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By Matt Smith

Garnet Valley has walked around with a target on its back for a long time. The team to beat in the Central League had won four consecutive league titles and had lost only one game to a conference foe since the beginning of the 2015-16 campaign.

Springfield was tired of seeing Garnet Valley win and wanted to do something about it. The Cougars believed it was their time.

It’s not a coincidence that a Ky McNichol-led Springfield team was the last to defeat Garnet Valley. You have to go back to Dec. 22, 2015, when McNichol was in her second year coaching the Cougars. In her rookie season she won six games. The next season, within its first month, McNichol was the coach responsible for ending Garnet Valley’s then-38-game winning streak in the Central League.

Could the Cougars do it again Tuesday night at Harriton, with the Central League title at stake? You bet.

(click on this link for the full story)

Webmaster’s note: The Garnet Valley vs Springfield game was our Game-of-the-Week and can be heard on our Archives link by clicking on the player below.

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By Josh Verlin

When Lower Merion won the Central League championship a year ago, there was no need for any heroics, as the Aces took home a 22-point victory over Strath Haven in a game which was basically over midway through the third quarter.

Defending the title was not nearly so easy.

The league’s regular-season champion, Penncrest gave Lower Merion all it could handle on Tuesday night, in a game that was tied at the end of the second and third quarters, and tied with 30 seconds left after the Lions’ star senior Tyler Norwood finished a tough bucket in the lane.

But Lower Merion was not to be denied.

Junior guard Steve Payne’s drive to the hoop with under three seconds left proved to be the difference-maker, as the Aces came away with a 48-46 victory.

It’s the fifth Central League championship in the last seven years for Lower Merion (20-4), which has won 14 titles in 28 seasons under Gregg Downer.

(click on this link for the full story)

Webmaster’s note: The Lower Merion vs Penncrest game was our Game-of-the-Week and can be heard on our Archives link by clicking on the player below.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

In the minds of many around the Penncrest boys basketball program, the number 1,551 loomed large this season.For Tyler Norwood, the only one who ultimately had the power to vault that historic standard, it would be more of a byproduct than a long-term goal, merely something that might happen one day if Norwood accomplished many more granular goals.

“Every night, I just went out and played basketball,” Norwood said Sunday. “I didn’t really worry about if I was breaking a record or not. All I worry about is winning championships. It just so happened that I was close and able to do that.”

Sunday, Norwood was able to do both.

The Penncrest senior guard and reigning Daily Times Boys Basketball Player of the Year scored a game-high 22 points to get past Upper Darby, 52-39, in the Central League semifinals at Marple Newtown and set the Penncrest all-time scoring mark.

(click on this link for the full story)

Webmaster note:  Delcohoops.com will broadcast LIVE the Central League Basketball Championship game between Penncrest and Lower Merion. Our broadcast will begin at 7:45 PM. 

By Matt Smith

In the days and weeks ahead, Springfield freshman Alexa Abbonizio and her family will tell stories and share memories about her late grandfather.Robert J. Abbonizio, affectionately known as “Big Bob,” passed away Feb. 6. He was 80.

Alexa is one of Mr. Abbonizio’s nine grandchildren. And he was a big fan of his granddaughter, the basketball player.

Abbonizio was in the starting lineup for Springfield in its regular-season finale Friday. She had the best game of her young high school career when she scored 29 points to lead the Cougars to victory over Radnor. She dedicated that game to her grandfather.

Sunday at Marple Newtown, mere hours before she would attend her grandfather’s viewing service, Abbonizio helped Springfield defeat Haverford, 37-27, in the semifinals of the Central League playoffs.

The Cougars will play reigning league champion Garnet Valley in the final Tuesday night at Harriton.

(click on this link for the full story)

Webmaster note:  Delcohoops.com will broadcast LIVE the Central League Basketball Championship game between Garnet Valley and Springfield. Our broadcast will begin at 5:45 PM. 

By Matthew DeGeorge

Springfield’s boys basketball team entered last Friday’s twice-postponed game with Radnor with a simple imperative: Beat a team with an 0-15 league record and make the playoffs.

The Cougars didn’t. But the District 1 Class 5A power rankings still nudged the Cougars into the playoffs. Until the Cougars declined the invite.

Springfield won’t be participating in the District 1 Class 5A tournament, its athletic department confirmed Sunday, despite the Cougars finishing 16th in the standings. The final postseason spot, per brackets posted on the District 1 web site, will go to Upper Moreland, the 17th seed.

Springfield, which qualified for the state tournament last year, went 8-14, despite an 8-8 Central League mark. It won just two of its last nine games, yet snuck into the top 16 on strength of schedule as results trickled in Saturday. The 16th seed would’ve entailed a third meeting with top-seeded Penncrest; the previous two ended with the Lions winning by 27 and 29 points.

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By Delcohoops.com Staff

We have posted the unofficial game brackets for the PIAA District 1 playoffs on our Schedule page.  High school teams located in Delaware County are marked with a yellow box.  We are currently considering which playoff game to broadcast and will make that announcement in the next 24 hours.

  

By Josh Verlin

Locked in a battle with Garnet Valley in the Central League semifinals, Lower Merion was looking for someone step up and knock down some shots.

Typically one of the best teams in the area from outside the arc, the Aces were having issues with their 3-point shooting against the Jaguars, making just three of their 16 attempts in the first half of a game that was dead even at the midway point and a three-point game with two minutes left in the third quarter.

Finally, Harrison Klevan got hot.

The Lower Merion senior knocked down three triples in the span of 90 seconds to close out the quarter, and the Aces took what suddenly had become a double-digit advantage and held onto it to close out a 72-59 victory on Sunday afternoon at Marple Newtown HS.

(click on this link for the full story)

Webmaster note:  Delcohoops.com will LIVE broadcast the Central League Basketball Championship games for both girl’s and boy’s teams this Tuesday night. First broadcast will begin at 5:45 PM. 

By Matthew DeGeorge

Last time out, Chester could barely unlock the lid to the basket in a low-scoring win over Penn Wood that marked its lowest point output in more than three years.

Friday, they found all those points and more in the Clippers’ biggest offensive explosion in quite some time.

Michael Smith scored 29 points, and Rahmaad DeJarnette returned from a prolonged injury absence with 17 points as Chester walloped Chichester, 107-75, for an emphatic end to the regular season.

Brian Randolph scored 12 points, and Karell Watkins, Isaiah Schmidt and Kylair Blackston contributed 10 apiece for the Clippers (16-6, 10-0 Del Val). It was a far cry from the offensive output the Clippers used Tuesday to scrape by Penn Wood, 44-33.

DaQuan Granberry scored 15 points for Chichester (14-8, 6-4) before he was ejected for his second technical foul. Amiri Stewart and Calvin Church supplied 12 points apiece.

Also in the Del Val League:

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Webmaster’s note: The Chester vs Chichester game was our Game-of-the-Week and can be heard on our Archives link by clicking on the player below.

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By PAPrepLive

Garnet Valley’s girls basketball team can enjoy a relaxing off day Sunday thanks to some late heroics by Emily McAteer.

McAteer’s basketball with 17 seconds left was the difference in a 49-47 victory over Conestoga that completed an undefeated run by the Jaguars in the Central League.

By going undefeated, Garnet Valley advances to next Tuesday’s Central League championship game at Harriton against the winner of Sunday’s semifinal between Springfield and Haverford High. Tip-off in the final is 6 p.m.

Had Conestoga won, Garnet Valley (20-2, 16-0) would have had to play a semifinal game Sunday.

McAteer finished with 11 points. Brianne Borckly led Garnet Valley with 16 points, 10 rebounds and three assists. Nicole Barnes contributed 10 points, four assists and four steals.

(click on this link for more game stories and scores)

Webmaster note:  Delcohoops.com will LIVE broadcast the Central League Basketball Championship games for both girl’s and boy’s teams this Tuesday night. First broadcast will begin at 5:45 PM. 

By Matthew DeGeorge

A season ago, with a berth to the PIAA Class 5A tournament on the line, Bonner & Prendergast came up short against Archbishop Carroll twice in one week. The Friars had made progress under coach Jack Concannon, but the pieces weren’t quite there yet.So as a contingent of upperclassmen who led the Friars out of the 2-20 doldrums of 2013-14 graduated, Concannon had spots to fill on his team. And the two primary names that filled the void showed just how big they are Friday.

Isaiah Wong and Tariq Ingraham both played like blue-chippers, the junior transfers keying a 79-72 win for the Friars over Carroll in a pulsating affair before a raucous capacity crowd.

Wong was unstoppable in the first half with 15 of his game-high 29 points, and he found time to collect 12 rebounds and five assists. Ingraham stepped in late, supplying 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter as the Friars (18-3 overall, 11-1 Catholic League) had the final say in a seesaw battle to get within one win of a regular season Catholic League title.

(click on this link for more game stories and scores)