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Penncrest’s season concluded Saturday afternoon via a 35-22 loss at Downingtown East in playbacks of the District 1 Class 6A tournament.

The Lions were attempting to clinch either ninth, 10th, 11th or 12th place in the district. The top 12 finishers from District 1 qualify for the PIAA Class 6A .

Penncrest managed only one point in the first quarter and never hit its stride on offense. Kathryn Harding scored nine of her team-high 14 points in the second half, while Lila Curci added six points off the bench.

Kendall Chiavelli scored 16 points for Downingtown. The Cougars host West Chester Henderson in their next playback game.

By Matthew DeGeorge

Keara McCaffrey looked to the bench in dismay Saturday afternoon. There were 62 seconds remaining in the third quarter, and the Sacred Heart center had just picked up her fourth personal foul.

There was some question whether the hand check was even on her, enough to delay her immediate substation from the game. But McCaffrey wasn’t looking for a chance to sit and sulk, not in a District 1 Class 2A final in which her Lions only led by 10. Less so when Delco Christian cut the deficit to six at the end of the third.

Instead, McCaffrey’s toughness – in the low blocks and between the ears – helped Sacred Heart tip the game in its favor.

McCaffrey stitched together four straight exemplary defensive possessions to start the fourth quarter, time to allow Dani Jeffries to kickstart a 13-0 run that gave Sacred Heart a 53-36 win over Delco Christian at Bensalem High School.

The win is the Lions’ seventh District 1 crown in eight seasons. It also secures second-seeded Sacred Heart the district’s only states bid.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

Brean Rudd-Cook’s assignment coming into Saturday’s District 1 Class A final was clear. By the end of the first quarter, he would add another layer to it.

The athletic Chester Charter Scholars Academy wing was tasked on the defensive end with making sure that Peter Haviland, Phil-Mont Christian’s most dangerous perimeter scorer, couldn’t get going. When Emohj Barrett was the first of several Sabers felled by foul trouble, Rudd-Cook knew he’d have to redouble his efforts on the glass, too.

Add in a few clutch 3-pointers, and Rudd-Cook ended up executing it all about as well as possible.

Rudd-Cook scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds, as Chester Charter’s defense stifled Haviland and company on the way to a 62-51 victory at Bensalem High and a second straight district title.

Haviland scored 15 points. But it was a quiet outing from him. He went just 3-for-9 from the field, and he had the only two makes for Phil-Mont Christian from 3-point range in a frustrating 2-for-17 afternoon.

Without Haviland hitting jumpers, the Falcons were short on offensive solutions, as a second quarter in which they didn’t score from the field showed.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

Jalen Harris is normally a man of few words. But Friday night, the sophomore guard needed only to utter a few words to get his point across.

“It’s playing hard defense,” Harris said. “That’s what we bring off the bench.”

Harris and his twin brother Daron helped turn the tide in a District 1 Class 6A quarterfinal, shackling what looked like an explosive Coatesville team in a 67-64 win.

The win sends the fourth-seeded Clippers (20-2) to Tuesday’s semifinal round against top-seeded Lower Merion. It also avenges one of the only two losses this year, to the fifth-seeded Red Raiders (19-7).

It was a return to classic form for the Clippers, in a matchup of district bluebloods. They forced 13 turnovers, while committing 16. But it was solid, man-on, you’re-not-getting-by-me defense that turned Coatesville’s early offensive parade into late frustration, led by the sophomore twins who don’t start but played a bulk of the minutes.

Coatesville looked like it was going to follow the same pathway as the regular-season meeting early. The Red Raiders led 21-14 after one quarter and 34-26 at half thanks to an opening 16 minutes of crisp execution, with Dior Kennedy (10 points) and Zuri Harris (7 points) leading the way.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

When Lower Merion turns it on, it’s hard to keep in control. Springfield found that out Friday night.

John Mobley led four Aces in double figures with 16 points as top-seeded Lower Merion ran away with a 66-51 win over Central League foe Springfield in the District 1 Class 6A quarterfinals.

Lower Merion outscored Springfield, 30-15, in the middle two quarters to open up a game where the 24th-seeded Cougars trailed by just one after eight minutes.

Jake Adams scored seven of his team-high 14 points in the first quarter. Ryan Johnston added 12 points, and TJ Valletti had 11 for the Cougars, who will enter playbacks for seeding, having already secured one of the district’s 10 states berths.

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By Matt Smith

There was that feeling, you can only say what it is in French, watching Radnor hemorrhage basket after basket in the first quarter of Friday’s District 1 Class 5A playback game.

Last season Kate Gallagher, Anna Reger and the Raptors were bounced in the first round of the tournament in shocking fashion. The team responsible – a Phoenixville squad with a lot of frontcourt size and strength – was back for an encore.

The Phantoms were cruising along early Friday night. One of their two imposing bigs, Maliyah Warren, was having a field day inside the paint. It was the same old story, play after play, over and over. She scored every time. For Radnor, it was déjà vu.

“We had to start playing our game,” said Gallagher, the Raptors’ dynamic senior guard. “We didn’t forget how they ended our season a lot sooner than we would have liked. We didn’t want that happening again.”

Gallagher, Reger and senior forward/center Blayse Jennings spearheaded an amazing turnaround. Trailing by 13 points in the second quarter, Radnor led by as many as 26 in the second half and won 66-57 to secure a berth in the PIAA Class 5A tournament next month.

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