City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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HAVERFORD — News spread quickly through the Haverford School boys basketball locker room Wednesday evening, quickly dampening the mood.

What they hoped would turn into a championship celebration following a 62-58 Inter-Ac win over Springside Chestnut Hill Academy turned into disappointment.

Despite the Fords’ victory, Penn Charter’s win over Episcopal Academy forced Haverford to settle for sole possession of second place in the league rather than a three-way share of the lnter-Ac title with the Quakers and Churchmen.

“We just found out right after the game,” Fords senior Connor Scanlan said. “It’s pretty disappointing but it is what it is. I’m proud of our efforts this season.”

A young Fords team entered the season with hopes of pushing up to the upper echelon of the league after a fourth-place finish in 2022-23.

Those hopes took a dash when standout sophomore forward Manny Butts went down with a knee injury days before the start of the season, after lead guard Duke Cloran had the same thing happen just weeks prior. Four games into play, the Fords looked far from a league contender at 1-3. They won five of their last six games to stay in championship contention until the final day of the season.

“It says a lot,” junior KJ Carson said of the second-place finish. “We went through a lot of adversity this year. Next year, we’re going to take the same mindset we did this year, especially toward the end and try to move it on to next season, especially with Manny.”

Carson and junior forward Jacob Becker scored 15 points apiece in Wednesday’s game. Freshman Silas Graham, who played as an eighth grader last season, added 11 and senior guard Billy Rayer chipped in another 11, hitting three 3-point shots in the first half. Senior Cam Burns had 20 and junior Keni Williams scored 19 to lead SCHA. 

The game was tied 29-29 at half on Becker’s last-second shot. Haverford took control with an 8-0 run to start the third quarter, entering the fourth with a 53-39 lead. SCHA scored the first nine points of the final period, but the Fords never let them turn it into a one-possession game.

“I feel like we go into every game with the same mindset, try to win,” Carson said. “That’s what we tried to approach this game with and hopefully the outcome was that EA beat (Penn Charter).”

Though there’s no new year to add to the school’s championship banner, the Fords made sure to cause as much chaos as they could in the league race after falling behind early.

“It was a very roller coast league this season,” Scanlan said. “To be 6-4 and in second place it’s crazy. And to be 6-4 and have a shot at winning the title is even crazier.”

“I thought it was kind of fun because it was interesting,” Carson said. “It could have gone any way.”

Scanlan and Rayer are the only key pieces of the rotation who won’t return next season. 

Carson and Graham will lead the group with hopefully a healthy Butts and others like Becker and his twin brother Leo and junior Evan Large knowing they can win at a high clip in the league.

“We have some good guys coming back and we learned, especially, me and Silas and a couple of the other young guys,” Carson said. “We’re going to take that into next year.”

The Fords still have the PAISAA tournament — opening Friday at Hill School — to leave their final mark on the 2022-23 season. Looking toward the future, Scanlan thinks the Fords will be right there again next year.

“The future’s bright in my eyes,” Scanlan said. “I’m obviously not going to be around next year, but they’re in good hands.”

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Haverford School 62, Springside Chestnut Hill Acad. 58

By Quarter
SCHA  16 | 13 | 10 | 9 || 58
Haverford  18 | 11 | 24 | 9 || 62

Scoring
SCHA: Cam Burns 20, Keni Williams 19
Haverford: KJ Carson 15, Jacob Becker 15, Silas Graham 11, Connor Scanlan Leo Becker 4,