City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) & Noah Stomsky (@NStomsky)
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(Ed. Note: This story is part of CoBL’s “Prepping for Preps” series, which will take a look at many of the top high school programs in the region as part of our 2023-24 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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The Phoenixville boys basketball team was pretty green last season.

After 11 seniors graduated from a 16-6 group in 2021-22, the Phantoms’ 2022-23 team had to replace almost everyone.

The result was an atypical disappointing winter for 10th-year coach Eric Burnett’s team. The Phantoms went 10-12 in 2022-2023, missed out on the PAC playoffs and failed to qualify for the district playoffs for the first time in five years.

It’s almost the opposite this season.

With just one player who graduated and five starters back who graduated, Phoenixville has the opportunity to jump into the season ready to go instead of using the first few weeks as an introduction. 

 “With this year with everybody back we’re ready to try and take another step,” Burnett said. “We have a nice group of seniors and then some really good underclassmen.”

Senior Max Lebisky, a three-year varsity player, was the only Phoenixville player last season with significant varsity experience. This season, he and seniors Christian Cervino and Aidan McClintock, junior Deacon Baratta and sophomore Dawson Brown all return to the starting lineup.

Phoenixville’s inexperienced group started last season 2-7, but the Phantoms finished 8-5 in their last 13 games as they tried to make a playoff push. They carried that momentum into the offseason and hope to do the same once the real games start this winter.

“That was like a first year for everybody, just everyone’s getting used to it,” Lebisky said. “So now that everyone has their first year under their belt, we should be a lot better and just have a lot more experience.” 

Lebisky, a 6-5 point forward, was Phoenixville’s sixth man as a sophomore but emerged as a first team all-league selection as a junior, averaging 9.5 ppg. He averaged a double-double and tallied two triple-doubles during the season. Baratta, a 6-5 wing, had a breakout sophomore campaign as he led the team in scoring at 11.2 ppg, including 43 3-point makes.

Brown (8.9 ppg) ran the show at point and Cervino (8.8 ppg) was another scoring threat with McClintock, a 6-6 forward, doing some dirty work on both ends.

Seniors Bryce Absher and Anthony Cervino, juniors Jehoash Lee and Brady O’Donnell and sophomore Stephen Yurick IV are a few others who could carve out roles.

Lebisky, Absher and the Cervinos make up the senior leaders this season. The graduated Wade Carruthers was the only one who played that role a year ago.

“That’s what we’re really focused on, Max Lebisky he’s been our most seasoned veteran but now that we have a nice core of seniors that have been around that’s been cool to see them step up into the more vocal role this year,” Burnett said. “But we hold everybody to a high standard in terms of communication and leadership roles, so we’ll see how we make out.”

Through the first nine games last season, Phoenixville had trouble scoring, averaging 42 points per game. The Phantoms showed progress later on as the offense started to click, averaging 63 ppg in their final twelve games of the season.

The Phantoms played a lot of games together throughout the spring, summer and fall, building even more chemistry.

They expect the points to come as the core group takes the court for a second season together. Making sure they are strong on the other side of the floor will be paramount as they try to climb back up the Frontier standings following a fourth place finish in the division last season.

“Last year was just getting our feet in the water, so now I think where we need to put our focus on is playing really tough on the defensive end,” Burnett said. “I’m not concerned about our offensive end. I think we’re going to be able to score points with some playmakers, but it’s gotta be on the defensive end. If we don't play defense, if we don't rebound and play defense the right way, we won't reach our potential.”

Lebisky became a hot name among the local Division III programs for his unique skillset at the forward spot. Phoenixville also drew some preseason buzz as a team, taking down the Catholic League’s Devon Prep and the Public League’s Dobbins Tech, both state playoff squads a year ago, during their offseason schedule.

Pottstown has two of the top players in the league back in Abdul and Sadeeq Jackson, Pottsgrove brings back a lot of experience as well, and Pope John Paul II and Upper Merion tend to always find a way to be in the division mix.

But the Phantoms certainly think they have a shot to come out on top in the Frontier, make some noise in the PAC and get back to the district playoffs, where a deep postseason run has often eluded them.

“It’s a lot different,” Lebisky said. “We’re starting to feel like we’re starting to get talked about more, people know us. So it’s definitely a different feel than last year but we’re all excited about it.”