City of Basketball Love

CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
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Get ready — CoBL’s events are coming to a regular season near you. 

For the first time, we’re running multiple in-season boys’ events, starting with a pair of fantastic showcases in December. Our CoBL Exeter Showcase (Dec. 8-9) and CoBL Harriton Showcase (Dec. 16) feature a strong group of teams to check out early in the season.

The Exeter Showcase provides a good chance to check out some of the local contenders against some of the best that Berks County, Lancaster County and Lehigh Valley have to offer. The highlight is a matchup between reigning Inter-Ac co-champ Malvern Prep and back-to-back District 11 champion Parkland. They’re led by Northeastern commit Ryan Williams and Davidson commit Nick Coval, respectively.

Host Exeter was the PIAA Class 5A runner-up last season and will have games against a young, exciting Archbishop Carroll team and Perk Valley squad that is a contender in the Pioneer Athletic Conference and dark horse in District 1. 

Dobbins Tech made the Public League semifinals and state playoffs in 2022-23 and wing Zach Campbell is one of a few Mustangs players catching college coaches’ eyes. Reigning Ches-Mont league champ Downingtown West is retooled but junior wing Donovan Fromhartz is a Division I prospect. Upper Darby has some inexperienced pieces ready to shine as well.

Allentown Central Catholic, Columbia and Berks and Berks Catholic are familiar faces in the state tournament as of late, while Cedar Crest brings some pieces back from its District 3 playoff team a season ago.

The Dec. 16 field at Harriton is an all-local slate. Two of District 1 and Suburban One’s perennial powers face off to start the day in Abington and Pennsbury before a West Chester Henderson team led by the dynamic backcourt of Nyle Ralph-Beyer (Sacred Heart) and Connor Fleet go up against Fran O’Hanlon’s O’Hara team, which has Division I recruits Aasim ‘Flash’ Burton (Rider) and Pearse McGuinn (Stonehill).

Host Harriton has an exciting group that could make some noise in the Central League this season and Great Valley has a couple intriguing under-the-radar pieces. The night cap pits Ches-Mont and District 1-5A favorite Unionville against a Haverford School squad that has DI talent in its freshmen and sophomore classes mixed in with some experienced vets.

We’ll have a complete preview leading up to both events. Here’s the full schedule:

Friday, Dec. 8
Exeter Twp. High School
5:00 PM: Columbia vs. Upper Darby
6:45 PM: Berks Catholic vs. Cedar Crest
8:30 PM: Exeter vs. Archbishop Carroll

Saturday, Dec. 9
Exeter Twp. High School
12:45 PM: Dobbins Tech vs. Columbia
2:30 PM: Berks Catholic vs. Allentown Central Catholic
4:15 PM: Cedar Crest vs. Downingtown West
6:00 PM: Perkiomen Valley vs. Exeter
7:45 PM: Malvern Prep vs. Parkland

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Saturday, Dec. 16
Harriton High School
2 PM: Abington vs. Pennsbury
3:45 PM: West Chester Henderson vs. Cardinal O’Hara
5:30 PM: Harriton vs. Great Valley
7:15 PM: Unionville vs. The Haverford School