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By Michael Bullock

Here’s installment No. 2 of City of Basketball Love’s state rankings, a package that will appear on Mondays throughout the remainder of the regular season.

We did showcase a set of preseason rankings leading up to the opening weekend (Dec. 9-10) and those groupings served as a starting point — since we’re going to continue to shuffle things around based on the early returns.

Appearing below are all six of our top 10s, with PIAA district and this season’s record displayed in parentheses. Only those schools competing for PIAA state championships are eligible for ranking purposes.

CLASS 5A

No. 3 Abington Heights extended its winning streak to four games last week by overpowering Holy Redeemer (62-29), Dunmore (47-29) and Riverside (56-29). George Tinsley reached double figures in all three successes, totaling 35 points for Ken Bianchi’s Comets. Seth Maxwell did not play in the win over Riverside, but the 7-0 senior bucketed a combined 27 points against Redeemer and Dunmore. The Comets will hop on the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s Northeast Extension on Tuesday, traveling to Parkland to square off against Berks Catholic.

No.  School                                            Rec    Pvs
1.     Archbishop Wood (12)                4-2         1
2.     Bangor (11)                                 6-0         2
3.     Abington Heights (2)                   6-1         3
4.     Upper Merion (1)                         6-0         4
5.     Northeastern (3)                          7-0         5
6.     Whitehall (11)                              6-1         6
7.     Archbishop Carroll (12)               5-1         7
8.     Bonner-Prendergast (12)            6-0        8
9.     Chester (1)                                  4-1     OW
10.   Meadville (10)                              6-0      10

Checked in: No. 9 Chester.
Checked out: No. 9 Highlands.

(click on this link for the all six classification rankings)

 

By Bruce Adams

 Archbishop Carroll, off to a 5-1 start this winter, exploded out of the gates early Friday evening in their 80-66 win against host Malvern Prep.
The Patriots, with talented 6-3 junior guard Justin Anderson and 6-4 senior guard Colin Daly hitting shots from both near and far, jumped out to an 18-3 lead 4 1/2 minutes into the game. Anderson finished with 25 points Friday evening, on the heels of a 28-point performance in the Patriots’ 67-65 win against Penn Wood.
“[Anderson] has a great first step,” said Carroll head coach Paul Romanczuk. “He can score from outside, mid-range, and around the rim.”

Daly finished the night with 15 points and eight rebounds.
“Colin is playing like a composed veteran,” said Romanczuk. “He knows what has to be done for us in the way of rebounding, and he grabbed a few loose balls tonight and made some big shots.”

(click on this link for the full article)

 

Malik Archer saved his best for last on Friday night.
Archer scored 11 of his game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter as Math, Civics & Sciences rallied for a 65-53 victory over host Chester in the final game of the Rondae Jefferson Classic.
Archer earned team MVP honors for the Mighty Elephants (7-0), who outscored the Clippers, 16-10, in the third period to erase a 31-26 halftime deficit. Kwahzere Ransom gave MCS its first lead with a layup at the end of the third quarter.
Jordan Camper tossed in 17 points and blocked five shots to earn MVP honors for the Clippers (4-1). Brian Randolph chipped in with 12 points.
In other nonleague action:
Garnet Valley 67, Chichester 56 >> Brandon Starr and Connor O’Brien combined for 37 points to get the Jaguars (5-2) back on the winning track.
Starr scored 24 points and pulled down seven rebounds. O’Brien added 13 points and Cole Palis handed out seven assists. Jaguars’ star Austin McLaughlin missed the game with an illness.
Chichester’s Daquan Granberry led all scorers with 32 points.

(Webmaster’s note: The Chichester vs Garnet Valley game was our Game-of-the-Week and can be heard on our Archives link on the left hand side of the page.)

By Will Slover

After starting last season a dismal 5-13, but then rallying to go 11-3 over their final 14 contests to make the PIAA A State Championship game, the Mighty Elephants of Math, Civics and Sciences Charter School have gotten used to playing, and performing, in an underdog role.

In most cases, coming into a season off of a state championship appearance wouldn’t indicate being an underdog, but after losing forward Edward Croswell to St. Joseph’s Prep over the offseason, MCS found itself back in that ever-familiar underdog role entering the 2016-17 season.

Fast forward to December 21. The Mighty Elephants are 6-0, fresh off of a victory over perennial state power, Martin Luther King, and had already beaten another state top dog, La Salle College High School, to start their season. At this point, they were ready to shake the ‘underdog’ title.

(click on this link for the full article)

 

By Matt Smith

Brandon Star and Austin Laughlin have been putting up some big numbers for Garnet Valley. Strath Haven put a stop to that Thurday night.

The Panthers held Star, the leading scorer in the county, to five points in a 59-52 Central League boys basketball victory over the Jaguars.

Laughlin led all scorers with 26, but that was not enough to offset the offensive production of Strath Haven’s John Harrar and Christopher Rosini. Harrar scored 24 points and Rosini hit three of his six 3-point field goals in the third quarter to put the Panthers up for good. Rosini finished with 18 points.

Elsewhere in the Central League:

(click on this link for game stories and scores)

 

By Josh Verlin

Christian Ray caught a bug over the summer, and the rest of his Haverford School teammates have picked it up.

In July, Ray was brought up to the senior team of the Team Philly AAU program, the K-Low Elite squad which played on the Adidas Gauntlet circuit. There, he learned that just because he stood at 6-foot-5, he wasn’t going to be able to be the dominant force he’d been in two years at Octorara and on the younger levels of AAU basketball.

The program’s director, Lonnie Lowry, and K-Low Elite head coach Kyle Sample instilled in Ray the mindset he needed.

“They’re the ones who told me you see the ball, get it,” Ray said. “It doesn’t matter what’s in front of you, just grab it with your hands and fight for everything you could get.”

(click on this link for the full article)

 

By Rick O’Brien

From fifth grade through his sophomore year at Strath Haven, John Harrar focused on basketball.

“I thought I was going to stick with the sport and play it in college,” the 6-foot-8, 230-pound senior said. “But then the coach [longtime Panthers football boss Kevin Clancy] kept bugging me to come out for the team.”

Harrar fared well as a junior defensive end and then, in the recently completed season, was highly impressive as a two-way end. He earned first-team all-Central League honors on both sides of the ball.

“I got stronger physically and learned from the coaches the ins and outs of the game’s technical aspects,” the 17-year-old said. “Now I’m leaning toward playing football in college.”

(click on this link for the full article)

 

By Matthew De George

When Chester’s boys basketball schedule dropped a few months back, you can bet Tuesday night’s game was the first one circled by orange pens around the city.

Blue-chipper Lonnie Walker, a highly-touted installment of perennial state-title contender Reading — and oh-by-the-way the team that ended Chester’s 2015-16 season — brought all the makings of a special night at the Fred Pickett Memorial Gymnasium.

In just about every way, a young but bright Chester squad obliged the hype with a 62-51 win that overshadowed the bright star that is the Miami-bound Walker.

The defense-first performance was vintage Chester, nullifying Walker’s usual sizeable influence on the game. The high-flying wing had a pair of his obligatory, gravity-defying dunks. But his 13 points included a scant three in the second half and a ghostly impact.

(Webmaster’s note: This was our Game-of-the-Week and can be heard on our Archives link on the left hand side of the page.)

(click on this link for the full article)

 

  

By Matthew De George

We’re just over a week – and a busy week at that – into the boys basketball season, and there have been some interesting developments. The first one that stands out is how open and high-scoring play has been. Tuesday’s loaded slate presents the 12th play day of the PIAA winter. Yet already, 2016-17 has seen as many Delco players tally games of 30 points or more as did all of last season. Those six players have accounted for seven 30-point outings (Chichester’s DaQuan Granberry is the repeat), a far cry from last year’s 16. This year’s tally also doesn’t (yet?) involve Nick Alikakos, the Episcopal Academy forward who topped 30 points on five occasions last year.

This prevalence of top scorers is neither good nor bad, per se. Many offenses are built around one marquee scorer, certainly, but whether that’s a long-term drawback isn’t yet clear. It does, however, portend a fair amount of unpredictability game-to-game. And in a traditionally close-to-the-vest league like the Central, the presence of an explosive scorer like Tyler Norwood, Austin Laughlin or Brandon Starr can shift a game quickly.

 

That brings us to the hierarchy this week, where the order is more-or-less similar, with one sizeable exception. (Records based on games through Monday, Dec. 19)

(click on this link for the full article)

 

By Tim Hindin

The Jenkintown boys basketball team hits the court this year with four new starters, though three of the four have logged significant varsity minutes prior to this season.

The only returning starter from last season is guard Jamison Kolb. The Drakes are going to rely on the gritty senior heavily this season and Tuesday night they needed him to bail them out.

Jenkintown used the 29-point performance from Kolb to hold off a late surge from Delco Christian to escape with a 63-57 Bicentennial Athletic League win.

“Jamison Kolb has been a part of a lot of success for Jenkintown basketball,” Jenkintown coach Wes Emme said. “He was our leading scorer as a freshman in the postseason. He’s a tremendous shooter and confident ball handler and he’s tough as nails and those three things usually go well together.”

It’s easy to get caught up on the offense number that Kolb puts up but the way he puts them up is sometimes inexplicable. Kolb is not a big body by any means yet still somehow finds a way to get many of his points in the paint. Tuesday night he also showcased his free throw shooting ability as he knocked down 15 of 17 while hitting his first 13.

(click on this link for the full article)