City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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GLEN MILLS — Radnor was anticipating a hard-fought battle with Garnet Valley for the top of the Central League on Saturday night.

The Raptors got one, and then some.

What transpired at Garnet on Saturday night was a game equal parts thrilling and physical, two teams that weren’t shy to throw their bodies around and put everything on the floor, regulation not enough to settle the score. 

“I think we were definitely expecting a really physical game — Saturday night, both top-two teams in the league,” Radnor senior Danny Rosenblum said. “I think [we got] probably a little bit more than we expected — but we were ready for it.”

In the end, it was Rosenblum and Radnor who emerged into the cold January night still on top courtesy of a 56-51 overtime win, extending their perfect start to the season to 11 straight games.

Rosenblum, the Raptors’ starting point guard and a University of Rochester (N.Y.) commit, finished with a game- and season-high 19 points, including the game’s most critical bucket: a driving layup and-one with just under a minute to go in overtime, which not only put Radnor (11-0, 7-0 Central) up five but also got one of Garnet Valley’s best players, sophomore Jake Sniras, to foul out.

“I mean, I knew it was a one-possession game at the time, so once I got to the paint, I knew I had to go off two feet,” he said, “and I just got it to go in."

The Jaguars (9-3, 5-2) weren’t done yet: York (Pa.) commit Max Koehler, who hit the game-tying 3-pointer with 20 seconds left in regulation to force overtime, hit a 3-pointer with 45 seconds left in OT to cut it back to a two-point game. 

A solitary foul shot by Cooper Mueller and two from Charlie Thornton, sandwiched around a missed one-and-one by Garnet Valley, restored the five-point advantage. Mueller, a 6-3 wing and Princeton lacrosse commit, also sealed the game with a dunk in the closing seconds, coming away with an open-court steal and flushing it home for a seven-point advantage.

That wasn’t Mueller’s biggest slam of the night — his poster of Garnet Valley senior Logan McKee off a steal in the third quarter was easily the most excitement in the gym all night, the entire crowd erupting when Mueller picked off a pass and went the distance, rising up to slam it home as McKee arrived a split-second too late.

“I saw him out of the corner of my eye right as I was jumping, and it was nice to put it on him,” Mueller said. “We’re good friends, we’ve been family friends since [we were] kids, so he’s got some on me before — but I got this one back, finally.”

The first half was back-and-forth, Radnor jumping out to an 8-3 lead before Garnet Valley turned it on, taking a 17-11 edge after the first half. The visitors gained momentum in the second quarter, taking a 27-22 lead into half, but Garnet Valley stuck around the entire second half, never letting Radnor get more than a couple shots ahead. 

It was a game with 38 whistles and 43 foul shots, no lack of effort from a Radnor team ranked No. 1 in the unofficial District 1 5A rankings entering the evening and a Garnet Valley squad ranked No. 4 in 6A. Sniras, who finished with a team-high 11 points, wasn’t the only Jaguar to foul out; McKee did so with 6:19 left in the fourth quarter on an offensive foul, finishing with eight points. Koehler, who only took six shots, finished with 10 points, plus four rebounds and three assists.

Sniras and McKee put in a lot of work on Radnor star forward Jackson Hicke, making the future Princeton wing work for his 16 points, holding him to 5-of-16 from the floor, though he grabbed nine rebounds (four offensive) and hit the go-ahead bucket in OT. 

“We came into this game knowing it was going to be a battle,” said Mueller, who finished with five points and four steals. “It was definitely a foul-heavy game [...] really physical game. But we were prepared for it, we like to play physical.”

“I think we thought there would be a little more freedom of movement and a little more flow to the game, but we knew it was going to be physical,” Radnor coach Jamie Chadwin said. “They have strong guys, they have really good athletes, and just the style that both teams play, there was going to be guys banging into each other and trying to position defend and I thought both teams handled that well. 

Rosenblum had his best scoring night of the season on 6-of-13 shooting, making 1-of-4 from downtown and 5-of-6 from the foul line. He hit a number of tough pull-up mid-range jumpers and did a good job breaking down the Garnet Valley zone, not an easy thing to do against Mike Brown’s defensive schemes. 

“Because of the way their zone was and they do such a good job of taking away the wings and they have some size, there’s not as much space in that part of the court where a lot of other defenses allow you to operate,” Chadwin said. “Danny, once we kind of settled into that, he took advantage of it.”

Thornton finished with 12 points, the 6-3 senior wing scoring eight in the fourth quarter and OT, adding eight rebounds.

Neither team shot well from the line — Radnor was 18-of-28, including the missed front end of two one-and-ones; Garnet Valley 6-of-15, with one missed one-and-one. 

Radnor’s been rolling this season, the defending District 1 5A runner-ups winning all but one of their previous games by double-digits, including a 15-point stomping of Archbishop Ryan back in December. Winning tight games isn’t something they’ve had to do much of yet, beating Worcester North (Mass.) 43-41 in a game in Orlando over the holiday break, but otherwise not yet challenged. 

That’ll change soon enough: their next four are against Conestoga, Haverford, Holy Ghost and Upper Darby, all quality programs that could certainly pull the upset, even though Radnor will be favored, but after that are games at Downingtown West (Jan. 22) and Lower Merion (Jan. 24), the latter no doubt the biggest game in the Central League this season, especially after the Aces beat the Raptors at Radnor and in the Central League championship last season.

“Our team chat title is ‘one game win streak,’ that’s all we try to focus on,” Chadwin said. “They and we are good at that, and that’s what this was. One-game win streak today, and we’ll try to get another one on Tuesday.”

By Quarter
Garnet Valley: 17  |   5   |  12  |  12  |   5   ||  51
Radnor:           11  |  16  |  10  |   9   |  10  ||  56

Shooting
Garnet Valley: 19-37 FG (7-16 3PT), 6-15 FT
Radnor: 18-46 FG (2-10 3PT), 18-28 FT

Scoring
Garnet Valley: Sniras 11, Koehler 10, O’Hara 9, McKee 8, Krautzel 7, Faccenda 6

Radnor: Rosenblum 19, Hicke 16, Thornton 12, Mueller 5, Monty 4