City of Basketball Love

CoBL Staff (@jmverlin)
--

In addition to CoBL’s game coverage, here are several other notes and results from around the first night of the District 1 AAAA playoffs:

Top seeds survive upsets
District 1 looked wide-open heading into the 2016 postseason, and the first night of the playoffs certainly seemed to feed right into that notion. Only one of the top six seeds lost, with Abington losing to Upper Dublin, but Coatesville and Ridley barely survived tough contests on their home floor.

The Raiders, who just won the Ches-Mont league title and have only one blemish on their record, barely survived against Bensalem, the No. 32 seed. Trailing 40-39 with just 13 seconds left, Justus Martinez scored a bucket in the paint to give Coatesville the lead.

Then, one stop and two free throws later, the Raiders survived with a 43-40 win to grab their third consecutive win by four points or less. Coatesville will take on CB East Tuesday night.

No. 29 seed North Penn gave all Ridley they could handle, but the No. 4 seed Raiders survived despite a slow start, scoring only four points in the opening quarter.

Julius Wing, Ryan Bollinger, and Brett Foster delivered late for Ridley, helping see them through to a second round matchup with dangerous Perkiomen Valley.

Bollinger hit a three with 11 seconds left to give the Raiders a 61-59 lead, that was clinched when a last-second attempt by Ricky Johns of North Penn missed. --Anthony Dabbundo

~~~

Upper Dublin pulls shocker of the night
Upper Dublin coach Josh Adelman knew that his Cardinals team was not a typical 27-seed. Adelman’s team was shorthanded to start the season due to players like leading-scorer Ryan Stover still playing football. This led to an abysmal 1-7 start to their campaign. Once Stover and others returned however, it was a different story.

The Cardinals ended their regular season by winning 10 of their final 14 games. Their record bought them a No. 27 seed and a matchup against No. 6 seeded Abington.

The final sequence of the game was a wild one. Down two points in the game’s final seconds, Upper Dublin got a 3-pointer from John Bartlett and then a block on Abington’s Robbie Heath on the other end to escape with a 41-40 win on the road.

Barrett’s trey was assisted by Stover, who drew the primary attention of the Ghosts’ defense.

“He drew a lot of attention,” Adelman said over the phone, “and John, who hasn't hit a three pointer all night got set up on the wing. Ryan Stover hit him with a beautiful pass and John just got a beautiful look at it. It had great arc, and from the sideline we knew it was going in--and swish. It was awesome.”

That was the only time all game Upper Dublin led, and that was all it needed.

This was a big statement win for the Cardinals, beating the defending district champions and ending the Ghosts’ season in one fell swoop. While Upper Dublin had been winning games of late, they felt they needed that one key victory to signify that they were for real.

“We knew we were not a normal 27-seed, and we proved it tonight,” Adelman said.

Barrett finished with 18 points to lead Upper Dublin, while Will Derr had 14 and the key block on Heath to end the game.

The Cardinals now put their focus toward Tuesday and their matchup against 11-seed Lower Merion, who also advanced on a game-winning three.

“I'm going to have to do a lot of film study because I don't know a lot about them,” Adelman commented. “I know coach (Gregg) Downer over the years has run such a good program, so I know they're going to be a tough, tough team. We'll take a look at film and prepare.” --Danny Holdsman

~~~

Hatboro handles Haven
Strath Haven had been one of the pleasant surprises of the 2015-16 high school season, emerging out of nowhere to win 19 games, come in second place in the Central League and earn the No. 8 seed in the district tournament.

So what happened to the Panthers in the first round of the tournament was surprising, as No. 25 Hatboro-Horsham came into Haven and rolled to a 68-45 win.

The Hatters’ win was one of five upsets in the first round, along with Upper Dublin, No. 18 Academy Park (over No. 15 Upper Merion), No. 20 Perkiomen Valley (over No. 13 Cheltenham) and No. 17 C.B. East, who beat No. 16 Pennsbury. It was by far the widest margin of victory in a game that was led from start to finish.

Junior big man Clifton Moore, a 6-8 forward, had 28 points in the win, including going 5-of-6 from 3-point range; The Intelligencer’s Joe Fite has full details on Moore’s big night.

Hatboro-Horsham has a tough draw in the second round, having to travel down to No. 9 Chester; the Clippers disposed of No. 24 Council Rock North 53-27 in their first round game. Chester is on a mission to get back to the state playoffs after having a two-decade streak snapped last year, and the Hatters will certainly face a raucous atmosphere at the Clip Joint. --Josh Verlin