City of Basketball Love

By CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
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The District 1 5A boys’ bracket is down to eight teams, mostly chalk, with only No. 10 seed Penncrest pulling an upset in the opening round. That includes both of last year’s finalists, No. 1 seed Unionville and No. 3 seed Radnor, plus the champions of the Suburban One League (Upper Dublin) and Pioneer Athletic Conference (Phoenixville), making for an incredibly strong field overall. 

Six of the eight will qualify for the PIAA Class 5A tournament: all four of Wednesday night’s winners and two of the four who go into the playback bracket, so everybody below has to win just one of their next two games to stay alive into March.

Here’s a look at all four quarterfinals: 

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1) Unionville vs. 8) Upper Moreland
Unionville’s had realistic championship aspirations since last season, Chris Cowles’ Longhorns making it to Temple last March and returning four of five starters. After winning 20 games in the regular season before getting knocked off in the Ches-Mont semifinals, they enter the district tournament the favorite but not by a long shot, with a number of quality candidates itching to knock them off. That includes Upper Moreland (14-9), which downed No. 9 Holy Ghost Prep in a highly-entertaining, 79-76 game last Friday, getting balanced scoring led by 19 points from senior guard Alex Best and 14 from senior forward Sean Murphy. 

Best, a 5-9 guard, and Murphy, a 6-10 forward, both transferred from Archbishop Wood after their sophomore seasons and were ineligible this time last year, but are major pieces for the Golden Bears. Best’s younger brother, 5-9 sophomore Nate Best, joins him in the backcourt along with 6-2 junior Colson Campbell, who had 13 points against Holy Ghost and made some key defensive plays, and promising freshman Brayden Martin, who hit the game-tying 3-pointer and game-stealing foul shots against HGP. Dan Heiland doesn’t hesitate to go three or four deep into his bench, either. Cowles is much more conservative, leaning heavily on his top five: senior forward Nick Diehl (6-6), sophomore wing forward James Brenner (6-5) and senior guards Ryan Brown (6-3), James Anderson (6-3) and Charlie Kammeier (6-4).

4) Phoenixville vs. 5) Pottstown
This one is a rematch of the Pioneer Athletic Conference semifinals, which saw Phoenixville storm past Pottstown 80-56 behind a strong 3-point shooting performance, and some dominance on the glass, the Phantoms going on to win the PAC championship for the first time in 17 years. Head coach Eric Burnett has a whole bunch of versatile pieces with size to lean on, including the likely PAC MVP, senior Max Lebisky, a 6-5 point/forward who’s the team’s best scorer, rebounder and passer, all in one hard-working package; 6-6 Aidan McClintock, 6-5 Deacon Baratta and 6-1 sophomore point guard Dawson Brown all take turns starring, while guards Christian Cervino, Brady O’Donnell and Keron Booth supply additional ball-handling, defense and the occasional bucket. 

Pottstown, which broke a streak of its own by winning its first district playoff game since 2008, was no slouch this season, coming in with an 18-6 records that equals Phoenixville’s after beating No. 12 West Chester East in Friday’s opening round. But this will be the fourth time the Trojans play Phoenixville this season, and they’re 0-3 thus far. Trojans head coach Ken Ivory starts five seniors, though it’s twins Abdul and Sadeeq Jackson who are the stars, a pair of athletic 6-3/6-4 wings who can both score at the bucket and the 3-point arc as well as play in Ivory’s aggressive defensive style. Dillon Mayes, Jurell Young and forward Nahzier Booker round out the starting lineup.

2) Upper Dublin vs. 10) Penncrest
Looking for a surprise team of the year? It might just be Upper Dublin, which graduated a host of seniors from a successful group a year ago, but has had some unheralded players really step up and produce consistently for second-year head coach Derek Brooks. The Cardinals won 22 games and the combined Suburban One League championship for the first time. Junior guard Ryan Mulroy, senior wing Brady Fogle, senior Idris Rines and sophomore point guard Kobe Bazemore are the main focal points, Bazemore a lightning quick lead guard who makes all sorts of defensive problems. They’re a 3-point reliant group, but it’s been the rare game that at least a couple of their shooters aren’t connecting.

Penncrest is back in the district field after an uncharacteristic down couple of seasons under MIke Doyle, who led the Lions to back-to-back District titles in 2017 and 2018 behind high-scoring guard Tyler Norwood. He’s got some talented youngsters to build around once again in the form of sophomore forward Mikey Mita and sophomore guard Connor Cahill, who’ve had them in just about every game they’ve played this season, with six of their nine losses coming by five points or fewer. It’ll be interesting to see how Upper Dublin handles the versatile 6-6 Mita, but UD brings a solid advantage in size and experience. 

3) Radnor vs. 6) Sun Valley
Oh yeah, speaking of surprises…both Radnor and Sun Valley have had seasons that few people externally saw coming. Despite being the defending district champs, Radnor came into the season with much-lowered expectations after graduating four-fifths of its starting lineup, including Central League MVP Jackson Hicke (Princeton), while also having a brand-new coaching staff led by Tim Smallwood. But Smallwood has leaned on the Raptors’ strong core of lacrosse standouts, led by seniors Michael Savadove, Henry Pierce and Kessy Cox, plus wing Elijah Sellers  and others, to play sound, fundamental basketball while burying teams from the outside. 

Sun Valley’s surprising turnaround came after a slow start to the season to win eight of nine games before running into Coatesville in the Ches-Mont semifinals, including an impressive 21-point comeback against Downingtown West. Sun Valley head coach Steve Maloney has been getting terrific play all season from senior Blaize Eldridge, a 6-3 wing/forward with a smooth shooting touch and a tough post game. Senior Noah Griffin, who led Delco in rushing last fall on the football field, is an athletic point guard who can get to the rim, and junior guard Kaiden Robinson can hit from deep and get to the rim. It’ll come down to how Radnor handles Sun Valley’s 1-3-1 zone and how well Sun Valley can handle Radnor’s physicality.