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PIAA 5A: Radnor beats West Philly to set up Ryan rematch

03/14/2023, 10:45pm EDT

By Dan Steenkamer + Owen McCue

Owen McCue (Owen_McCue)
& Daniel Steenkamer (@DanSteenkamer)
__

BENSALEM — The Radnor boys’ basketball team fell into a nasty habit entering Tuesday night’s PIAA second round game against West Philadelphia.

Starting with a comeback win against West Chester Rustin in the District 1 semifinals, the undefeated Raptors fell behind before rallying and coasting to the finish in their three prior games.

It’s a habit they hoped to break against the Speedboys, District 12’s Class 5A runner-up. That’s exactly what they did, building an early double-digit lead in the first quarter and putting West Philly away with their trademark finishing kick for a 75-61 win at Bensalem High School. Radnor will face District 12 runner-up Archbishop Ryan in the state quarterfinals on Friday.

“The past few games we've had to really dig back,” said senior Cooper Mueller, who finished with 18 points. “This game, it was nice getting out there, getting an early lead. To just get out front and be able to extend it for the rest the game was certainly a lot better. It was good for us.”

Cooper Mueller (above, in February) had 18 points as Radnor moved into the PIAA 5A quarterfinals. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Radnor (29-0) trailed at the half against Rustin in a 66-52 semifinal win on Feb. 25. The Raptors trailed Unionville in the first quarter of the District 1 title game before eventually pulling away for a 61-36 win. It was more of the same in the first round of the state playoffs when the Raptors had a deficit against District 3 eight seed Warwick at halftime before advancing with a 70-59 victory.

The Raptors shook the trend and started out strong Tuesday, going up 18-7 after a quarter. By halftime they enjoyed a 35-22 lead, led by seven points apiece from senior Jackson Hicke and Danny Rosenblum. Not all was smooth for Radnor against West Philly’s pressure, however, as it finished the night with 18 turnovers.

“We executed early I think what we wanted to do and then we tried to hit too many home runs in a couple possessions,” Raptors head coach Jamie Chadwin said

“We had a lot of turnovers, that’s not something we’re interested in repeating,” he added. We got to the foul line and we were aggressive, and I think that’s the goal at this point.”

After trailing by 13 heading into the break, West Philadelphia kept the game within reach early in the third quarter by pulling within seven, 41-34. Seniors Elijah Hester and John Fields scored 17 and 16 points, respectively, for the Speedboys.

The game’s tight stretch was short-lived, as Radnor responded with a 10-0 run to go ahead 51-34 and later take a 55-40 lead into the fourth. An 11-2 run to start the fourth put the Raptors up by 22 fewer than two minutes into the quarter and had them well on their way to the PIAA quarterfinals.

“They switched from their 1-3-1 defense to a 1-2-2 and we saw the baseline drives were gonna be open,” said Mueller, who threw down a dunk during the 10-0 stretch. “When Jackson is in the middle or Charlie’s on the wing, they suck up to him. So we swing it around the backside and those baseline drives are open every time and I took advantage of that.”

Princeton commit Hicke (17 points), Rosenblum (13) and senior Charlie Thornton (10) joined Mueller in double figures.

“Jackson just trusts all of us and we all trust each other and Cooper was able to find the spark in the second half that got us up [by] 15-20 the rest of the game,” junior Henry Pierce said.

West Philadelphia learned first-hand the difficulty of defending such a connected and balanced opponent.

“When you’re playing a team like Radnor, [they’re] real disciplined, they’ve been together for four years, haven’t lost in a game all year,” West Philadelphia coach Adrian Burke said. “We gave them everything we got, but it just wasn’t good enough to, you know, prevail and get a win today.”

The Speedboys enjoyed one of their best seasons in recent memory as they won a state playoff game for the second straight season and advanced to the Public League championship game for the first time since 1988.

Burke pointed to seniors Hester and Fields and classmates like Jabrill Jackson and Jaden Williams when talking about the recent success of the program, which they leave in good hands with the likes of freshmen Jayden McKie and Makel Butts.

“I love these guys, man,” Burke said of his seniors. “You know, they’re everything to the team. They could’ve went to a lot of different schools but they trusted me and stayed with me.”

“Everybody counted us out. We ended up in the Public League championship game. We ended up in the second round in the state. So I think we had a great year, man, these guys, they played all year with a chip on their shoulder and just wanted to let people know that we belong and we are back on the map.”

After falling in the state second round last season, Radnor avenged that hurdle, advancing to the state quarters for the first since 1961. The next task, though, has the attention of its players along with their sense of accomplishment.

“Sometimes you gotta step back and be like, ‘We just made it to the quarterfinals. This is special,’” Mueller acknowledged. “We kind of forget about it and it’s like, ‘Who’s next? How can we prepare?’ But it’s nice to take it in for a second.”

Radnor took down its next opponent Ryan, 57-42, in their fourth game of the season Dec. 17.

Pierce has his eyes forward, knowing the Raptors are hungry for a deeper run.

“We’re just never satisfied,” Pierce said. “We’re all looking for more.”

By Quarter

West Philadelphia: 7 | 13 | 18 | 21 || 61
Radnor: 18 | 17 | 20 | 20 || 75

Scoring

West Philadelphia: Elijah Hester 17, John Fields 16, Jaron McKie 7, Jabrill Jackson 4, Jaden Williams 4, Al-Jalil Bey-Moore 4, Khabir Washington 4, Makel Butts 3, Hopkins 2.

Radnor: Cooper Mueller 18, Jackson Hicke 17, Danny Rosenblum 13, Charlie Thornton 10, Michael Savadove 6, Henry Pierce 6, Jackson Gaffney 5.

~~~

Girls 6A
(3-1) Cedar Cliff 39, (1-6) Upper Dublin 26
(7-2) Upper St. Clair 42, (1-4) Pennsbury 31
(1-9) Abington 40, (1-8) Springfield-Delco 35
(12-1) Cardinal O’Hara 42, (1-3) Spring-Ford 39
(12-3) Archbishop Carroll 41, (1-1) Perkiomen Valley 38 (OT)