City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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It was after their third blowout loss in the first 10 days of the season that Sun Valley’s boys had A Meeting. 

The Vanguards opened the season with a pair of games at Phoenixville, losing to the Phantoms and Council Rock South by a combined 65 points. After losing to Avon Grove and beating Strawberry Mansion, Sun Valley hosted another Ches-Mont rival in West Chester Rustin and lost by 25. 

It was time to have it out. 

“We got blown out,” senior forward Blaize Eldridge said, “and we kind of talked, like, what did we want our season to be like?”

The Vanguards, believe it or not, decided they didn’t want to keep on losing. Head coach Steve Maloney adjusted his lineup, abandoned playing man-to-man in favor of a 1-3-1 zone, made a few other strategic tweaks. They got senior guard Noah Griffin, the school’s standout football star, back in basketball shape. And they started winning. 

First came a four-game winning streak in December, giving them some momentum heading into 2024. And though the Vanguards took a few lumps earlier in January, they’re on a roll as the postseason approaches. 

A wild, 64-63 win over Delaware County Christian on Wednesday evening was the sixth win in a row for Sun Valley (13-7), which has won 11 of its last 14 games with only two contests left in the regular season. It’s a run that’s taken them not just into the playoff picture but secured them spots in both the Ches-Mont and District 1 5A brackets, though there’s still a lot to play for.

“We just kept building and building and building,” Eldridge said, “and then versus now is a completely, completely different team.

“It’s wild,” he added. “But hey, we did it.”

“We were young — not necessarily age wise, but varsity playing wise,” Maloney said. “We took that opening tip-off with Phoenixville [...]  they were ready to go, we just weren’t ready yet. [We] changed some things up, [started] playing more guys, rotation changed, and here we are [...] We’re where we need to be this time of the year.

“We have three goals every year and it doesn’t matter about who graduates and all that — quality for districts, get in the Ches-Mont playoffs and eventually try to qualify for a state tournament. Right now I think we’ve checked off two of the three.”

Coming into Wednesday, Sun Valley was the No. 9 seed in the unofficial District 1 5A rankings, well into the 12-team field but a few seeds lower than they’d need to be to host a first-round playoff game. The win bumped them up to No. 6, in line to host and just two seeds shy of a first-round bye. 

They have a chance to host in the league playoffs as well: currently No. 2 in the Ches-Mont American division with a 6-3 record, the Vanguards could assure themselves a home game by beating division leader Unionville (17-2, 8-0) on Monday. If they lose, and Great Valley and Rustin also win out and finish with 6-4 division records, two of the three will qualify; the tiebreaker comes down to district points, an area in which Sun Valley and Rustin (No. 7 in 5A) have a significant edge on Great Valley.

“The last five years, we’ve been tough at home, we play some of our best basketball, and yeah, a home playoff game is not bad for anybody,” Maloney said. “That’s within that goal sheet, too.”

Maloney’s Vanguards showed Wednesday they were pretty tough on the road, too. 

Their win over the Knights (12-5) saw the teams trade back and forth over the course of the first three quarters — Delco Christian led by one after the first, Sun Valley by four at halftime, Delco Christian by six after the third — which only set the stage for the final few minutes. 

The hosts’ lead was nine early in the fourth thanks to the hot hand of junior guard Khamai Orange (19 points), who led four Knights in double figures. But the return of Eldridge, who picked up his third foul midway through the third quarter and had been on the bench since, flipped the script right back towards the Vanguards. 

The 6-foot-3 forward wrestled down one offensive rebound and fought his way free for a layup, then a possession later did the same thing plus a foul, knocking down the free-throw to get Sun Valley within 52-50 with 4:15 remaining. His layup with 2:45 left put Sun Valley up 55-54, capping a 15-point, six-rebound, three-steal, two-block, two-assist effort. 

“Blaise finishes games,” Maloney said. “Late in the game, he had four fouls and we weren’t thinking about taking him out. That’s what he’s been able to do — offensive rebound, defensive rebound, leads the team in charges, so he’s willing to do the little things, not just score.”

“He’s the energy-setter,” Griffin said. “When everyone sees what he’s doing, getting on the ground and everything, it makes everybody else want to do it.”

Eldridge’s last bucket was the first of seven lead changes in the final three minutes. Delco responded with a pair of foul shots by Luke Bushra (10 points); Sun Valley answered with a Griffin runner to make it 57-56 with 1:50 left. Following a mid-range jumper from Orange, Sun Valley guard Aaron Freeman fed Griffin for an and-one layup to make it 60-58 with 57 seconds remaining. 

Delco Christian tied it again on a pair of foul shots, only for Griffin to slice to the bucket again for a hoop. The Knights’ Caleb Jameson then looked like he ight play hero, capping a 14-point, seven-assist, six-rebound night with his fourth 3-pointer of the afternoon to put the hosts back up a point. 

It was Griffin who provided the game’s final points, a pair of foul shots with 7.2 seconds training to cap a 21-point outing. Delco Christian got one good look at a baseline jumper at the buzzer, but the shot didn’t fall, snapping the Knights’ eight-game win streak. 

“That’s like a game in March,” Maloney said. “Hats off to Delco Christian, we play them because coach [Reggie Parks] gets them to play hard, and we have that mutual respect for each other.”

By Quarter
DC: 15  |  12  |  20  |  16  ||  63
SV:  14  |  17  |  10  |  23  ||  64

Shooting
DC: 23-46 FG (9-24 3PT), 8-9 FT
SV: 23-46 FG (8-18 3PT), 10-13 FT

Scoring
DC: Khamai Orange 19, Caleb Jameson 14, Josiah Gaines 12, Luke Bushra 10, Beau Lyren 6, Bradford Berwick 2

SV: Noah Griffin 21, Blaise Eldridge 15, Kaiden Robinson 10, Dino Diemidio 8, Aaron Freeman 7, Donnie Maieron 3