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By Bob Grotz

It only seemed like the Garnet Valley boys’ basketball team qualified for the state basketball tournament for the first time ever following its 68-53 triumph over Upper Darby in the Class 6A playbacks Tuesday night.

While the Jaguars reached the dance in 1997, 23 years is an eternity, especially contrasted with a girls’ program that has a state final and a District 1 title in its recent past.

The next step for the Jaguars (22-4), the second seed in District 1, is a state seeding game Friday against North Penn, the 24th seed. North Penn defeated Central Bucks East, 46-43. It was their third straight road victory in the playbacks.

But back to the Jaguars, who never trailed after Neel Beniwal buried the first of his four 3-pointers in the first minute.

Beniwal scored a game-high 21 points to take the scoring burden off star guard Carl Schaller, who fouled out despite taking more than he gave, the spark plug having to switch from No. 2 to 32 when his shooting wrist leaked blood in a contest with 37 fouls.

“We knew we had to win to get into states,” Beniwal said. “We all brought it today. We’ve been bringing the effort every game but we’ve been struggling to shoot. But today we were all making shots and we were all sharing the ball. It was fun.”

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By Neil Geoghegan

It was a District 1 5A Playback game, but it meant everything to the Unionville boys’ who wanted desperately to punctuate a regular season that included a share of the Ches-Mont American basketball crown.

The Indians did it with a forceful 62-43 victory over visiting Radnor on Wednesday, and it propels Unionville to its first PIAA Tournament berth in 14 years.

“We are trying to stay in the micro, and when it’s all over we will take a step back and look at it,” said Indians’ head coach Chris Cowles. “It’s a great accomplishment for these guys and they deserve it. It guarantees us another week of practice, so that’s big.”

Four days after a lackluster 11-point loss to West Chester Rustin in the quarterfinals, fourth-seeded Unionville (18-7 overall) bounced back impressively. The Indians will host No. 6 Strath Haven (17-9) on Friday in the district’s fifth-sixth contest.

“We learned from Saturday (against Rustin) just to be ourselves and stay in the moment,” said junior Sean Nealon, who poured in a game-high 23 points that included a long-range shooting exhibition.

“We were so disappointed in all aspects with what happened Saturday,” Cowles added. “We weren’t ourselves. So to come out and do what we normally do was good to see.”

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By Matthew DeGeorge

Erik Timko admitted that there were some nerves when he took the court at the Liacouras Center Tuesday night. But somewhere between the tipoff of the District 1 Class 6A semifinal and when he and teammate Brett Eberly chest-bumped after Timko splashed home a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer, he’d loosened up pretty well.

Tuesday was just another game, Methacton would’ve said in the pregame huddle. But no less an authority than dominant senior center Jeff Woodward would admit it wasn’t entirely truthful.

“We made sure we got here and got the experience of being down here so it’s not like we’re just playing a game here,” Woodward said. “Obviously we know our mindset is it’s just another game, but we all know it’s not just another game. It’s got a lot more meaning. It’s a beautiful arena, it’s really, really nice, and I think it’s a great experience.”

The game they put together, the top-seeded Warriors pasting No. 4 Chester, 81-54, in the program’s first District 1 semifinal, was extraordinary. It was also the latest first in a long line of them for a golden generation of Methacton basketball. And it was emblematic of the PIAA system that, despite the many shortcomings of its expansion to six classes, has led to an uptick in once-in-program-history moments like what Methacton shared.

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By Owen McCue

The disparity between the accomplishments of the Methacton and Chester boys basketball programs entering Tuesday night’s District 1 Class 6A semifinal game was quite large.

On one side was a Chester program making its 48th trip to the District 1 Final Four, including 38 wins in the semifinal round. On the other was a Methacton program making its first trip to the District 1 semifinals.

As it has done to many others this high school basketball season, top-seeded Methacton showed that this year it appears to be the team in a class of its own in District 1.

From the middle of the third quarter on, the top-seeded Warriors rolled past the fourth-seeded Clippers for an 81-54 win, their third straight district victory by 20-or-more points, and earning a chance to play third-seeded Cheltenham (a 77-60-winner of seventh-seeded Bensalem) in Saturday’s District 1 championship back at Temple at 7 p.m.

“We talked about how they have a really, really long history as a program, but their guys are in the same situation as us,” said Methacton senior Jeff Woodward, who finished with 20 points and 20 rebounds. “None of their guys had been down here yet and none of us have been down here.

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By Kevin Callahan

Midway through the third quarter, with his team up five points, Jeff Woodward chased a long rebound off his hand, and as the ball was going out of bounds, he lunged, smacking the ball ahead to a teammate.

Then, he hustled down the floor and worked his way down low to get the ball. He was fouled. He made both.

But what made the hustle play even more impressive was that Woodward is 6-foot-10. And, the senior center is already signed with Colgate University.

So, when the best player on the court, who already has a Division I scholarship, is playing the hardest, well, the trickle down effect is contagious … and how a team plays for a championship.

“There’s no other way to play,” Woodward said afterwards, drenched in sweat.

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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.