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Haverford School closes strong against Phelps

12/15/2017, 1:45am EST
By Josh Verlin

Kharon Randolph (above) and the Haverford School overcame Phelps in the fourth quarter on Thursday. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The Haverford School knows if it’s going to win its first Inter-Academic League boys basketball championship since 1999, it’s not going to do so with 10 consecutive blowouts. There are going to be close games, crucial crunch time possessions; the nerves setting in, the adrenaline rushing.

So Bernie Rogers’ hope for his Fords in the 13 games they’ll play before Inter-Ac competition begins in January was that they would be challenged, that they’d get a chance to work out the late-game kinks in live-game action before it really mattered. For there’s no postseason in the Inter-Ac, no second chance if a stray game or two gets away in the regular season. Finish second, like they did last year, and it’s just a long offseason of waiting and working.

Fords got what he wanted on Thursday afternoon, when a Phelps School squad with age and size advantages led the Haverford School for the vast majority of the first three quarters. And Rogers couldn’t have asked for much more out of his bunch, which closed out a 71-66 win in fine fashion.

The Fords were nearly perfect in the fourth quarter, hitting five of their six shots from the floor and 17-of-18 from the foul line.

“I think we just stayed the course throughout the game, we stayed consistent,” senior guard Kharon Randolph said. “The shots that we weren’t hitting in the first half were the shots that fell in the second half. It was just trusting what we do as a team and just keep on doing that throughout the game and things will happen for us.”

Randolph finished with 21 points, 13 of which came in the final stanza. He hit two 3-pointers, one of which became a four-point play, to help the Haverford School stay within a bucket or two of Phelps through the opening few minutes of the fourth quarter.

Junior guard Gavin Burke, a Villanova lacrosse commit, finally put Haverford up three, 57-54, with just over three minutes remaining. From that point on, it was just a matter of making the freebies -- and the Fords couldn’t miss.

Burke was 8-for-8 from the stripe in those final three minutes. Randolph was 5-for-5, including that and-one on the trey. Junior forward Christian Ray, who led all scorers with 23 points, was 4-for-4 after missing an attempt at a 3-point play earlier in the quarter.

“I thought our guys did a good job of taking a deep breath at halftime and they started to find more comfortable shots in the second half,” Rogers said. “And making foul shots down the stretch is always huge when you have a lead.”

Randolph, Ray and Burke, as well as juniors Asim Richards and Jameer Nelson Jr. make up the starting lineup, the exact same starting group that Rogers trotted out a year ago.

Despite having the same rotation as a year ago, both coach and players agreed there’s still a feeling-out period at the beginning of the season.

“It’s not as easy as you’d think...even though we have the same team from last year, everybody’s role has increased, and our roles changed a little bit,” Randolph said. “We’re still getting adjusted to what we’re doing this year, as the same group but different roles.

“I scored a lot last year but I have got to facilitate more,” the University of he Sciences (Pa.) commit explained. “Gavin’s taking on more of a scoring role, C-Ray is doing everything on the floor. Jameer is taking on more of a scoring role. We’re all having increased roles, and it’s about us filling those roles and adjusting to it.”

Nelson, a 5-11 guard, only scored six points but grabbed eight rebounds, four assists and two steals. Richards, a 6-5 forward and D-I football prospect, struggled with Phelps forwards, 6-8 Yagi Selcuk (14 points, eight rebounds) and 6-9 Carl Campbell (10 points, six rebounds).

Beating Phelps means the Haverford School is off to a 5-1 start, the lone loss coming by 12 to the Perkiomen School two weeks ago.

Rogers saw similarities between that game and Thursday’s, against two prep schools that featured fifth-year

“What we did a better job of this game than Perkiomen, it was a four-point game in the fourth quarter [against Perkiomen] and we didn’t get what we wanted a couple of possessions,” Rogers said. “Where I think today we took a deep breath, and got the shots we wanted, from where we wanted.

“I think we’re learning,” he added, “and it’s nice to win while you’re learning.”


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