Delcohoops.com

By Bruce Adams

Keyed by an aggressive defense, Coatesville, the first-place finisher in the Ches-Mont National Division, defeated Sun Valley, the second-place finisher in the Ches-Mont American Division, 54-28, in the Ches-Mont Boys Basketball Tournament semifinals Saturday at West Chester University.

With its win, Coatesville (17-6) will face West Chester Henderson, the second-place finisher in National Division, in the Ches-Mont Tournament championship game Tuesday at West Chester University. The Warriors defeated American Division top seed Unionville 61-58 in overtime in the other Ches-Mont semifinal Saturday.

“We wanted to be aggressive today, that’s our style of play,” Coatesville coach John Allen said. “I think we played well, and it was great to have Larry (Brown) back tonight. He really helped us with our pressure defense. I thought our rebounding was tougher tonight than it was in the past few games.”

Sun Valley head coach Steve Maloney was impressed with the Red Raiders’ effort.

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By Owen McCue

When Radnor senior Kessy Cox perused through a preseason article on the Central League earlier this winter, he couldn’t find any mention of the league’s defending champions. 

Under favorites? Nope. Dark horses? Nope. Players to watch? Nope.

He sent the link to the team’s group chat with the note: “Let’s keep this with us throughout the year.”

Continuing to carry a chip on its shoulder, No. 2 Radnor downed No. 3 Conestoga, 55-50, in Saturday’s Central League semifinal. Despite graduating four starters and a few others from the rotation of last year’s team that won the program’s first league title in at least 50 years, the Raptors will be back in the Central League title game for the third straight year.

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By Matt Smith

All four teams left standing in the Central League girls tournament have a legitimate chance to win it all. No. 1 Haverford has three losses on its ledger, one against No. 2 Conestoga and another at the hands of No. 5 Penncrest.

While the Fords are riding high on an eight-game winning streak, and they are the reigning champions, they’ll have their hands full against a confident Penncrest team coming off a 40-39 victory over No. 4 Radnor in the quarterfinals. Haverford hosts Penncrest in the semifinal round Saturday at 7.

“It’s not always pretty with us,” Haverford coach Lauren Pellicane said last week, “but if you’re up on the scoreboard, it doesn’t always have to be.”

Conestoga’s two defeats were against Haverford in January and No. 3 Garnet Valley on the final day of the regular season. The Jaguars’ other two losses were to Haverford.

These “final four” games can go either way.

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Blaize Eldridge was in spectacular form Thursday night to help Sun Valley complete an amazing comeback in a Ches-Mont League tournament game.

Eldridge scored 33 points, pushing the Vanguards back from what was an early 20-point deficit, en route to a 62-58 win over Downingtown West.

Noah Griffin scored 13 points for the Vanguards, and Kaiden Robinson added 12. Sun Valley trailed, 24-4, early.  With the victory, the Vanguards (15-8) move to the Ches-Mont semis, where they’ll take on Coatesville at West Chester University Saturday at 5 p.m. It’s the third straight 15-win season for Sun Valley.

In the Bicentennial League:

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Episcopal Academy closed the game with 12 unanswered points and claimed a 50-43 win over Agnes Irwin in Inter-Ac League girls basketball action Friday.

Natalie Magnotta paced the Churchwomen with 27 points. Bella Notaro chipped in 11.

Simone Harvey led all Agnes Irwin players with 10 points.

In the Catholic League:

Cardinal O’Hara 63, Conwell-Egan 36 >> Molly Rullo tallied 16 points and Joanie Quinn added 10 for the Lions (19-2, 9-1), who clinched the No. 2 seed in next week’s Catholic League tournament.

Michelle Eburuoh and Carly Coleman had eight points apiece.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

It’s a team game, Matt Gardler and Jake Sniras would caution you Thursday night. Someone’s got to defend, to be ready to take a pass or to provide a feed.

But if you distilled the Central League playoff game between Marple Newtown and Garnet Valley into its purest essence, you’d be left with a lot of Gardler, a lot of Sniras and the quandary of whether a game of HORSE or one-on-one between them would be more compelling.

On the final tally, Gardler and Sniras were separated by one point. Their teams were separated by one point, too. And it was provided by Gardler, his buzzer-beating 12-footer in double overtime securing fifth-seeded Marple Newtown with a 69-68 win.

“Just try to get to the rim,” Gardler said. “We’re down by one, so I tried to do that there. My coaches always tell me to do that jump stop, pivot, pull up. That’s a move I’m trying to implant into my game. I practice that again.”

It’s Gardler’s second buzzer-beater of the week, having hit a 3-pointer at the horn to dispatch Penncrest on Tuesday. (Garnet Valley beat Penncrest on a buzzer-beater two weeks ago.)

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