City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Jack Chodkowski knows he shot it too early

There were more than four seconds left on the third-quarter clock when the Harriton senior came up with a loose ball under the Springfield basket, taking a couple dribbles and looking up at the rim, not yet at midcourt, and figured he might as well.

“I thought to myself, I don’t have many chances to shoot half-court shots as any buzzer-beater, so, might as well try it,” he said. 

There were more than two seconds left when the ball left Chodhowski’s fingers, enough that he could have taken another dribble up the court, or tried to see if a teammate could get a better look. But he had clear space in front of him, eyes locked on the hoop, the decision already made.

“One of our [assistant] coaches was like ‘you have time!,’” Harriton head coach Jesse Rappaport said. 

“I’m on the bench like, ‘yo, why’d you shoot that?’” junior guard Marquis Kubish added. 

“It was totally early,” Chodkowski admitted, “but thank God I made it.”

Chodkowski’s chuck gave the Rams more than a one-point lead going into the fourth quarter; it gave them a major adrenaline boost in an early Central League game. Riding that wave, Harriton closed strong, getting a couple clutch shots down the stretch to come away with a 50-47 win and stay unbeaten five games into the season. 

It’s the first time Harriton (5-0, 2-0 Central) has won its first five games since the 2014-15 season, in Rappaport’s first stint as the Rams’ coach, which lasted from 2007-17; he came back in 2020, and seems to have his best team since his return. 

The hot start comes with one of its starting guards, junior Jadyn Gaskins, sidelined with his ankle in a boot, the injury suffered before Thanksgiving. His classmate Kubish, a 6-foot-2 guard, has stepped up, scoring 30 points in a win over Interboro and adding a team-high 17 against Springfield, including going six-for-six from the line in the fourth quarter.

“I’ve been trying to get my teammates more involved than myself,” he said, “but if the game comes to me, I just score.”

“Tonight he showed the whole package,” Rappaport said. “He has a really good feel for the game and we need him to be a defender and a leader, and he’s been really good down the stretch.”

Besides Chodkowski, the other clutch shot came off the fingers off senior guard Aidan Abrams, who put Harriton up for good with a step-back 3-pointer with 3:30 remaining. Abrams finished with seven points (as did Chodkowski), with four assists and three rebounds.

Sophomore wing guard Calvin Smith, who’s 6-3 with a good upside, had 13 points, three rebounds, four steals and two assists, hitting a pair of 3-pointers; his 3-point play immediately after Abrams’ shot helped Harriton get the space it needed to hold off a 3-point happy Cougars’ squad.

Springfield (1-4, 0-2) was led by junior guard Jake Adams, who hit four 3-pointers en route to an 18-point night, while junior forward Colin Trude added a 13-point, 13-rebound double-double. The Cougars led 27-19 at halftime, but a 16-7 third quarter capped by Chodkowski’s shot flipped the momentum back to the hosts.

Harriton’s basketball program (and, speaking as an alum, the school itself) has always been the little brother to Lower Merion, which had traditionally been the larger public school in the two-school district, but has inched closer in stature since the two schools evened out in size during a redistricting a little more than a decade ago. 

The Aces (4-1, 1-1) are the defending Central League champs twice over and feature Penn commit Sam Brown, but any hot start by Harriton’s going to have the Rams students thinking about pulling the upset.

“Kids in school will come up to you and be like ‘hey, are you going to beat Lower Merion this year?’” Chodkowski said. “I always stay positive so I’m like yeah, we’ve got a great shot this year, we’ve got a great team; especially being 5-0, I think there’s a little bit of buzz in the school.”

Harriton’s win total is just one shy of last year’s squad, which finished 6-15 and out of the District 1 5A playoffs. While it would seem that the Rams are on their way to easily surpassing that, there’s no avoiding the daunting league slate ahead, with 16 games left. Easy wins are tough to come by in the Central League, with league favorites Radnor — who opened up 25-0 on Penncrest en route to a 60-30 win Tuesday — coming to Harriton Thursday night. 

“We know this league is really hard, so we’re not, we’re feeling good but there’s nothing to celebrate yet or anything,” Rappaport said. “We’re enjoying the experience, but we also know it just gets harder and harder.”

By Quarter
Harriton:       11  |   8   |  16  |  15  ||  50
Springfield:  15  |  12  |   7   |  13  ||  47

Shooting
Harriton: 15-36 FG (9-19 3PT), 10-13 FT
Springfield: 16-45 (6-26 3PT), 9-10 FT

Scoring
Harriton: Kubish 17, Smith 13, Abrams 7, Chodkowski 7, Goerlich 3
Springfield: Adams 18, Treude 13, O’Donnell 9, Hoey 3, Johnson 2, Kreydt 2