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Mosco Classic: Radnor runs past Archbishop Ryan for marquee win

12/17/2022, 9:15pm EST
By Joseph Santoliquito

By Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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WARMINSTER — Jackson Hicke isn’t the first-guy-off-the-bus type. You know the kind. The imposing figure. The intimidator. Eagles’ mammoth defensive tackle Jordan Davis sets a vivid picture.

Opposing teams see that and they tend to quake.

They don’t when they see Radnor get off the bus. If Saturday night in the Fifth Annual Diane Mosco Invitational Shootout is any indication, the Central League and any team in the PIAA District 1 Class 5A better start.

Hicke personifies Radnor.

If you didn’t know him, and area basketball folks are still finding out, you would assume Hicke, Radnor’s Princeton-bound 6-foot-5 senior, is more the Tom Holland-type with a basketball, sans the Spider-Man suit. Take a closer look and the contrary surfaces in scraped elbows and knees, and a purplish bruise under his right eye or they miss the time Hicke hit two free throws with blood pouring out of his nose.


Radnor's Jackson Hicke goes up for a shot against Archbishop Ryan on Saturday. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Hicke, along with Charlie Thornton and Danny Rosenblum, pulled off a mild surprise in a 57-42 victory over last year’s Philadelphia Catholic semifinalist Archbishop Ryan at Archbishop Wood High School.

It wasn’t so much that the undefeated Raptors (4-0) beat Ryan (3-2), it’s how they beat them.

Radnor played fearless. Every time Ryan’s 6-foot-9, 250-pound senior center Thomas Sorber touched the ball, he was met by two and sometimes three Radnor defenders. Thornton did the bulk of the inside work on Sorber, though Hicke, Cooper Mueller and Nick Monty were especially helpful inside.

Hicke finished with a game-high 24 points, 10 coming in the last quarter, with 13 from Thornton, who’s showing more consistent brilliance in this young season that used to come in flashes last year.

What was very encouraging for Radnor coach Jamie Chadwin is the work done by the supporting cast of Monty, Mueller, Henry Pierce and Michael Savadone. They all helped defend Sorber, and made key turnovers during clutch times.

“We talk about having these earned moments and opportunities to play in something prestigious like this and that’s all from the hard work and success this group had last year,” said Chadwin, whose team finished as the District 1 Class 5A runner-up to Chester last season. “It’s awesome. This is something we need. We didn’t have many opportunities like this last year.

“I wanted to see how we responded to certain situations. We trust our players to play and what we scout we trust them to make good decisions. I wanted to see if what we do in this gym against a really good team is what we do in practice.”

There were 10 lead changes in the first half, but once Hicke scored on a driving layup with 2:22 left in the second quarter, giving Radnor a 21-20 lead, the Raptors never trailed again.

The game opened up when Radnor held Ryan scoreless for 6 minutes, 18 seconds in the third quarter. It transformed a one-score game into a 37-24 Radnor edge by the time Ryan’s Michael Zaire Paris, the Raiders’ leading scorer with a team-high 17, scored with just over a minute left in the quarter. A Rosenblum layup gave Radnor its largest lead, 43-24, at the outset of the fourth quarter.

That prompted Ryan coach Joe Zeglinski to turn up the heat. Ryan applied a 1-2-1-1 full-court press, stirring a whirlwind of pressure. It was good enough to force seven Radnor turnovers and get the Raiders to within 48-40 with 2:55 left after a pair of Sorber free throws.

Radnor's Charlie Thornton, right, guards Archbishop Ryan's Thomas Sorber on Saturday. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

But Radnor answered the pressure.

The Raptors closed by outscoring Ryan, 7-2, in the last three minutes to seal the victory.

“People are starting to recognize how good we are, but when we came in, we could see the looks on everyone’s faces like Ryan was going to run us right out of the gym,” Hicke said. “Yeah, I felt I had something to prove. We had something to prove. We’re trying to prove people that we can really play and compete with anyone in the state.

“I came out wanting to win. We all did. I wanted to prove I could compete at a high level. We all wanted to compete at a high level. Everyone on this team had something to prove.”

Thornton more so. He’s received tepid college attention. That should expand once college coaches see his work on Sorber and in tough moments before a lot of people holding clipboards on Saturday night.

Thornton was giving away five inches and 70 pounds to Sorber. Yet, it didn’t stop him from bodying him up down low.

“Sorber is a great player and I wanted to accept the challenge,” Thornton said. “I put a lot on myself. He’s a big kid. I try to think I’m strong, and it felt good to front him. It was a team effort to guard him. It wasn’t just me. But to get wins like this can mean bigger things later this year.


Radnor's Danny Rosenblum handles the ball on Saturday against Archbishop Ryan. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“We needed to get a statement win when no one in this place really believed in us. When we handled their press in the end, we stayed calm. We can react to it a little better than we did. We’ll do better with it moving ahead. But overall, this is huge for us. We want to play big teams and play the best. We’re ready for the pressure that will come at us.”

Ryan was coming off a big victory Friday night over St. Francis Academy (MD).

Zeglinski felt the Radnor setback was a good teaching point for his team.

“Radnor came prepared and we weren’t patient enough on the offensive and defensive end,” he said. “We were looking around and staring at the ball a little too much, and defensively, we were getting back cut, and it’s something we weren’t prepared for.

“Radnor is a very good team. We weren’t as positive as we should have been with our communication on the court. To beat a team like that, you have to play together, and I don’t think we did that. No excuses. Radnor runs such good stuff. I tried to get across to our guys that Radnor is very good, and tough, and they proved that.”

By Quarter

Radnor (4-0):  9   |  16  |  16  | 16 ||  57

Archbishop Ryan (3-2):  11   |  9  |  4  |  18 ||  42

Scoring
Radnor: Jackson Hicke 24, Charlie Thornton 13, Danny Rosenblum 6, Henry Pierce 6, Cooper Mueller 4, Nick Monty 4.

Archbishop Ryan: Michael Zaire Paris 17, Thomas Sorber 12, Darren Williams 8, Ryan Everitt 2, Jaden Murray 2, Rocco Marabito 1.

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Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.


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