Delcohoops.com

by Pete Digiovanni

West Chester East had been here before. And they did not want to re-live that nightmare.

One year after coming to Temple University’s Liacouras Center as the top seed, and allowing the trophy to go home with a lower-seeded Delaware County foe, the Vikings put their foot down and finished the job.

Andrew Carr and West Chester East put on a clinic Saturday, as the No. 1 Vikings blew out No. 7 Penn Wood, 67-43, to win the District 1 Class 5A boys basketball championship.

Last year, top-seeded East lost the district final to sixth-seeded Sun Valley.

Carr led the Vikings (26-2) with 23 points to go along with 12 rebounds and six blocks. East also got big games from Mike Dedda, who had 12 points, and freshman Jack Kushner, who chipped in with 13 points and six rebounds.

“Coach (Tom) Durant, told us at halftime to just hustle and be ready to catch and shoot,” Kushner said. “That is what we did and they were paying so much attention to Andrew, we were open. This is the best feeling I ever had.”

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By Mitchell Gladstone

Before each game, West Chester East assistant coach Rodney Duncan had a routine.

He’d pull out his silver medal from the 2019 district playoffs and throw it on the ground in the Vikings’ locker room.

It was a reminder — not just of what East had failed to accomplish last season, but also what they were chasing this year.

And 365 days later, the Vikings came full circle, turning silver into gold.

Led by another dominant all-around showing from senior Andrew Carr, West Chester East captured its first title in school history, surging past Penn Wood 67-43 at the Liacouras Center Saturday afternoon in the Class 5A final.

Carr, who scored 9 of the Vikings’ 11 second-quarter points en route to a game-high 22, established himself on the defensive end out of the locker room — the Delaware signee logged five blocks in the third quarter and added a dozen rebounds on the game.

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By Andrew Robinson

“Good to great.”

It’s a motto Methacton has lived by all season. It means turn a good shot into a great shot, turn a good effort defensively into a great one and a good performance into a great one. With only Cheltenham standing between them and a District 1 title, the No. 1 Warriors made good to great a creed to live by at the Liacouras Center.

With a clinical offensive showing, Methacon raced past No. 3 Cheltenham 73-48 a Temple to capture the program’s first District 1 6A championship Saturday night.

“Credit everybody who was out on the court tonight,” Warriors senior center Jeff Woodward said. “Coach (Jeff Derstine) always talks about going good to great and there were countless times in this game, especially that first half where we kicked it to somebody who was wide open.”
Cheltenham didn’t have a true answer for Woodward, the 6-foot-10, 250-pound Colgate bound big man. For reference, the Panthers’ tallest player is 6-foot-6 David Pope who coach Patrick Fleury estimated at about 160 pounds and plenty of possessions saw Jaelen McGlone or Brandon Scott trying to deal with Woodward.

It would have been easy for the Warriors to try and force feed the big guy but that wouldn’t have been great, much less good. So they moved the ball around instead, with senior Brett Eberly playing conductor to an orchestral section that was totally in tune.

Erik Timko came out in form and never really lost it, hitting his first seven shots on his way to a game-high 27 points.

“I came out, played with confidence and played my game,” Timko said. “My guys had trust in me and they helped me get open to get those clean looks.”

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Webmaster’s note: Missed the game? Listen to the entire game on our archive file listed below. Go to our Broadcast Archives page for all game archives.

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By Josh Verlin

As much as West Chester East’s offensive attack is based around seniors Andrew Carr and Tym Richardson, Tom Durant implored the rest of his lineup to look out for themselves. With his Vikings clinging to a one-point lead over Penn Wood at halftime of the District 1 Class 5A championship game, Durant –– East’s fourth-year head coach –– knew it would take some buckets from those who weren’t part of the program’s unfinished run to the district championship a year ago to finally bring it all home. 

“They’re really just focusing on Andrew and Tym, so they just left us out there,” junior point guard Mike Dedda said. “Coach [Durant] said be ready to catch and shoot, so that’s what we were being ready to do out there: catch and shoot.”

And indeed, when the offensive barrage finally came for East in its 67-43 win, it wasn’t off the hands off Carr or Richardson: it was the other three starters, the three who started the season with almost no varsity experience for a program that graduated five of its top seven from a year ago.

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By Matt Smith

Never one to garner a ton of hype on a basketball court, Carli Johnston has been an underrated, blue-collar player at Springfield throughout the years.

Johnston, a senior forward/guard who does all the tough jobs for the Cougars, has mostly stayed out of the spotlight. She doesn’t score a whole lot or grab headlines with her play, but she has helped win a lot ofgames at Springfield, even if her performances can go unnoticed.

Johnston is an exceptional defensive player and rebounding machine. She will stalk the opposing team’s best player, box out under the rim and fight for loose balls. Her game is all about toughness and grit.

Without her, Springfield (22-5) probably isn’t playing Saturday to try to win a second District 1 Class 5A championship. When the No. 1 Cougars tip-off with third-seeded Great Valley of the Ches-Mont League at Temple’s Liacouras Center at 1 o’clock, Johnston will be in the starting lineup. Webmaster’s note: The District One – 5A Girl’s Basketball Championships on February 29th will be audio broadcast LIVE right here on Delcohoops.com!

“All of my hard work on the defensive end is finally paying off,” Johnston said following the Cougars’ victory over Mount St. Joseph in the semifinal round Tuesday. “And to help on the other side of the floor, that was great, too. But winning this game, that’s what was most important because we have been working so hard all season long to get here. We wanted to go to the finals.”

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By Matthew DeGeorge

It was mid-January last year when Shamir Baynes decided varsity basketball wasn’t working for him.

The Penn Wood junior guard was part of the Patriots’ bench rotation. He’d played in 12 games, averaged 5.3 points per contest on a team that would end up winning 15 games and go to districts.

But something about the situation didn’t feel right, so Baynes abruptly quit the team.

“I wasn’t feeling it anymore, so I just stopped playing,” Baynes said Wednesday night.

The decision perplexed Penn Wood coach Matt Lindeman at the time. Baynes was never lacking in passion on the court. But in other aspects of how Penn Wood wanted to play, their team concept and his maturity to accept a role within that, Baynes wasn’t quite there yet.

“He just wanted to not keep playing with that team at that time,” Lindeman said. “No hard feelings, he’s a good kid, he’s always been great to us. He just made a choice after one game that he didn’t like how his season was going. He just wasn’t ready last year.”

Eleven months on, that decision feels distant. Baynes is the leading scorer for Penn Wood, its vocal leader on and off the court. Saturday, he hopes that’ll be enough to lead them to a District 1 Class 5A championships when the seventh-seeded Patriots (16-8) take on No. 1 West Chester East at Temple University’s Liacouras Center in a 3 o’clock start. Webmaster’s note: The District One – 5A Boy’s Basketball Championships on February 29th will be audio broadcast LIVE right here on Delcohoops.com!

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