downingtown West.

Clayton, a shifty guard with good defensive instincts and the ability to catch-and-shoot, has worked his way into the starting lineup.

Davis, who doesn’t look like a freshman with his long strides and on-ball strength, is part of the closing unit. He supplied eight fourth-quarter points in a 54-46 win over Penn Wood, helping ensure the Clippers a first-round home game.

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By Matt Smith

Since their historic 2019 season, when coach Joe Woods guided Garnet Valley to its first District 1 championship and a trip to Hershey for the PIAA Class 6A final, the Jaguars haven’t been this equipped – both in talent and experience – for a deep postseason run.

The second-seeded Jags are battle-tested and stand above most of their competition in the District 1 Class 6A tournament, which gets under way Friday. Top-seeded Perkiomen Valley (21-3), the reigning two-time district champion, looms as Garnet Valley’s toughest potential test, provided both teams can navigate to a district final showdown Feb. 28 at Saint Joseph’s Hagan Arena. But there’s plenty of work to be done before that becomes a reality.

Even on off nights – like Monday’s Central League final against Conestoga, where its shooting faltered most of the game – Garnet Valley has still found ways to win, rallying from a seven-point deficit in the second half. Now, the focus shifts to a bigger goal of claiming a second district title in six years.

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