City of Basketball Love

CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
—

The District 1 5A boys’ quarterfinals take place this Wednesday, four games that not only will determine who gets through to the semifinals, but also four of the six state bids from the district. The four losers won’t be done for the season; they’ll go into the playback rounds, with the two winners of those games also making it to states.

Here’s a look at all four games:

1) Radnor vs. 9) Marple Newtown (7 PM)

It’s a Central League rematch at the top of the bracket, which means Marple Newtown knows just what’s ahead of it in Radnor, which has been arguably the Team of the Year so far in Southeastern Pa. The Raptors are a perfect 24-0, not just beaten but stomping on most of their opponents, including in both games against Marple this season, which ended 61-40 and 60-36 in Radnor’s favor. Marple’s 53-50 win over Sun Valley in the opening round of districts was the Tigers’ first since Jan 28, snapping a four-game losing streak to end the season; they had won 10 of 13 before then.

Under the direction of Jamie Chadwin, Radnor’s been a pick-your-poison type all season long: teams that try to focus too much on slowing down 6-foot-5 Princeton-bound senior wing Jackson Hicke find themselves getting burned by 6-4 senior wing guard Charlie Thornton or picked apart by Rochester-bound point guard Danny Rosenblum; on top of that, the defensive effort of 6-3 senior wing Cooper Mueller and 6-3 junior wing Henry Pierce make them extraordinarily tough on that end of the floor as well. Oh yeah, and 6-7 senior wing Jackson Gaffney is fully eligible for the playoffs, giving them a real fastball off the bench.

Marple’s much younger, with only two seniors, Bryan Bogan and Corrado Fischetti, in the starting lineup. The Tigers’ best player is sophomore guard Matt Gardler, who draws the most defensive attention with his ability to create off the bounce and hit pull-up shots with range; junior Steven Tansey and sophomore Ryan Keating round out the starting lineup, though they’re also without junior guard PJ Esposito, who’s missed a good bit of the season due to a concussion. The Tigers’ goal will be to slow it down and hit the clean shots they get, which worked for them in nearly upsetting Imhotep in the state playoffs last year. So far, though, nobody’s slowed down Radnor yet.

~~~

4) West Chester East vs. 12) West Chester Rustin (7 PM)
This is actually a matchup happening on both the boys’ and girls’ side, the two district rivals are meeting on Tuesday night at East in the girls’ game and then following it up a night later for the boys. East won their only regular-season matchup, 61-51 at East on Jan. 7, the last of a season-long six-game winning streak for the Vikings (16-7), who have to snap a bit of a skid. They’ve only played two games since Jan. 31, both losses by 19+ points, but had won six of seven before then. 

Rustin (12-12) already pulled off the upset in the first round, beating No. 5 seed Upper Dublin 58-51, which along with beating West Chester Henderson in January is up there with their best wins of the season. Head coach Vince Mostardi tends to get balanced scoring from his top six, which includes senior guard and captain Tyler Giunta, who can break down the defense to get into the lane; senior wing Ian Schlesinger, a lanky lefty and strong outside shooter; senior wings Sam Sproull and Matt Nochumson and sophomore guard Chase Hatton can all get going as well.

East, under the direction of Tom Durant, features the last remnants of its 2020 District 1 5A championship squad in senior Jack Kushner, the muscular 6-3 wing who’s now a four-year starter, having moved from a role as a spot-up 3-point shooter to one as a creator and mid-range specialist, who’s also good on the glass. The Vikings’ best scorer is sophomore K.J. Cochran, a 6-3 guard who’s got a couple Division I offers already in his pocket, but they also get points from senior guard Jose Ramos, junior sharpshooter Ryan Price and a few others, including forwards Jack Gallagher and Josh Sherlock. If they can get back to form, East could win this whole tournament — but they could also bounce out without making it to states.

~~~

2) Chichester vs. 7) Holy Ghost Prep (7 PM)

This one’s a really interesting contrast in terms of programs: Holy Ghost Prep, despite being the underdog, is a program with a long history of success under Tony Chapman, who’s won more than 900 games with the Firebirds, making all sorts of district tournament and even state tournament runs over the years, though this is the first time in a few seasons they’ve made it further than the first round of districts. Chichester, on the other hand, is coming off its first Del-Val League title in 30 years, the Eagles having their best season in program history thus far at 19-3, and now come into the district playoffs one of the favorites to get to Temple, with a head coach in Clyde Jones who’s achieved success at Harriton, Penn Wood and now Chichester, winning the 2009 state championship with PW. 

This Chi group is senior-led, with point guard Mazen Sayed, twins Akhir and Zaiyin Keys, wing forward Vince Wildrick, and forwards DJ Anderson and Eyan Thomas, with juniors Hamza Clay and Carlton Gordy coming off the bench. Sayed is the key to their success, a 6-1 point guard who can get into the lane and score tough buckets while also seeing the floor and finding the Keys brothers and WIldrick for shots, though they can all create for themselves a little bit. Anderson and Thomas are interchangeable 6-2 offensive lineman types who clear space around the rim and rebound/finish at a high level, even if they don’t have a ton of vertical size.

For Ghost (13-9), senior 6-6 forward Mel Lindsey, senior 6-2 sharpshooter Seamus McDermott and bruising 6-2 sophomore Adrien Varella are the top offensive threats, but McDemott is currently sidelined with an injury; Ghost goes deep with a nine or 10-man rotation and 13 seniors on the roster. Seniors Noah McDermott, Mark Tomasetti, Colin Lucas and Dasani McNelly are a couple of the other top contributors in the deep rotation. In the opening-round win over Upper Moreland, it was Varella (16 points), Lucas (12 points) and Noah McDermott (7 points) who led the way.

~~~

3) Unionville vs. 11) Upper Merion (7 PM)
Unionville missed out on the district playoffs a year ago but have been strong all season, ripping off 13 straight wins at one point from Dec. 9 to Jan. 21, with losses to Rustin, Coatesville and Downingtown West (in the Ches-Mont championship) in the seven games since. Upper Merion’s win over Pottstown in the district opening round ended a string of four straight years with a first-round loss, and they did it exactly a week after winning a PAC playoff game for the first time since joining the league in 2016-17.

Upper Merion (14-11), under the direction of Jason Quenzer, has figured out how to win this season, going 4-7 in its first 11 games and 10-4 in the 14 since, a good sign for a somewhat-young team. Sophomore Devon Nelson and junior guard Nick Smiley are both tall, athletic guards who can finish in traffic, though Nelson appears out for the playoffs after an ankle injury suffered last week. Junior Colin Hirshorn’s been the team’s top perimeter threat. Seniors Devin Swayze, Zayd Etheridge and Yusuf Riley find ways to make plays as well and junior guard Allen Cole’s hit a couple of clutch shots already this postseason. In their first-round win over Pottstown, Hirshorn and Smiley had 14 apiece while Etheridge added 12.

The Longhorns have become a run-and-gun team under Chris Cowles, with a free-flowing offense that emphasizes confident shot taking, with a number of pieces who can get hot on any particular outing; if two or three of them all get in the zone in one game, they can be really dangerous. Junior guards Charlie Kammeier, Ryan Brown and James Anderson and senior guards Robbie Logan and George Napolitano can all gun it, while junior forward Nick Diehl and freshman James Brenner give them a post presence, though both can shoot 3s as well. They have gone cold on occasion, but the vast majority of Unionville games it’ll take well into the 60s or 70s to beat them.