Delcohoops.com

By Rob Parent

Akhir Keys took an in-bounds pass with his team down three points, his packed home gym’s game clock showing 10 seconds, his mind telling him one thing — go get a tie.

Chichester’s long road to a second-half comeback against Unionville looked scripted at that point, and as Keys drove left down the sideline to avoid flailing defenders, all looked right when he pulled up for a good look, attempting another late escape act the senior guard had pulled several times already this season.

Yet Chi’s district title hopes would cruelly go in, then out with the ball.

“If I made that shot,” Keys said, “we probably would have won.”

It was the last best chance for the Eagles, who afterward would get a last-prayer launch from way out, well off the mark at the buzzer, enabling the Longhorns to hold on to a 75-72 victory Saturday in a District 1 Class 5A semifinal thriller.

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By Matt Smith

Sky Newman and Aniya Eberhart proved Saturday why they are one of the best guard tandems in District 1.

Most of the time the Fords can rely on their three forwards to carry the scoring load. It’s a rare sight when Caroline Dotsey gets held to under 15 points, but Saturday was one of those nights for Delaware County’s leading scorer.

Newman and Eberhart are at their best when the team needs a lift on offense.

While Dotsey, her sister Rian and power forward Mollie Carpenter were kept at bay, Eberhart drilled two 3-pointers and Newman provided a basket in the opening quarter of a District 1 Class 6A quarterfinal with No. 10 Springfield. Eberhart and Newman’s contributions set the tone in No. 2 Haverford’s 56-31 win.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

The word that came to mind when watching Jacob Nguyen Friday night was control.

Control for the 6-4 Spring-Ford guard to get shots up over the zone defense that Garnet Valley started with in a District 1 Class 6A quarterfinal. Control to see a GV defender trying to run him off the line, pump-fake and dribble into the lane for a silky jumper. Control to help the Rams come close to shutting out Garnet Valley’s leading scorer, Jake Sniras.

It was part of a thorough controlling of the No. 8 Jaguars, Spring-Ford into the district semifinals with a 56-38 win.

Nguyen supplied 22 points on 9-for-15 shooting, including 5-for-6 from inside the arc, deploying his array of floaters and his uncanny length around the goal.

But more impressive may have been his shadowing of his close friend Sniras. His fellow sophomore entered the game as the Jags’ leading scorer at 17.1 points per game, including four massive points in the second overtime of the Jags’ states-qualifying second-round win over Methacton Tuesday. 

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By Andrew Robinson

Googie Seidman may yet have the last laugh.

If the Haverford senior guard was going to have a chance to pass his older brother John on the program’s all-time scoring list, the Fords were going to need to play a couple more games. John Seidman – the originator of the younger Seidman’s distinctive nickname – has given his little brother plenty of good-natured ribbing about their hierarchy too.

So, Googie Seidman went out and had the best scoring game of his career on Friday, pouring in 36 points as the No. 21 Fords downed No. 20 Abington 66-54 to secure a PIAA bid in their 6A playback bracket game.

“We’re really excited, we still have something to prove,” Seidman said. “We didn’t achieve what we wanted to but luckily, we got into the state tournament so we’re still really hungry.”

Seidman scored the majority of his team’s points but it was far from a one-man show. 

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By Matt Smith

Upper Darby’s modus operandi in preparing to face Lower Merion for the fourth time was to force Aces star Sam Brown to drive to the basket. The Royals couldn’t allow the senior guard roam free on the perimeter.

Suffice to say the plan failed in Friday’s District 1 Class 6A tournament quarterfinal. Brown and the No. 2 Aces had a field day en route to an 88-56 victory over the 10th-seeded Royals.

Lower Merion hosts No. 3 Plymouth Whitemarsh in Tuesday’s semifinal. Upper Darby, which has already clinched a PIAA tournament berth for the first time since 2018, will travel to North Penn in the playback round and will compete for fifth place.

“They outplayed us and they worked harder than us in every aspect of the game. And once we got down, we just stopped playing basketball together,” Royals coach Bob Miller said. “(Brown) hit his first five (3-pointers), I think. Obviously, the game plan is to make him go to the basket instead of just standing there shooting 3s. We don’t know what it is.”

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By Jack McCaffery

The goals were arranged in order, all the better for the check marks of success. There would not be one without the other.

So it was Wednesday with a 55-29 victory over Marple Newtown in the District 1 Class 5A quarterfinals that the Radnor boys basketball team achieved another: A second consecutive trip to the PIAA tournament.

Behind 11 points apiece from Danny Rosenblum and Henry Pierce, the top-seeded Raptors improved to 25-0 and earned a spot in the Saturday’s district semifinals, good for an automatic bid to the tournament.

Though dropping to 12-12, the No. 9-seeded Tigers remained alive and will shuffle into the play-back round Saturday, where a win will return them to states.

“We had two goals,” Radnor coach Jamie Chadwin said. “One was a district championship. The other was a state championship. And you can’t go for the state championship without qualifying for it. So this is a step that way.”

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