Delcohoops.com

By Jeff Dewees

The only thing sick about the Chester Clippers Friday night was their shooting.

Fueled by senior Ahrod Carter’s 27-point performance on 10-of-12 sniping from the floor, Chester blew by Milton Hershey School 72-53 in the first round of the PIAA Class 5A tournament at Lebanon High School.

Never trailing, Chester (22-5), a lower-than-usual fifth seed out of District 1, smothered Milton Hershey with a 15-4 spurt to open the game, and was never seriously threatened. Carter hit a trio of 3-pointers in the first quarter to quickly get his club out of the gates.

Then he really warmed up.

Carter would hit his first 10 shots of the night, from all points on the floor, before missing his final two offerings. He hit seven 3-pointers; Chester had nine bombs in all.

“I felt great. I felt blessed. I felt like hard work paid off,” Carter said. “This was a statement game for us, because we lost in districts and think we should have won, in my opinion. So we had a chip on our shoulders this game. We felt like we had to prove something; to ourselves, to everyone.”

(click on this link for the full article)

 

By Tyler Sandora

The players on Archbishop Carroll’s basketball team know that they have the ability to outrun teams, and speed up the tempo of the game.

With their tall, quick, and sharpshooting guards, along with an athletic big man, the Patriots know they need to get the tempo of the game into their favor to make a run through the state playoffs.

They were able to use these advantages on Friday night, defeating Great Valley 61-48 in the first round of the PIAA 5A state tournament.

“As long as we have ball pressure, we can play to our tempo,” Carroll coach Paul Romanczuk said.

Carroll was able to force Great Valley into 20 turnovers, 14 of which came in the first half, leading into fast break opportunities at the other end.

Leading the way for the third seed from District 12 was freshman guard A.J. Hoggard with 16 points. Although he is still a freshman, Hoggard assumes the point guard role for Carroll.

(click on this link for the full article)

 

By Matthew De George

Justin Collins didn’t leave the home bench two years ago, but not a detail escaped his grasp Wednesday night at Springfield High School.

Now a senior guard, Collins recounted in vivid detail all the highs and lows of the Cougars’ last chance to play into states in 2015 against Penncrest — the 12-point fourth-quarter deficit they surmounted, the Lions’ lights-out, 14-for-14 performance from the free-throw line in overtime to win, 58-53, without an extra-session field goal.

Collins, whose older brother Jordan was that team’s leading scorer, even wistfully bounced his head recalling the number of bounces a late Mike Doyle 3-pointer took off rim before falling home to push the game to OT.

“Still, some of that stuff hurts,” said Kyle Long, then the emergent freshman point guard, now the seasoned junior floor general.

For the current Cougars who experienced that star-crossed team’s disappointment, the significance was instilled quickly. That near miss, from a special senior class, set the bar that they would be held to two years later. And having cleared that high hurdle to make the program’s first states appearance since 2010 and ninth in school history, the Cougars are embracing the quest to determine their ride’s culmination.

Springfield gets that chance Friday when the sixth seed from District 1 ventures to Hershey High School to take on District 3 runner-up Mechanicsburg in the first round of the PIAA Class 5A tournament. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. as the nightcap in a triple-header.

For the freshness of the memory, Collins and company describe the Penncrest game as a demon they’ve vanquished, more grateful for its motivation than haunted by its specter.

(click on this link for the full article)

 

By Matthew De George

The trend lines for Saturday’s PIAA Class 6A opener may seem in opposition. District 4 champ Williamsport (20-4) carries a 13-game winning streak to Milton Area High School at 4:30 p.m. Penn Wood, on the other hand, arrested a two-game slide by trouncing Perkiomen Valley, the top seed in the District 1 tournament, in its seventh-place game last Friday (a result perhaps most crucial for its avoidance of District 12 champ Roman Catholic in the first round.)

But zoom out and you have a Patriots team that has won 13 of its last 16, not too shabby in relation to a diminished field.

That commonality links the teams as among the dark horses in an uncharacteristically open 6A field, diluted by the parting out of quality teams to the 5A classification. But that’s immaterial to what should be an intriguing affair.

The Millionaires are the hot team, boosted emotionally after avenging a loss to Hazleton in the District 2/4 regional final last time out.

Williamsport is much like Penn Wood in the size department, with a bunch of players of differing skillsets all standing around 6-foot-2. Stanley Scott, their leading scorer, is listed as a guard. The forward triumvirate of Rondell Carson, Darryl Wilson and Qayyim Ali add support scoring.

Those matchups won’t be as perplexing for a Patriots team where the line between guard and forward is blurry anyway. Jay Fitzgerald will likely draw the assignment of Scott on the perimeter, but the likes of Rashaad Anderson, Vincent Smalls, Pernell Ghee and others are capable of guarding any of the Millionaires’ other options.

(click on this link for the full article)

 

By Matthew De George

It was a bit of understatement from Larry Yarbray last Friday night, but rang true nonetheless.

“We’ve got to want it more,” was Yarbray’s assessment of Chester’s 48-45 win over Springfield in the District 1 Class 5A fifth-place game.

Whether or not desire is the missing commodity, something is askew recently with the Clippers. And failure to resolve it in Friday night’s states opener with Milton Hershey will bring an end to Chester’s season. Chester travels to Lebanon High School for tipoff at 8.

The Clippers (20-6) have only lost twice in the last six games. But a setback at Academy Park deprived them a share of the Del Val title, while a home loss to Upper Merion ended the top seed’s district title aspirations.

That paints the portrait of a Chester team that isn’t playing its best basketball, still falls prey to its flaws and has authored some very un-Chester-like results. Even the battle-tested metric doesn’t flatter the Clippers: They tote just a 4-4 mark against state qualifiers, dampened by some of their usual schedule stalwarts enduring down seasons.

The Clippers are oddly reliant on the 3-pointer, hitting an average of six triples per game. Ten of the 11 players in Yarbray’s rotation have connected on at least one long ball. But Chester’s abundance of catch-and-shooters leaves a paucity of players capable of creating off the dribble. Jamar Sudan can do it, as can Ahrod Carter, whose added dimensions to his game while leading the team with 58 made triples. Point guard Michael Smith creates in spurts, but with the inconsistency of a sophomore.

That leaves the passel of jump shooters, the workmanlike Brian Randolph who isn’t a huge offensive threat and the unruly length of Jordan Camper, whose offense stems almost exclusively from lobs and putbacks.

(click on this link for the full article)

 

By Josh Verlin & Michael Bullock

Though it’s not quite the “big school” classification that is 6A, there’s no doubt that this new 5A classification has quite a bit of talented programs and players all throughout. One standout program from the southeastern part of the state looks to be the favorite heading into play, but there are several notable contenders from all over Pennsylvania who will vie for spots in Hershey at the end of the month.

Here’s a look at the Class 5A bracket:

Favorites
Archbishop Wood (23-3)
If we had to pick one solitary favorite heading into the state playoffs, it would be John Mosco’s Vikings, who are currently in the midst of the Warminster school’s best season in program history. Wood’s first Catholic League championship run was spearheaded by senior guard Collin Gillespie (22.3 ppg), who came out of complete anonymity a year ago to become a Villanova commit in January. Tough, talented and with a never-say-quit attitude, Gillespie sets the tone for a group that also features 6-4 senior Matt Cerruti (12 ppg), a D-II target, plus D-I juniors Tyree Pickron (12.6 ppg), Andrew Funk and Seth Pinkney. Fellow senior Keith Otto, a 6-0 Moravian commit, plus 6-6 junior Karrington Wallace, round out Mosco’s top seven.

(click on this link for the full article)