Delcohoops.com

By Matthew DeGeorge

The call from the Delco Christian bench, time and again in the second half, was “whatever you want.”

Less a set play than a verbal shot of confidence from coach Reggie Parks, the instruction to his players was to read and react. To junior guards Josh Parks and Earle Greer in particular, the aim was clear: Follow your instincts, and run the floor.

Whatever they wanted was what Delco Christian got in the second half, overturning a halftime deficit at The Christian Academy on the way to a 68-56 victory over the Crusaders.

The surge was built on a 22-7 edge in the third quarter, with Parks scoring 10 points in the frame.

“It’s nice because I know he has trust in me,” Josh Parks said of Reggie, who is both coach and father. “He’s been our coach for a while. And also the trust of my teammates, because they know I’m not going to do anything stupid. It’s good to take their trust and make something out of it.”

(click on this link for the full story and more game scores)

By Terry Thomas

Chester rebounded from its loss to Imhotep with a 55-51 victory over Del Val League foe Penn Wood Patriots. Senior point guard Fareed Burton Jr led the way with five rebounds and a game high 22 points. The Burton cousins, Fareed and Jameel, combined to score 9 of Chester’s 13 first quarter points scoring 5 and 4 respectively. Jameel also scored in double figures with 13 points and filled the stat sheet with 5 steals, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 blocked shot. Junior Isaiah Freeman and senior Karell Watkins each scored a bucket to give the Clippers a 13-7 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

(click on this link for the full story)

By Matthew DeGeorge

By the fourth quarter of Monday’s boys basketball game with Faith Christian, the problem that needed solving for Chester Charter Scholars Academy became clear.

The Lions had effectively bunkered in a 1-3-1 zone the entire afternoon. With leading shooter Davon Stovall missing his first seven looks, the chances of shooting out of the zone looked slim. So how could the Sabers, who trailed by as many as five in the fourth quarter, diagram their way out?

The answer involved a heady and mature fourth-quarter performance, the kind increasingly produced by a program growing into itself, on the way to a 44-38 nonleague win for CCSA against the team directly ahead of it in the District 1 Class A standings.

After going down 29-24 on the first possession of the fourth, Chester Charter (6-5) rattled off a 10-0 run. It was punctuated by a Stovall 3-pointer, his second in shaking the slow start. But the key that turned the lock was back-to-back buckets by Jaquan Fisher on the baseline, fed by Zach Martin exploiting the zone’s soft spot at the free-throw line.

(click on this link for the full story and other game scores)

By Austin Hertzog

It may feel like the winter scholastic sports season has just begun. Nevertheless, its postseason is upon us.

The structure of the District 1 basketball playoffs fully came to light last week.

The delayed season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent fallout has forced significant changes on the postseason picture.

Here is the basketball look at the postseason for District 1:

The basketball postseason will follow the same format used in team sports in the fall with only district champions advancing to the PIAA tournament. It’s a drastic change for District 1, especially in Class 6A where 11 girls and 10 boys teams advanced last year.

The single-elimination postseason will begin on March 6 or later. Fields will be set on March 3. The modified District 1 tournament will feature 20 qualifiers in Class 6A and 10 in 5A. In 4A, two boys and four girls teams will qualify.

The boys and girls District 1 champions will begin at various round of their respective PIAA tournaments. PIAA Class 4A-6A championship games will take place March 25-27 at Giant Center in Hershey.

Boys Class 6A >> 20 qualifiers. Dates: first round, March 6; second round, March 9; quarterfinals, March 12; semifinals, March 16; championship March 19. The District 1 winner advances to the PIAA semifinals on March 23 against the District 11 or 12 champion with the championship taking place March 27.

(click on this link for the full basketball playoff story as well as for other playoff sports)

As juniors, both Garnet Valley’s Carl Schaller and Haverford’s John Seidman were boys basketball All-Delcos last year after leading historic charges into the postseason.

Friday, they shared an even rarer distinction: Collecting their 1,000th career points on the same night.

Schaller scored the five points he needed to crack 1,000 for his career in the first quarter, on the way to a game-high 17 in a 44-29 win over Springfield.

Schaller is the seventh Garnet Valley player to enter the 1,000-point club and just the fourth to spend his entire career at GV. Two of those 1,000-point Jaguars (Andrew Louden, Ryan Laughlin) have come in the last six years.

Justin Langan scored 12 points, and Gannon McKee added eight for GV. Springfield had seven players score, led by seven points from Mike O’Donnell.

In the other Central League game of the night, Seidman had plenty of help in forging a 50-23 win over Ridley. He scored only six points, but a layup early in the third quarter got him to 1,000. He’s just the fifth player in program history and first since Chris Dougherty in 2001 to hit the milestone.

Nick Colucci scored 12 points, and JR Newman added 10 points. Hunter Kraiza contributed eight points.

(click on this link for more game scores)

 

By Josh Verlin

Francis Bowe had plenty to wonder about his current squad. The Archbishop Carroll head coach had seen his program ripped apart after last year’s 17-win season, both by graduation and transfer, as several would-be key returning players left back in the fall due to COVID uncertainty. 

With only one starter back and knowing that several freshmen were going to have to play big minutes right away, Bowe needed someone from last year’s bench to step up into a starring role. 

Enter Caleb Carter.

(click on this link for the full story)