City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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RADNOR — Echoes of last season still resonate in the gym at Radnor High School. 

The 2023 graduating class lifted the Raptors to new heights — a Central League title, District 1 5A championship and state quarterfinals appearance the culmination of a couple years of hardwood dominance. But with Jackson Hicke, Charlie Thornton, Danny Rosenblum and Cooper Mueller off to their respective schools last fall and a new coach taking over in Tim Smallwood, outside expectations dropped significantly for a program that wasn’t traditionally a hoops powerhouse.

Instead, the Radnor boys are back — and, while maybe not better than ever, still pretty darn good. They were impressive in a dismantling of a quality West Chester East side on Monday night, getting contributions from up and down the roster in a 60-35 win.

Far from a rebuild, the Raptors are for real — there’s a reason they have “proof” on the back of their shooting shirts. The way they play is proof enough. Radnor’s latest victory was a display of offensive ball movement, stout defense, dominant rebounding and general unselfishness that was quite similar to the way they looked last season.

“Definitely a different look in terms of new faces on the floor, but [...] new faces (don’t) reflect us,” senior wing Michael Savadove said. “I think we just have a bunch of winners on this team, we have guys that know what it takes, know the sacrifices it takes every day, know how much hard work and sweat we have to put into it. 

“Just super-proud of these guys for this win, we just have a bunch of winners in this locker room.”

Savadove was one of three varsity players who got minutes on last year’s squad, which went 29-1, its only loss coming to Archbishop Ryan in the state’s final eight. Fellow seniors Henry Pierce and Elijah Sellers have also gone from key role players to starters for Radnor (11-3, 7-3 Central League), though Sellers was out sick for Monday’s win. 

In Sellers’ place, junior wing Sawyer Smith stepped up for a career-high 19 points in his first varsity start. The 6-foot-3 wing knocked down three 3-pointers and had a few put-backs and takes to the rim, benefiting from a Raptors offense that had 17 assists on 28 buckets, a few more shots not counting as assists but coming off great ball movement leading to a driving layup.

Smith was a sophomore on the JV squad a year ago watching Hicke and Co. play that same style a year ago. Like last year’s Raptors, this year’s ones have good team size across the board, rolling out a whole group of 6-3 and 6-4 wings and guards who can all mix and match on both ends of the floor.

"Watching them helped me model my game, the team’s game — how we play offense, defense,” he said. “The team last year played great, strong, electric defense and it really inspired the team this year to fill that role [...] it was a great brand of basketball.”

Smallwood, who had previously been at Valley Forge Military Academy, knew he was inheriting a program with a strong culture, had seen a couple games last year. When he started working with the team in September, he worked with the players to make sure what he was implementing fit what they could do well, and in turn the Raptors suggested a few things that already worked for them.

“I want to give them some ownership to what they’re doing,” he said. “I’ve put in things and I’m like, ‘do you like this?’ ‘Nah, we don’t really like that.’ ‘Okay let’s scrap it. Do you like this?’ ‘Yeah, we love it,’ ‘Okay let’s do it.’ They’re accountable for a lot of the things we do.”

“We definitely had some input on sets,” Savadove said. “He lets us play, he trusts us, and he lets us play basketball [...] I mean, we don’t really run a lot of stuff. It’s great to have him, we’re just so lucky.”

Last year’s squad was primarily hoopers; Hicke (Princeton), Thornton (Randolph-Macon) and Rosenblum (Rochester) are all playing at the next level, Mueller playing lacrosse at Princeton. 

This year’s team is primarily lacrosse players: Savadove is a top-50 senior nationally, the defenseman pledged to Harvard. Smith, his older brother Owen Smith, Pierce, and 6-3 senior guard Kessy Cox — who had 10 points, five rebounds and four assists against West Chester East — are all lacrosse players for the Raptors, who’ve won the last three state PIAA Class 3A lacrosse championships.

But they’re all lifelong basketball players, too, and the player and ball movement that both sports require tends to translate from field to court.

“I grew up playing basketball, it’s got a big place in my heart,” Sawyer Smith said. “Playing with all these guys that I grew up playing with, playing with my brother, it’s a lot of fun.”

Monday night’s game, which tipped a couple minutes after 7 PM and was done by 8:05, was a free-flowing romp by Radnor, which really turned it on in the second quarter, turning an 11-9 edge into a 29-14 halftime lead. They kept it rolling in the third, opening up a 46-21 lead; it was 54-26 when the starters departed with four minutes to play.

Pierce scored 8 points and grabbed seven rebounds; senior guard Alex McFadden scored nine points, with three rebounds. Savadove (6 points) was the main playmaker with six assists, grabbing four steals and three rebounds in a strong two-way performance. 

“He’s absolutely unbelievable,” Smallwood said. “He’s able to control a game without filling up the stat sheet, he does little things like tips the ball to get someone else a rebound, he makes unbelievable passes where I’m like ‘how did he see that?’ He knows when to push it, when to pull it out, and he’s just a really smart basketball player. There’s a reason he’s going to Harvard.”

Though Radnor suffered a 61-48 setback to Lower Merion last week, it’s still in third place in the Central League, as well as the No. 3 seed in the District 1 5A formula rankings heading into Monday night, West Chester East (8-6) the No. 9 seed. Radnor has some work to catch both Lower Merion in the Central League as well as Unionville and Upper Dublin in the district rankings, but there’s always time to do so in the playoffs. 

That they’re even in the conversation is more than most expected. But last year has become this year, and the Raptors haven’t slowed down.

“Everyone thinks we graduated so many guys, we’re not going to be as good as we were last year,” Smith said, “and it’s about proving them wrong and proving we’re still here to play.”

By Quarter
Radnor:     11  |  18  |  17  |  14  ||  60
WC East:   9   |   5   |   7   |  14  ||  35

Shooting
Radnor: 28-53 FG (4-17 3PT), 0-3 FT
WC East:  13-44 FG (4-18 3PT), 5-8 FT

Scoring
Radnor: Sawyer Smith 19, Kessy Cox 10, Alex McFadden 9, Henry Pierce 8, Michael Savadove 6, Harrison Ceppa 2, Owen Smith 2, Zach Neiderer 2, Sean Magitti 2

WC East: Ryan Price 10, Kasheem Bronzell 9, Tyler Wileczek 9, Rex Walters 3, Amari WIlliams 2, Becker Al-Tikriti 2, Aidan Gallagher 1