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Delco Christian finds reversal of fortune against Lower Moreland

01/13/2016, 12:00am EST
By Josh Verlin

Wyatt Harkins (above) and Delco Christian earned some revenge with a 75-48 win over Lower Moreland on Tuesday night. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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After getting beaten by 36 points and 30 points at the hands of Lower Moreland last year, Delco Christian was hoping for a measure of revenge on Tuesday night on its home court.

Instead, what they got was another blowout. Another game where the fourth quarter was basically meaningless, where one team left feeling really good about itself for an evening while the other wondered what just happened for 32 minutes.

A familiar atmosphere.

Except this time, it was the Knights who were the ones running away to an ever-increasing lead, walking away celebrating after a 75-48 win over the defending Bicentennial Athletic League champions.

“We couldn’t let them come in here and embarrass us again,” said senior guard Wyatt Harkins, who dropped 23 points in the win. “I thought we had the potential to win and I knew we could...but I didn’t think it was going to be like this.

“It showed what we really can do when everyone starts to buy in again,” he added.

It was in mid-January a year ago that Delco Christian (8-5, 5-4 BAL) started to figure itself out. After a 2-10 start to the season, the Knights turned it around to win 12 of their next 15 games; their only losses came in the two matchups with Lower Moreland and one more at Bristol.

That run took them straight through the District 1 Class A championship and into the second round of the state tournament, where they bowed out to Millersville.

“This is the same time last year that we went on our run,” head coach Don Davis said, “and so hopefully we’re going to hit our stride here and start playing up to our potential.”

An up-and-down start to the season for a team with high hopes for the 2015-16 season can partially be attributed to injuries, as starting big man Grant Fischer (knee), starting forward Jordan Parks (thumb) and reserve guard T.J. Tann (ankle) all missed a few games and were not their usual selves for longer stretches.

Coming off a loss to Jenkintown on Saturday, the Knights are hoping this was the one that locked them into winning mode the rest of the year. A team meeting held before the Lower Moreland game, like a similar meeting held last season, seems to have done the trick--at least for one game.


Grant Fischer (above, left) only missed one of his 10 shots en route to 21 points. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

"We knew we weren’t doing as well as we thought we should be this year, 7-5 is not really where we wanted to be at,” Harkins said. “We met a little bit before this game...talked some team stuff over, and tonight at least everyone bought in, so if we continue this it could look the same way it did last year.”

Fischer showed that he’s certainly feeling better, as the 6-foot-5 forward dropped 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting in the win over Lower Moreland. He was one of three Delco players in double figures, along with junior guard Devin Hill (24 points, nine rebounds).

The big man got it rolling in the second quarter, when he connected on all five of his shots to help his team break what had been a 13-13 game after one quarter and turn it into a 36-23 advantage for the Knights at halftime.

He also made all three of his shots in the decisive third quarter, which saw Lower Moreland (10-2, 4-2) close the gap from 15 to 10 three minutes in before an 8-0 run by Delco ended the Lions’ last bit of momentum.

“In a lot of ways he’s the key to our team: holds down the middle, rebounds the basketball for us, helps lead us,” Davis said of Fischer, who also had seven rebounds. “We tried earlier in the season to play him out a little bit...we just need him around the hoop for everything that he does for us in the lane.”

Lower Moreland star Danny Duffey, the two-time defending Bicentennial Athletic Player of the year, led his team with 15 points but struggled with fouls, picking up his third just before half and his fourth with 10 seconds left in the third. The 5-10 senior point guard fouled out 1:25 into the fourth quarter, though there wasn’t much he could have done to save an offensive attack whose collective shot just wasn’t falling.

The Lions were a collective 1-of-22 (4.5 percent) from the 3-point arc--including 0-for-14 through the first three quarters--and just 17-of-59 (28.8 percent) overall. That was in stark contrast to a Delco squad that, when it could break a Lower Moreland press that forced nearly 20 turnovers, shot a combined 28-of-40 (70.0 percent) as a team thanks to a high number of layups.

“They’re easier shots because they’re throwing all the pressure up front,” Davis said. “(When) we took care of the basketball, made the right pass, we then got an easier shot on the back side.”

Delco Christian has a few days to see if the momentum will carry over, with a week until their next game: at home, next Tuesday against a Church Farm squad that boasts a few Division I prospects in the frontcourt led by 6-10 sophomore Fred Odhiambo.

But they certainly know now they have some serious potential, perhaps to even be better than they were a year ago.

“I think if we come out and execute our offense than we can beat anyone in the league,” Fischer said. “As a team, we’re super-talented, we have to play up to our potential.”


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