City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The dozen teams from District 1 6A who will be playing in the state tournament are set. Eight of the top 12 seeds in the district are still alive, along with four others who had to pull off at least one road upset — and in some cases a couple more — to keep playing into March.

For four teams — top-seeded Lower Merion, No. 2 West Chester Henderson, No. 4 Chester and No. 14 Garnet Valley — a shot at the District 1 6A title is still on the table, while the others are all playing for seeding in the PIAA 6A bracket.

Here’s a look at the two semifinals and a quick peek at the four seeding games, all of which take place Tuesday night at 7 PM on the higher seed’s home court:

Semifinals

1) Lower Merion vs. 4) Chester
Two of the proudest programs in District 1 history meet up deep in the playoffs yet again. It’s not quite the 2012-13 matchups, which took place in the district championship games  — Chester won both, though Lower Merion got revenge in the state championship game in 2013 — but there’s a trip to Temple on the line, with the Aces getting home-court advantage against the Clippers. Both teams have been playing like underdogs all season, the Central League and Del-Val League champs each exceeding expectations, and both come into Tuesday night with a full head of steam.

Under 34th-year head coach Gregg Downer, Lower Merion (25-1) has won three district titles, one with Kobe Bryant leading the way in 1996 and then again in 2021 and 2022 behind the duo of Sam Brown (Penn) and Demetrius Lilley (Penn State). The group that has them in the hunt for their fourth doesn’t have a single Division I player on the roster, a whole group of small-college prospects getting it done. Senior guards Adam Herrenkohl, Owen McCabe and John Mobley have been a three-headed monster for opponents to deal with, while 6-foot-5 senior Jayden Robinson gives them length and athleticism up front. Throw in another sharpshooter in muscular junior Carson Kasmer and Downer has no fewer than five players who are all capable of scoring 15 or more.

Chester (20-2), which got revenge on Coatesville for one of its two losses in the quarterfinals, has been playing a typically Chester tough brand of basketball led by 6-5 forward and UConn football commit Dominic Toy. Keith Taylor will go up to 10 deep behind him, including sophomore twins Daron and Jalen Harris, junior Jasier Thompson, senior wing Dante Atkinson and more. 

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2) West Chester Henderson vs. 14) Garnet Valley
Unlike Lower Merion and Chester, used to playing at this level of the playoffs, it’s largely still new territory for both Henderson and Garnet Valley, which took different unexpected routes to get here. Henderson’s seed suggests this isn’t a surprise, but the Warriors (23-4) are down two starters due to torn ACL’s — wing Danny Suroweic went down in the preseason, and senior guard Jack Bell got hurt at the end of their second-round win — plus are without ineligible senior Nelson Lamizana, who transferred to Bonner as a junior and back for this year. Garnet Valley (18-8), in the district semis for the second time in four years, had to win at Spring-Ford and Methacton to get here after being unable to beat Marple Newtown at home in the Central League playoffs.

Mike Brown’s had his Jaguars program among the most well-coached in the district for a decade now, and he’s got some real talent to work with. Junior guard Jake Sniras is one of the top scorers in the Central League, an athletic 6-3 with shooting range who’s become a better playmaker with the ball in his hands; 6-0 point guard Quinn O’Hara had a big game in the quarterfinals, and freshman forward Grayson Golek is a promising youngster, the 6-4 forward with good physicality and a nice jumper. What really makes them click are the unselfish play of junior Brady Krautzel and senior Jack Krautzel, who both rebound, pass, and knock down open shots. 

Even shorthanded, Henderson coach Jason Ritter has a helluva 1-2 punch in seniors Nyle Ralph-Beyer and Connor Fleet, who combined for 50 points in the quarterfinal win over Central Bucks East. Ralph-Beyer, a 6-3 wing guard and Sacred Heart commit, is a top-notch shooter, while the 6-0 Fleet — who can also stretch the floor from deep — has the ball on a string and finishes at a high rate around the bucket. Senior wing Jesse Smith is a strong 3-point shooter as well, and junior guard Dylan DeLucia has had to step up of late due to injuries. 

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Seeding Games
5) Coatesville vs. 24) Springfield (Delco.)
Winner of this game plays the winner of the one below in the battle for the fifth and sixth seeds, while the losers will play for seventh and eighth. Coatesville coach John Allen has a battle-tested group which made a PIAA quarterfinal run a year ago out of the District 1-9 seed slot, returning guards Zuri Harris, Dior Kennedy, Amon Fowlkes and Marquis Peoples from that group. The post battle will be good, between Coatesville sophomore Larry Brown and Springfield’s York-bound post, Colin Treude. Springfield needs shooters Jake Brown, Patrick Flaherty, T.J. Valletti and others to have a hot day from deep.

6) Methacton vs. 7) Central Bucks East
Both of these groups are guard-heavy balanced, which should make for a fun matchup at Methacton. The Warriors feature sophomore Christian Matos, senior Alex Hermann, junior Sal Iemmello and senior Anthony Daddazio; CB East has Jake Cummiskey, who’s trying to chase down the school scoring record, plus classmates Tyler Dandrea and Justin DiRoberto plus 6-7 Miles Demby — who could be a difference-maker — up front. 

8) Bensalem vs. 13) Plymouth Whitemarsh
This is one of two seeding matchups in the 9-10-11-12 range, both of these teams having to win last Friday to earn a berth. That was big for Bensalem coach Ron Morris, who gets to coach his boys — seniors Noah and Antonio, born 11 months apart — for two more weeks; 6-2 junior forward Jaidyn Moffitt is a versatile threat as well. PW counters with star senior Jaden Colzie and emerging sophomore Mani Sajid, and boasts more size than the Owls thanks to 6-7 sophomore Michael Pereira and 6-5 senior Jahsier Sayles. These two SOL teams didn’t meet up during the regular season. 

3) Spring-Ford vs. 15) Downingtown West
These are two teams that didn’t expect to be playing for the final few seeds in the district, but both are happy to still be playing. The third-seeded Rams got a major boost last week in the return of junior wing Matt Zollers, a glue guy to help take the pressure of senior EJ Campbell and junior Jacob Nguyen, and he’s now got a few games back after missing more than a month with a broken foot. Downingtown West relies on its size in 6-7 junior Zeke Staz and 6-4 junior Donovan Fromhartz, and keep an eye on 6-3 sophomore Brady Moore as well.