Delcohoops.com

By Matt Smith

Archbishop Carroll and Cardinal O’Hara have long represented the best of Delaware County girls basketball. The rivals are headed to the Palestra Monday evening to compete for the Catholic League championship.

This will mark the ninth such time that Carroll and O’Hara have faced off for the title, but the first since 2008. O’Hara has won five of eight league final matchups against the Patriots.

Carroll and the Lions finished first and second, respectively, in the league standings during the regular season. The Patriots remain undefeated in league competition, including a 49-39 victory over the Lions Feb. 1. It was O’Hara’s only conference loss of the season.

In that game the Patriots defense stymied the Lions, forcing 14 turnovers. O’Hara’s best players, seniors Maggie Doogan and Sydni Scott, were limited to a combined 13 points on 4-for-15 shooting from the field. The total points were the fewest scored by O’Hara since its season-opening, 41-39 loss to St. Mary’s (Calif.).

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By Jerome Taylor

When you have young former college basketball players on your coaching staff, sometimes you have to remind them to dial it back. 

Alongside Keith Taylor, Chester’s coaching staff has a lot of Chester-area basketball talent on it, from Shep Garner (Penn State) to Conrad Chambers (Millersville). As a result, his coaches often play against his current team in practice, and they occasionally play above the level that the Clippers will see at game time.

“I had to jump on my coaching staff early in the week because I thought they put too much on the young guys,” Taylor said. 

“They were just beating up on them, so I had to tell them ‘Get y’all behinds off the court,’ and I put another five in there that’s going to play to their level and standards.”

However, the competitiveness of those practices is paying off for Taylor’s squad. After picking up their fifth straight Del-Val championship, the Clippers are now one win away from repeating as District 1 5A champions.

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By Andrew Robinson

Plymouth Whitemarsh’s players knew it was in them and it was time to prove it.

For the first time all season, the undefeated and top-seeded Colonials girls basketball team entered a fourth quarter trailing in a game. No. 9 Haverford had made everything extremely difficult, the Fords bringing the right mix of toughness and physicality that had put PW in a position it hasn’t faced much of this year  and potentially on the brink of title-derailing loss.

They hadn’t had to show it prior to Saturday, but there is a winning mindset in each and every Colonial player.

Thanks to that mentality, PW dug in, rallied back and took control in the fourth to stave off their toughest test of the season with a 36-28 win over the Fords to clinch a spot in the District 1-6A semifinals.

“Playing Haverford and teams like Haverford, it pushes us to be better than we are,” PW senior Jordyn Thomas said. “I think it helps us understand if we make a mistake here or a mistake there, we can get that back on defense or get it back on offense. It showed us we are this kind of team and we can make it as far as we want to.”

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By Matt Smith

Jackson Hicke was still on the floor in the fourth quarter, emptying the tank, even though his team was comfortably ahead on the scoreboard.

The athletically gifted, 6-4 junior forward made everything look cool. With the game well in hand, Hicke delivered a behind the shoulder pass to Eric Vollmer, who converted for an easy layup. That’s the way things are going for the Raptors this season.

Top-seeded Radnor had plenty of fun trouncing No. 4 Upper Moreland in Saturday’s District 1 Class 5A semifinal, 63-35. The victory puts the Raptors in a district championship game for what is believed to be the first time in program history. Radnor plays No. 2 Chester in the final next Saturday at Temple University’s Liacouras Center.

“We love playing with each other and all we want to do is win,” said Hicke, who poured in a game-high 18 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor. He went 7 of 9 from the free-throw line and grabbed nine rebounds. “It translates on the floor and it’s why we are doing so well this year. Our chemistry, I think, is really unmatched.”

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By Terry Toohey

It’s hard to believe that Church Farm’s Gavriel Henriquez-Peralta and Brandon Hernandez have only been teammates for one season.

The chemistry the junior guards displayed on the court Saturday made it appear as if they’ve been playing together for years.

“Because we live in a brotherhood at Church Farm and come from all different places around the country that makes us support one another, because we really don’t have family around here,” said Hernandez, who hails from Newark, N.J. “We live together in the dorms and hang around with each other all day so we’ve developed a good chemistry.”

Henriquez-Peralta agrees with that wholeheartedly.

“This is my first year at Church Farm and it shows how quick the bond, the brotherhood, develops,” said Henriquez-Peralta, a native of the Queens section of New York City. “My teammates welcomed me in and that’s how I was able to fit in.”

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Winning a District 1 championship never gets old, no matter how many titles a team piles up.

Just ask the basketball players from Sacred Heart Academy.

Since the PIAA went to six classifications in 2017, the Lions are the only team to win the Class 2A crown.

Second-seeded Sacred Heart wrapped up its sixth straight district title with a 49-32 victory over top-seeded Delco Christian Saturday afternoon at Harriton.

“It’s always exciting,” senior guard Kyra Santora said. “We were nervous this year. We had some injuries and other setbacks, but we wanted to get that sixth one because there are six seniors on the team. We didn’t want to lose in our senior year.”

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