City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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WEST CHESTER — Dylan DeLucia spent the whole 2023 offseason trying to show he belonged on West Chester Henderson’s varsity squad. Opportunities have been tough to come by on a senior-laden team for the junior guard, but the postseason has presented a new one.

“I think at the beginning of this year, I heard a lot from my teammates and the coaches, they always told me to keep my head up,” he said. “Here we are now in the playoffs, and they’re still telling me the same thing.”

DeLucia fit right in on Wednesday night, contributing in a number of ways during a quality run off the bench as Henderson downed crosstown rival West Chester Rustin, 68-42, in the first round of the Ches-Mont League playoffs.

Henderson (20-3), which finished in second place in the National division, will face American division champ Unionville (20-2) in Saturday’s semifinals at West Chester. 

For most of the 2023-24 season, DeLucia played the majority of his minutes for the Warriors’ junior varsity squad, leading them to an unbeaten record. He’d then join the varsity squad for warmups, getting a few spare minutes in some games, staying put in his seat for all 32 minutes in others. 

Even being on the varsity roster was something he’d been looking forward to for years. Growing up in a basketball-loving family in West Chester, DeLucia watched his older brother Andrew DeLucia suit up for the Warriors the last few years, helping them to a 16-win season a year ago. 

But for Henderson’s first game of a postseason it expects to extend well into March, DeLucia’s role was expanded. With senior forward Nelson Lamizana on the bench for the first half, DeLucia got in before the end of the first quarter, the 5-foot-9 guard providing a secondary ball-handler alongside Henderson stars Connor Fleet and Nyle Ralph-Beyer. 

It was in the second quarter, as Henderson extended an eight-point first-quarter advantage to an 11-point halftime edge, that DeLucia connected on one of his two 3-pointers and a couple foul shots, giving the Rustin defense something else to think about besides Fleet and Ralph-Beyer.

“Feels really good,” he said of the triple. “As well as these guys, I’ve been working towards this for a long time and it feels good to finally get one.”

“Dylan led the JV team to a 21-0 record, he was their leader, so I knew he could play,” Henderson coach Jason Ritter said. “The problem is, he’s just behind two of the best guards in Henderson history. He’s behind two 1,000-point scorers. 

“The positive of that is you get to guard them every day in practice and get better; the negative is those two kids can’t really come out of the game.”

Those two led the way, as usual. Fleet went for 20 points, four assists and three rebounds, Rustin getting him to turn it over a few times but otherwise struggling to stop the talented 6-0 lead guard from getting to the rim and drawing contact. Ralph-Beyer, the 6-3 Sacred Heart commit, went for 18 points and 10 rebounds, hitting three 3-pointers.

“He’s just like me, he’s a mini-me,” Fleet said. “He can shoot the ball crazy, he can handle it, he can make plays and he can play defense, which people don’t think he can do, he can play defense. 

“He’s always in the gym with me after practice, after games shooting, so I’m really happy he got to play tonight.”

Lamizana, a 6-8 forward, contributed nine points and four rebounds in the second half, including a fourth-quarter slam off a feed from DeLucia. Henderson was in control all game long against Rustin (14-9), continually expanding its lead over the course of the game, despite the best efforts of Rustin junior Ben Malley (16 points, six rebounds) and senior Ryan Jaross (12 points).

The Golden Knights will continue their season in the District 1 5A bracket.

The Warriors have a tough task ahead of them in the Longhorns, who didn’t lose to a single Ches-mont team all season, National division champ Coatesville included. Head coach Chris Cowles, in attendance Wednesday night along with a couple of his coaches and players, guided his squad to the District 1 5A championship game a year ago, but avoided Henderson this season on purpose.

“We had a feeling that we were going to meet, so we did not play each other,” Ritter said, calling his friend’s team “a well-oiled machine that could certainly win our league, and could certainly win [District 1] 5A, and could certainly make a run in states.”

This is exactly where Henderson has been aiming for all season after making it to the state playoffs a year ago, the Warriors’ a clear team to watch thanks to the return of Fleet and Ralph-Beyer, plus 6-8 center Evan McFadden and more. Now they’re there, the number of games left in the season three at minimum — they’re also the No. 2 team in the District 1 6A tournament, which guarantees them at least two in that tournament — but they have plans on playing so much more.

“As happy as we were after the win, we want more, we’re hungry for more, this team’s put in a lot of work,” DeLucia said. “We’re happy, we’re going to enjoy this win now, but we’ve got Unionville on Saturday, so we’re going to keep looking forward.”

By Quarter
Rustin:           8   |  13  |   8   |  13  ||  42
Henderson:  16  |  16  |  19  |  17  ||  68  

Shooting
Rustin: 14-56 FG (2-20 3PT), 11-19 FT
Henderson: 24-53 FG (7-18 3PT), 13-16 FT

Scoring
Rustin: Ben Malley 16, Ryan Jaross 12, Chaz Davis 6, Travis Bargo 2, Chase Hatton 2, Logan Day 2, Sam Lucenius 2

Henderson: Connor Fleet 20, Nyle Ralph-Beyer 18, Nelson Lamizana 9, Dylan DeLucia 7, Jesse Smith 5, Aaron Nelson 2, Evan Kearney 2