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District 1 2A: Henriquez-Peralta, Church Farm a winning match

02/26/2022, 9:45pm EST
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)

ROSEMONT — Church Farm head coach Jonathan Guarente didn’t know much about Gavriel Henriquez-Peralta when the junior arrived at the Chester County school last fall. The Queens native had heard about Church Farm through Layton McKenzie, a New York knative who’d just worked at CFS for a year and thought the high-academic boarding school outside Exton might be a good landing spot for the young ballplayer. 

“I just said he’s welcome to come on board [...] we’ll figure it out when he gets here,” Guarente said. “When I found out he was unselfish, that he was a straight ‘A’ student, I said we’ll make it work.”

As it turns out, McKenzie’s recommendation was a great one. 

 


Gavriel Henriquez-Peraltra (above) had nine assists and six points in Church Farm's district championship win. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Henriquez-Peralta made an impact on the Griffins’ program from the get-go, then played a valuable role as the squad’s sixth man during the regular season. But with the team’s second-leading scorer, classmate Cooper Shivers, sidelined for the playoffs due to PIAA transfer regulations, he slid into the starting lineup, and Church Farm hasn’t missed a beat.

With Henriquez-Peralta setting the tone on both ends, the Griffins captured the District 1 Class 2A championship on Saturday, running away from Bicentennial Athletic League foe Delaware County Christian for a 72-41 victory.

It’s the first district title for Church Farm since 2017, and the seventh in the program’s history. And Henriquez-Peraltra had his fingerprints all over it.

Though he only scored six points, Henriquez-Peralta dished out nine assists, setting the tone for an attack that gathered 18 assists on 29 buckets, while also grabbing five rebounds. He was continuously finding teammates on the move, getting into the lane and flicking the ball out to a waiting shooter, rarely taking a peek at the rim for his own volition.

On the defensive end, he was constantly pestering Delco Christian ball-handlers, a major reason why the Knights committed 32 turnovers on the afternoon.

“If I’m on the bench, I’m (in a) starting spot, I come out of the game the same way, I come out hard no matter where I am,” he said. “But [...] since I’m starting, it’s a bigger role, I’m the point guard, I have to control the team. 

“But I’ve got my friends, got my brothers with me, so I’ll be alright.”

Church Farm poses with the 2022 District 1 2A championship trophy. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

“Gavriel came, just showed up on campus and he’s been a blessing ever since,” said Guarente, who took over the CFS program from Marc Turner before the 2019-20 season. “Not only is he a great basketball player, he’s one of the smartest kids in the school [...] from the first time he stepped on campus, he was leading the team, as if he’d known these kids their entire lives. Because they respect him, he helps them in the classroom, he helps them on the court.

“He knew all of my sets within a day or two, and at the beginning of the year, when we were trying to get ourselves together, he was the one coaching as much as I was. It’s nice to see him come full-circle that he was able to lead us to a victory at the end.”

After missing his freshman year of basketball due to injury and his sophomore season at Epic South (N.Y.) due to COVID, Henriquez-Peralta wasn’t sure what to expect when he arrived at Church Farm, which also had sat out last season due to the pandemic. Now he’s going to be playing against the best of what the rest of the state has to offer in the 2A classification.

“I wasn’t expecting it, because I didn’t know anybody when I first came to the team,” he said. “ I saw the bits and pieces we had, at first it was a little rocky, so I wasn’t sure, but now I’m pretty confident in this year and next year, I’m pretty confident.”

Church Farm (16-9), the top seed in the district’s four-team tournament, jumped on third-seeded Delco Christian (13-13) from the outset, opening up a 17-4 advantage after one quarter, by which time the Knights had committed 12 turnovers. It was a 40-18 edge at halftime, and hit the 30-point mark for a running clock just seconds into the fourth quarter. 

Henriquez-Peralta and two fellow juniors were the driving forces behind all of it. Matthew Sullivan, a 6-5 wing, scored 12 of his 15 points in the first half, adding six rebounds, three assists, five steals and a block. Brandon Hernandez, a 5-11 guard, added 11 points, four assists and five steals. 


Kazembe Okera-Anglin (above) led Church Farm with 17 points. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

The Griffin’s leading scorer was senior forward Kazembe Okera-Anglin, the recipient of a number of Henriquez-Peralta and Herndandez’s dimes before creating his own shot more as the game went on, who converted on 8-of-12 shooting (1-1 3PT) for 17 points. 

Delco’s only consistent scoring option was All-BAL selection Josh Parks, son of head coach Reggie Parks; the senior guard had 17 points, seven rebounds and four steals, the only member of his team in double figures.The Knights, who played three freshmen and a sophomore in their top seven, couldn’t get enough offensive rhythm against the Griffins’ aggressive half-court trap defense, which didn’t relent until the game was well in hand.

“We knew our strong suit is running fast, speeding people up,” Henriquez-Peralta said. “We do a lot of running in practice, so we have the speed, the stamina; we wore them down and we knew once we wore them down, (took) Parks out of the game, we knew we were good.”

Church Farm will open its state tournament bracket on Wednesday, March 9 against the third seed out of District 12, which will be a team from the Philadelphia Public League. 

With Henriquez-Peralta, Hernandez and Sullivan — along with Shivers, who averaged 15 ppg and knocked down more than 60 3-pointers during the regular season — back in the fold next year, the Griffins expect to be right back in the same spot, except with a big target on their backs.

“After this season’s over, we’re not going to stop working with each other, we’re all coming back next year,” Henriquez-Peralta said. “All of us are juniors which is a great thing, because we already have that bond with each other; this is our first year [together], we didn’t have that bond…next year’s going to be stronger since we have that bond already.”

By Quarter
Church Farm:     17  |  23  |  20  |  12  ||  72
Delco Christian:   4   |  14  |  13  |  10  ||  41

Shooting
Church Farm: 29-63 FG (7-22 3PT), 7-18 FT
Delco Christian: 11-32 FG (4-16 3PT), 15-23 FT

Scoring
Church Farm: Kazembe Okera-Anglin 17, Matthew Sullivan 15, Brandon Hernandez 11, Dominic Egu 9, Gavriel Henriquez-Peraltra 6, Jeremy Amankwah 6, Mohamed Sow 3, Daniel LaRue 3, Andre Anyimah 2

Delco Christian: Joshua Parks 17, Josh Dell’Arciprete 6, Caleb Jameson 6, Jace Kees 3, Beau Lyren 3, Josiah Ketchum 3, Josiah Gaines 2, Luke Bushra 1


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