Delcohoops.com

By Matthew De George

Way back in November, when Wayne Jones inquired about his son trying out for the freshman boys basketball team at Interboro, varsity coach Billy Rowe had other ideas.

With a staff grounded in special education, Rowe took one look at Colin — who has Down syndrome and a steadfast passion for hoops — and offered Wayne a different path. He’ll be with us on varsity, Rowe said, on the practice court every day and on the bench as a manager. As for playing time, Rowe assured Wayne they’d figure out something down the road.

That path reached a touching milestone Saturday when Jones, a freshman guard, scored not one but two baskets, starting and ending a nonleague game with Sun Valley, in what went down as a 66-56 Bucs loss.

That fact occupied secondary importance to the throng of family and friends — about 70 in total, enough to sell out the Sun Valley concessions stands early — that packed the stands for a matinee between two sub-.500 teams playing out the string. Wielding signs and oversized pictures of Colin’s face, the fan section roared at every basket Jones made in pregame layup lanes (at a pretty healthy percentage). The spectators erupted when he hit his in-game field goals, Jones returning to the bench to a pack of high fives and hugs.

“It felt awesome,” Colin said. “I had fun. It was like Steph Curry,” his favorite player.

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By Josh Verlin  & Anthony Dabbundo

The margin for error in the Central League playoffs is razor-thin.

Take a look at Lower Merion, which enters Sunday’s semifinal against Penncrest (4:00 PM, Harriton HS) on a five-game winning streak. The Aces, which earned the No. 2 seed in the Central with a 13-3 record (15-7 overall), beat regular-season champ Conestoga and the No. 3 seed Penncrest to begin that run, though each was about as close as it gets — Lower Merion won both games by identical 58-56 scores.

So despite holding wins over the other three playoff teams, the Aces know they don’t hold any more of an edge than any of their opponents.

“The four teams that go to the league semis, they all have a chance and our hope is to somehow survive and get to the championship,” Lower Merion coach Gregg Downer said. “And of course if you’re in the championship, anything can happen.”

One of the league’s traditional powerhouses, Lower Merion hasn’t won the Central League in three years, as Ridley has taken each of the last two titles.

If the Aces hope to get past the Lions and into Tuesday’s championship, they’ll have to limit the effectiveness of Penncrest junior Tyler Norwood. The do-everything 5-foot-10 guard is one of the favorites for the league’s MVP award; he scored 22 on Lower Merion the first time around.

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By Matthew De George

Four possessions into the second quarter Saturday, Sun Valley head coach Steve Maloney called a timeout to reprimand his players’ hasty play.

The Vanguards were controlling the early stages of what would become a 66-56 nonleague win over Interboro, but the key to that control would be dictating a more measured pace. The response from his charges was a run of 15 points in the last six minutes of the half, followed by 23 points in the third quarter.

The pivot illustrates the two sides of the Vanguards as they wrap up a 6-16 season: The talent they possess, albeit with a youthful edge.

Sun Valley finishes with two wins in its last five games, but the other three losses were by seven points or fewer. That’s reason for short-term frustration and long-term hope.

“I think a big thing we really need to work on is finishing games,” sophomore captain Vinny DeAngelo said. “We were in a lot of games and it got to the third or fourth quarter, and we let it get away. As a young team, I think we can really build on winning a lot of games by finishing.”

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By Matthew De George

Damir Fleming scored 12 of his game-high 20 points in the first quarter as Ridley capped its season with a 61-51 win over Upper Darby.

Fleming’s early offense helped the Green Raiders (11-11 overall, 8-8 Central League) run out to a 17-5 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.

Liam Thompson scored 12 points, and Jimmy Bramwell added 10 for Ridley.

Noah Walker led Upper Darby (6-15, 5-11) with 15 points. Magd Adelwehab added 13, and Bayir Hodges tallied 10.

In nonleague action:

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By Josh Verlin

All season long, Penncrest has relied on Tyler Norwood to carry the load offensively. And it was a job the junior guard filled well, leading his team to a berth in the Central League playoffs as well as a top-5 seed in the District 1 5A playoffs.

But Lions head coach Mike Doyle was still waiting to see how his team would respond when his star guard finally had an off night from the floor. And on the final game of the regular season, he got the answer he wanted.

With the whole Penncrest squad struggling to hit shots, the Lions buckled down on the defensive end against a desperate Marple Newtown squad en route to a 43-28 road win.

“It’s a huge win for us,” Doyle said. “Marple had just won four in a row, they’d just beat some high-level teams.

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By Matthew De George

Colin Daly didn’t give a second thought to his routine after missing the first of what he thought to be two free throws early in the fourth quarter Friday night.

Nonchalantly, with Daly assuming a second attempt was coming after he was hacked under the rim, the Archbishop Carroll senior guard calmly took two steps into the lane, grabbed the carom off back iron, unhindered by the players in the blocks. Instead of returning the ball to the ref, Daly casually flicked his wrists, sending the ball into the hoop.

About the time the shot swished home, everyone else on the court realized that Daly’s post-shot drill was with a live ball, and that he had cashed in a free offensive board and second-chance bucket offered by a Bonner & Prendergast team caught unaware.

“I think the announcer said two shots or I don’t know why I thought it was two shots,” Daly said. “So I was just doing a practice shot to make the second one, but it was one-and-one so it counted. No one boxed me out.”

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