City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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MALVERN — The Phelps School Class of 2025 was an eye-catching group last season. 

A core led by Will Riley (6-foot-8), Onyx Nnani (6-10) and Justin Houser (7-0) oozed with potential but had their season end against an older George School team in the PAISAA semifinals.

A year older, they’re tapping into their talents now.

Top-seed Phelps School ended fourth-seed Academy New Church’s season with a 75-60 win in the PAISAA semifinals Friday at Phelps.

Houser had a big first half and finished with 20 points, postgrad Jacob Hudson took charge in the third, finishing with 24, and Riley finished with a game-high 25 points, leading his team in the final period.

Phelps will make its first PAISAA title game appearance at St. Joe’s Hagan Arena on March 3 for the first time since winning it all in 2015.

“It’s crazy, honestly,” Houser said. “We’ve gotten so much better in the last year and it’s really starting to show in the playoffs. Last year we felt that we were the underdogs. Now we think we’re the top of the top. We’re going out there every game to beat them. They’re coming after us now.”

Academy New Church, playing in its first semifinal since 2012, closed the first half up 35-32. Senior Bahsil Laster finished with 19 points, including the 1,000th of his career after a slow start. Sophomore guard Tobe Nwobu scored 11 — his triple late in the second quarter giving ANC its first lead of the game. Houser had 14 of his points at the break.

Phelps turned the game back its way in the third, powered by 12 points from Hudson in the quarter for a 55-43 lead heading into the fourth.

“We played with more energy, talked more on defense, played faster, more our game and it definitely helped us,” Riley said.

A Laster and-one with five and a half got ANC back within single digits, 59-51, but Phelps proved too much to get it closer than that. Hudson’s contested 3-pointer to beat the shot clock with 1:32 left was the final dagger, putting Phelps ahead 73-58.

“They’re transition was real good,” ANC senior Nolan Waldon said. “We had adjusted to it real quick, but in the second half we couldn't get back on defense. They were beating us in transition.”

“We didn’t give up,” he added. “We’re definitely a team that we don’t give up. We keep fighting. Unfortunately we got the loss, but we kept fighting as a team.”

Riley scored 11 points in the fourth to help hold off the comeback attempt, a sign of the strides taken this season to become one of the best juniors in the country.

“He’s the one that if it’s three seconds left we always give him the ball,” Houser said. “He’s really stepped up big and he’s done a great job at his role this year."

This was one of ANC’s best seasons in recent memory, breaking a 15-year Friends Schools League drought and following with the deep PAISAA run. Waldon said coach Kevin Givens told the group they’re amongst the Top 5 in his three decades as head coach.

Nwobu and classmates Ryan Warren (nine points), Cameron Smith (10 points) and Dior Carter give Givens a nice core coming back next season.

“It was definitely fun,” Waldon said. “We had a great season, great record, won a Friends League championship. It was fun playing with Coach Kev, leading the young guys, leading a young team.”

Phelps’ young squad was bounced by George School in the semifinals last season. With Riley sidelined, they survived an upset bid by Kiski in the opening round on a buzzer beater by Nnani, who was quiet on offense but a big factor defensively on Friday. Phelps powered past Hill in the quarters and impressed once again against ANC as they head into next weekend’s championship game looking tough to beat.

“Our junior class has definitely had to become more leaders on the team,” Riley said. “We had a few postgrads, but we had to take more of the leader role on the team and it’s helped us for sure.”

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By Quarter

ANC: 15 | 20 | 11 | 17 || 60

Phelps: 18 | 14 | 20 || 75

Scoring

ANC: Bahsil Laster 19, Tobe Nwobu 11, Cameron Smith 10, Ryan Warren 9, Nolan Waldon 6, Dior Carter 5

Phelps: Will Riley 25, Jacob Hudson 24, Justin Houser 20, Jordan Rogers 4, Onyx Nnani 2

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PAISAA Boys

Semifinals (Fri., Feb. 23)
1) Phelps School 75, 4) Academy New Church 60
2) Perkiomen School 71, 11) Westtown School 64 (OT)

Championship (Sun., March 3, 7 p.m. at St. Joseph’s University)
1) Phelps School vs. 2) Perkiomen School