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Dante Atkinson made the tying and go-ahead free throws with 37.9 seconds to play and Chester held on to beat Chichester, 47-46, in a Del Val League thriller Thursday evening.

On Chi’s final possession, Dominic Toy blocked a shot and Dilyn Butler’s floater fell short as time expired. Carlton Gordy scored a game-high 23 points, including 14 in the third quarter to keep the Eagles within striking distance of the Clippers.

Toy paced the first-place Clippers (12-1, 3-0 Del Val) with 16 points. Atkinson contributed 11 points and Calvin Williams tossed in eight.

In the Central League:

(click on this link for more game stories and scores (bottom of page) subscription may be required)

By Joseph Santoliquito

Dominic Toy is reluctantly counting down the days and the games. Chester’s 6-foot-5, 225-pound bull in the middle knows the end is near. He has his college ticket stamped for Connecticut, where he is projected to be a tight end. In the meantime, he is trying to close an amazing athletic high school career by getting something on the hard wood that he came inches from grasping on the football field: a District 1 championship.

Toy also knows his days of playing organized basketball are numbered.

Toy put on a little show for one of his future coaches Thursday night, blocking a potential game-winning shot in the waning seconds to preserve Chester’s dramatic 47-46 victory over visiting Chichester.

(click on this link for the full article)

By Andrew Robinson

When Radnor’s girls’ basketball team is going its best, it takes five.

The Raptors’ five starters range from seniors to sophomores, with three returners and two newcomers sharing one continuity on the court. 

Radnor’s first five all did their part Thursday night, downing host Lower Merion 67-53 in the Central League.

“Our relationship off the court is what translates onto the court,” senior Kate Gallagher said. “We get along really well, we want each other to succeed, and I think that’s what really shows.”

Sophomore Anna Reger led the Raptors with 17 points, the speedy guard adding four assists and four steals. Senior Blayse Jennings, one of the newcomers not only to the starting lineup but the team this year, had 15 points, two steals, a block and two assists and sophomore guard Nyah Yao added 14 points and seven rebounds.

Gallagher nearly made it four in double figures, the senior guard and Army lacrosse commit settling for nine points, four assists and two steals. Rounding out the balanced effort by the five was senior Caroline Monahan with six points, two assists and three steals.

(click on this link for the full article)

The good times keep rolling for the Chester boys basketball team.

Jaseir Thompson scored all of his 17 points in the first half as the Clippers extended their unbeaten streak to 10 games with a 68-31 rout of Newark (Del.) Wednesday.

The Clippers (11-1), who led 45-13 at halftime, received scoring contributions from 11 players. Dominic Toy and Dante Atkinson chipped in eight points each.

In the Inter-Ac League:

Haverford School 58, Germantown Academy 38 >> Silas Graham went for 18 points and KJ Carson ended with 12 in the Fords’ blowout of the Patriots. GA led 29-26 at halftime but managed only nine points in the final two periods.

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Kyla Carney produced 20 points, five steals and three assists in Ridley’s 56-21 victory over Interboro in a nonleague girls basketball game Monday.

Kailyn Bell added 13 points and two assists for the Green Raiders, who led 40-11 at halftime. Ridley has won four straight games.

The game was part of the schools’ annual U.S. Army March on Hunger drive. Following the game, canned good donations were taken by U.S. Army soldiers, ruck march style, to the Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry on Lincoln Avenue in Prospect Park.

Alaina D’Angelo led the Bucs (3-10) with five points.

(For more high school sports click on this link)

By GQLSHARE

The fourth quarter has been a sticking point for Germantown Academy girls basketball.

In the Patriots’ three losses this season, the final frame presented the bulk of their frustration. Pushed into another close game against another quality opponent Sunday against Archbishop Carroll in the Hoops for Hope Classic at Arcadia University, it came down to the fourth again.

This time, GA was able to close out, picking up a 40-32 win over last year’s PIAA 6A champions.

“We worked on it every single day at practice,” GA senior Isabella Casey said. “Facing that pressure is something we’ve struggled with a little bit this season, so we showed up every day and worked on it this week.”

It might seem odd to say GA (13-3, 3-0 Inter-Ac) closed strong in a fourth quarter where the team didn’t convert a field goal, but unlike last week’s loss to Audenried or earlier setbacks to Cardinal O’Hara and Friends’ Central, it ended with a win. Much of it had to do with a defensive effort that held Carroll (7-5, 2-0 PCL) to just nine second-half points.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

A funny thing happened in the third quarter Monday afternoon at Archbishop Carroll. And being the young leader that he is for the Patriots, naturally it happened to Ian Williams.

For two and a half quarters, Carroll had moderate success in a tit-for-tat affair of largely iso-ball against Bonner & Prendergast, the individual talents that make the Catholic League so pulsating on full display. Only two of Carroll’s first 13 made field goals had been assisted on. But when Williams, the sophomore point guard with a year’s experience under his belt, started making a concerted effort to dish more, a five-point deficit quickly vanished.

It would take more than that run to see off Bonner, including 27 points from Williams and a steely 6-for-6 performance at the line in crunch time. But the unselfishness on display was at the heart of a 66-62 win.

“The main motto in practice was to have fun and play with each other,” Williams said. “At times as young kids, we can get selfish and try to look at the stats, coming into high school and people try to get their points up. But (it’s) coming together as a unit, talking together and just being with each other, telling each other, it’s not about the stats.

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By CoBL Staff

The 17th annual Hoops for Hope charity event took place Sunday at Arcadia University. The seven-game girls’ high school hoops showcase raised money for the Morgan’s Message, a 501(c)(3) non-profit devoted to helping student-athletes with their mental health. It was founded in memory of Morgan Rodgers, a former Duke lacrosse player who took her own life in 2019. 

CoBL had coverage of all seven games. Here’s who stood out during the event:

Aniya Eberhart (2024 | Haverford High)
The Millersville commit delivered an admirable performance in the loss to North Penn. Early on, Eberhart’s shot wasn’t there around the basket, so she went to her jumper and her teammates. She cashed in four pull-up twos, plus a catch-and-shoot three. She also created open looks for Dotsey who scored 17 points. Without taking any plays off, Eberhart scrapped on defense, collecting two steals and multiple deflections. The 5-9 point guard had 18 points of her own, plus four rebounds and five assists.

(click on this link for all the other standouts)

By Owen McCue & Josh Verlin

The high school playoff races are heating up. Most PIAA teams in the area have played 13 or 14 of their 22 games, the District 1 rankings starting to shape up, teams getting an area where they stand. 

That also creates matchups with more and more drama — it’s one thing when two 2-0 squads face off, another when they’re 5-0, 6-0, 7-0. And indeed, the ‘games to watch’ each week get more and more intense.

• Central League
  There aren’t too many eye-catching matchups in the Central League on either side this week but Thursday has a couple of big ones on the boys side. Lower Merion’s, the lone unbeaten still in league play and two games clear of the rest of the field, travels to Radnor. Conestoga, the team tied with Radnor for second place, travels to fourth-place Harriton. There could be some tightening or separating at the top of the league. A Friday boys matchup between Penncrest and Upper Darby could be another fun one.(click on this link for the rest of the leagues matchups)

By Andrew Robinson

Lizzie Halligan couldn’t help herself.

It was something she’d seen Marisa Francione do countless times, a hustle play her longtime and to-be future teammate does on the regular, so Halligan gave Francione props like always. It was then that it hit the Notre Dame senior point guard that she was playing against the Conestoga senior point guard for the first, and only, time and maybe she shouldn’t have been congratulating an opponent for that.

Francione’s Pioneers topped Halligan’s Irish 32-30 as part of the Hoops for Hope Classic at Arcadia on Sunday, the duo enjoying their only official meeting as opponents.

“I’ve always been on the same team as her,” Francione said. “For our first time playing against each other, it was a lot of fun.”

“She’s a great friend and a great teammate,” Halligan said. “She’s a lot like me, I think our coaches would say a lot of the same things about one another. Our teammates’ parents say a lot of the same things. I think we’re great leaders and we’re really supportive of each other.”

(click on this link for the full article)