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By Jack McCaffery

He could have settled for a verbal outline. He had the option to pick up the passion in his pre-game speech. He might have mixed in an additional film. He might have tried it all, given the straits his Haverford High basketball team would wander into Friday night.

Fords coach Keith Heinerichs, however, took the message to another level. And that would have been him, out there Thursday, running pre-practice sprints with his players, maybe huffing, perhaps puffing, but shouting out the reality with each determined stride: Lose the next one to visiting West Chester Henderson, and it’s over.

“I was just trying to get the intensity up,” said the Fords’ coach. “I wanted to make sure they wanted it.

“It wasn’t the first time I did that,” he continued, smiling. “But it was the first in a lonnnnnnggg time.”

By the time the Fords outpaced the Warriors, 63-41, in the playback round of the PIAA District 1 Class 6A tournament, it was clear Heinerichs’ ploy didn’t hurt. Though young Henderson hung around early, the Fords gave them 32 minutes of relentless defensive pressure to improve to 18-6 and win a spot in the state tournament.

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By Matt Smith

Caydence Oswald had taken only one shot during regulation Friday night.

In overtime, the Bishop Shanahan junior guard took another crack at the rim and delivered the biggest make of her life.

Oswald drained the go-ahead 3-pointer early in OT and the No. 4 Eagles held on to defeat top-seeded Springfield, 34-29.

“If I got in my head then, I wouldn’t have been able to make that shot,” Oswald said. “I knew I needed to make it. We were in overtime so it’s definitely a little bit stressful, but I put all of my focus on making the basket. I’m glad it went in.”

Bishop Shanahan (15-8) ended Springfield’s two-year district championship reign. The Eagles will play No. 7 Villa Maria at Temple University’s Liacouras Center next Saturday.

“Even making it this far, I’m so grateful that we were able to come here and play some good basketball,” Oswald said. “A lot of our girls, we’ve been going through so many injuries this season, and we definitely are a younger team, we only have one senior, so to be able to get this far after everything that’s happened this season…”

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By Mike Cabrey

Demetrius Lilley and Lower Merion made it apparent very quickly the Abington boys basketball team was not going to pull off a third straight upset in the District 1-6A tournament.

The No. 23 seed Galloping Ghosts had few answers for slowing down Lilley in the first quarter, the 6-foot-9 senior racking up 10 points inside before connecting on a three to give the No. 2 Aces a 22-8 lead at end of the quarterfinal contest’s opening eight minutes.

“We came out knowing that we had to play hard,” Lilley said. “Knowing Abington was a great team so we had to come out, no slacking. Just come out and play our best.”

Lower Merion just kept rolling, taking a 30-point advantage into halftime and cruised to a 60-28 victory Friday night at Kobe Bryant Gymnasium.

“It just was rough,” Ghosts senior Derrius Lucas said. “Seeing our guys, even me, probably not as aggressive as I could of been but our shots weren’t really falling as much early. Just hard to get going.”

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By Zak Wolf

Elimination games aren’t complicated. Two things can happen: your team either wins or goes home, it’s that simple. In these do-or-die scenarios with everything on the line, the only thing that’s needed is for your team to have more points than your opponent and you win the game. It doesn’t matter how ugly the game is, as long as when the final buzzer sounds, your team is ahead, you survive and advance. 

Penn Wood didn’t play the prettiest basketball on Friday night against Spring-Ford, but it got the job done. The Patriots defeated the Rams 40-38 in a double overtime thriller in the District 1 6A playbacks, with the game deciding who went to states and whose season would be ended. 

The game was tightly-contested all night, with neither team leading by more than six points at any point. Penn Wood was able to squeak out a victory on Spring-Ford’s home floor to clinch their second state playoff berth in three seasons after missing out last year.

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By Jack McCaffery

Qadir Lowrie knew the time, the situation, the stakes, the history and the responsibility midway through the third quarter of Chester High’s PIAA District 1 Class 5A playoff game against visiting Marple Newtown Wednesday.

That’s when the senior point guard did what so many other veteran Clippers backcourt stars have done in an ever-growing history: He took the game over.

“You have to have confidence going into the latter part of the game,” Lowrie said after Chester had rung up a 59-50 win over the Tigers. “And I had that confidence.”

Soon after Chester fell behind, 24-23, on a Matt Cantwell drive with 4:10 left in the third quarter, Lowrie would make sure the Clippers would avoid  their first postseason home defeat to a Delaware County opponent since a loss to Springfield in 1980.

Within one blast of excellence, Lowrie completed an old-fashioned three-pointer, made a steal, deposited two free throws and delivered an assist to Isaiah Freeman to give the Clippers a 35-30 lead. That control seized, Lowrie would swish all eight of his free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter, while mixing in an assist to Breilynd White with 1:35 left for a 51-43 lead, essentially tipping 16-3 Chester into the Saturday semifinals.

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By Josh Verlin

Three years ago was the best season in Garnet Valley girls’ basketball history. The Jaguars won 30 games, the Central League and District 1 6A titles, and made it all the way to the state championship game. 

This year’s group might not equal those feats — and certainly won’t equal the win total — but something almost equally special is happening. An unheralded squad with none of the expectations of its forerunner, with three freshmen and a sophomore in the top seven, is making plenty of noise, seemingly out of nowhere.

“This has been an improbable, unexpected season in many ways,” 19th-year head coach Joe Woods said.  “Three years ago, we were district champions, but it was kind of expected. We were (the) one-seed […] we did great, we were 30-2. 

“But this is in many ways more satisfying.”

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