City of Basketball Love

Zak Wolf (@ZakWolf22)
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The last name Gardler is one that holds a lot of weight at Cardinal O’Hara High School. Legendary coach Harry ‘Bud’ Gardler spent a total of 39 seasons coaching in the Philadelphia Catholic League, winning a league record 560 games in total, including 420 wins in over 30 seasons at O’Hara. Before O’Hara, Gardler coached at Bishop Kendrick, where UConn women's coach Geno Aueriemma played for him. At O’Hara, Gardler had Penn head coach Steve Donahue play for him as well. 

And once upon a time, Phil Martelli was on his coaching staff as an assistant too.  

On the same floor he coached on, his grandson Matt was able to write his own chapter in the history books on Friday. 

As a freshman, Matt Gardler showed no fear, stepping onto the floor for Marple Newtown in only their second ever state playoff game, and coming up with some of the biggest shots of the night as the Tigers came from behind to top the Pumas of Mastery North, 56-48 to advance to the final eight of the 5A bracket. 

Gardler came off the bench and hit four 3-pointers, including a buzzer-beater to end the third quarter to put Marple up four. A broken play turned into a wild shot by Gardler that was nothing but net, capping off a 9-2 spurt to end the quarter. 

In the fourth quarter he had one three that put Marple up 42-40 with 4:05 remaining, the final lead change of the night, and then a final three to put his team up five with 3:30 to play. Gardler finished with 12 points, hitting on four of his seven attempts from downtown. He also grabbed four rebounds, dished out two assists, and came with a steal and even a block on a terrific 1-on-1 defensive play.

“It was very special for me considering all the family history I have here,” Gardler said, “and I was fortunate enough to have a good game.” 

The Gardler family is one that bleeds basketball with most of the family being involved in the sport. Two of Matt’s older siblings play in college, with Matt’s older brother Tommy being a sophomore at USciences, while his sister Kenzie was a 1,000-point scorer at O’Hara who now plays Division I ball at Villanova. Before that his mother, Katie played at St. Joe’s, where she led the team in scoring for three straight seasons and was named A-10 Player of the Year in 1993.

That’s where she met her husband Chris Gardler, now an assistant at Marple, who scored 475 points in a Hawks uniform between 1989-91.

There’s a reason Matt was able to be in the position he was in on Friday. His family has always lived and breathed basketball, which allowed him to step up and be ready when his name was called upon. 

“That’s where you can tell that he doesn’t have the I.Q of a freshman, he’s light years ahead in terms of basketball I.Q and that’s why he doesn’t falter in the moment,” Marple Newtown head coach Sean Spratt said. “He’s ready to take the big shot if needed, he’s ready to come at the other team’s best player if needed. First one to show up at shootaround, last one to leave the gym after.”

Despite the big showing from Gardler on Friday, he hasn’t always been able to showcase his basketball skills this year. The freshman didn’t see much varsity action to start the year as the coaching staff tried to ease him into a bigger role. He spent most of his time on JV, watching the varsity games from the sideline, patiently waiting his turn. 

Matt Gardler (above) is the latest member of the Gardler family to stand out on the hardwood, and he's only a freshman in high school. (Photo: Dan Hilferty/CoBL)

Finally, the staff decided to let give him a chance and he hasn’t disappointed.

“Three quarters of the way through the season he got his feet wet and then we just threw him in the fire,” Spratt said. “It’s been no looking back ever since.” 

On a team with 10 seniors, it was the freshman who came up with huge plays down the stretch along with fellow underclassman P.J Esposito. The sophomore had 12 points as well, knocking down two second-quarter 3s and six clutch free throws to ice the game in the fourth quarter. 

“The young guys are talented and with our experience when you combine the two it comes to fruition,” senior Justin DiBona said. “We’ve got a ton of guys with varsity experience and when you have guys like that who aren’t afraid to take big shots, it’s great.”

DiBona had eight points, including a big four-point play to give Marple the lead in the third quarter. 

The senior played with Gardler’s brother, who was a senior when DiBona was a freshman. Now with the roles reversed DiBona is mentoring the younger Gardler, getting extra shots up together after every practice.

After Gardler’s big triples, the Tigers still needed big plays from their seniors to close it out. Eric McKee (eight points) fed Owen Mathes (five points) for a key layup, and Matt Cantwell also had his only bucket during the fourth quarter.

Seniors Tracey Knight and Kharif Oliver led the Pumas (14-6) with a game-high 13 points apiece; Oliver provided a spark off the bench with 12 points and four steals. As a team, Mastery North was 8-of-18 from downtown, including three triples in the third quarter to help them open up a seven-point lead before Marple began its comeback.

After beating Pottsville 53-43 in the first round, making it this far means a lot to Marple after they were unable to participate in states last season due to a shortened playoff. The program hadn’t been in the state playoffs since 2017 years prior, and had never won a PIAA playoff game.
Now they’re two more wins from Hershey.

“It’s quite an accomplishment,” Spratt said. “They’ve all just pulled for each other along the way, they’ve all celebrated each other’s accomplishments. When one person was down, they were there to pick them up. To see a group like this stay together for so long, it’s the cherry on top that they can end their high school experience with.”

For Mastery Charter North, their season comes to an end, albeit a couple weeks after they thought it was going to. Mastery was able to participate in the state playoff after replacing Bonner, who beat them in a District 12 seeding game but was later found to have an ineligible postseason player. 

Marple Newtown moves onto the final eight of the 5A state playoffs where they get to face the overwhelming favorites Imhotep Charter, who whacked Radnor 62-39 at Coatesville on Friday. Despite the big task, Marple will be ready to face the powerhouse. 

“We know that they’re really good, we haven’t seen them on film and we haven’t crossed paths at all,” Spratt said. “We’ll go to the drawing board and try to figure it out.” 

By Quarter
Marple Newtown:   9 |  8  | 20 | 19 || 56
Mastery Charter:    8 | 10 | 15 | 15 || 48

Scoring
Marple Newtown: Gardler 12, Esposito 12, McKee 8, DiBona 8, Small 6, Mcthes 5, Bochanski 3, Cantwell 2

Mastery Charter: Knight 13, Oliver 12, Beasley 11, Robinson 7, Brown 5