City of Basketball Love

CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
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The PIAA Class 4A and 5A boys’ brackets each have two quarterfinals Friday night with local teams, in similar formats: one matchup of two local squads, and one Philly team vs. someone from the Scranton area. 

Here’s a close look at all four games:

Boys 5A: 1-1 Unionville vs. 12-2 Archbishop Ryan (7:30 PM, Norristown HS)

The top part of the 5A boys bracket is 75% CoBL teams: District 1 champs Unionville, Archbishop Ryan, and Imhotep Charter. The Longhorns come into this game 25-2 while the Raiders are 19-9. Unionville has had a very successful season, so far; losing to Henderson in the Ches-Mont league semi-finals added some fuel to the fire for a team that is super-hot at the right time. They haven’t lost a game since that Feb 16 matchup with Henderson, winning all of their last four contests by at least 25 points, including the district championship win over Upper Dublin (63-36). Ryan has been to both the PCL championship and the district championship, losing in both of those contests has left a deep state playoff run as the last chance for a title for its group of seniors.

Unionville is coming off a 74-36 beatdown against Dallas (2-2) and the first round wasn’t close either, as the Longhorns won 56-31 against Manheim Central (3-8). Head coach Chris Cowles has done a terrific job all season; he has Unionville back in the quarterfinals for the second time in five years, the program’s only two trips since 1981. In 2020, the Longhorns were set to play West Chester East when COVID stopped the state playoffs. Sophomore forward James Brenner will be key for Unionville to make it to the state semi-finals. He’s a 6-5 Division I recruit who holds offers from  Bryant and Sacred Heart. Brenner will need to be on his ‘A’ game against a very long and lengthy Ryan team. Longhorns senior forward Nick Diehl, a muscular 6-6 Tulane baseball commit, is a walking rebound but he will have his hands full against 6-9 Georgetown commit Thomas Sorber. Also having big roles are senior guards James Anderson, Ryan Brown, and Charlie Kammeier. They will need to take care of the ball in order to pull-out a win.  

Sorber and senior guard Darren Williams (Florida Gulf Coast) have a chance to get Ryan back into the state semifinals for the second year in a row. Coach Joe Zeglinski’s squad is ready to face its third straight District 1 opponent, after beating Sun Valley in the opening round (67-43) and then dispatching Radnor in the second round (66-46). Williams and Sorber led the way against Radnor but starting guard Rocco Morabito and sixth man Ryan Everett will be a huge part of the result in this game with their level of shot-making. Rounding out the Raiders starting five is sophomore guard Matt Johnson and senior forward Jaden Murray. Both groups are more experienced than most of the other squads currently playing; these teams have been in high-level games all season and each team features high-quality college players. You can expect this game to be a high-scoring affair, and could be played well into the 60’s and 70’s.

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Boys 5A: 12-1 Imhotep Charter vs. 2-1 Abington Heights (6 PM, Freedom HS)

The only unbeaten team in the bracket, Abington Heights (26-0) faces no doubt its stiffest test yet in Imhotep (26-3), the Philly powerhouse the favorites to defend a 2023 championship they won in dominant fashion. ‘Tep has once again been crushing opponents, beating a quality Exeter Township squad 83-40 in the second round, though it got somewhat stiffer competition from Pottstown (64-46) in the first round. Andre Noble, just two wins away from No. 500 in just over 20 years as head coach — though that pales in comparison to Ken Bianchi, who’s won 896 career games, 611 of which have come in his 28 years with Abington Heights. 

Abington Heights has terrific scoring balance amongst its top five, which all bring a ton of experience to the table: senior 6-1 guard Ryan Nealon, senior 5-11 guard Will Marion (Scranton), senior wing 6-4 Mason Fedor (Wilkes), junior 6-2 guard Robby Lucas and sophomore 6-2 wing Jordan Shaffer; all of them shoot it well from deep. Abington Heights won the PIAA 5A title in 2018, but that was before Imhotep, which took down the Comets in the quarters last season, started playing in the division.

Imhotep counters with a deep, athletic, talented and well-coached group led by UConn commit Ahmad Nowell, one of the top combo guards in the country. His backcourt mate, R.J. Smith, is a talented-if-undersized sophomore who plays with a lot of confidence. On the wings are 6-6 Latief Lorenzano-White and 6-7 Zaahir Muhammad-Gray, both sophomores and Division I offerees, while seniors Ma’Kye Taylor (Albany), Jeremiah White and sophomore Zion Green all rotate through the frontcourt spots. This might be the most loaded roster Noble’s had from top-to-bottom, and that’s saying something.

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Boys 4A: 12-3 Archbishop Carroll vs. 12-2 Eng. & Sciences (6:00 PM, Pottstown)

The two District 12 schools met up by back on Dec. 11 when the Catholic League’s Archbishop Carroll took down the Public League’s Engineering & Sciences, 61-27. The Engineers, who wone the Public League ‘B’ Division and reached the league quarterfinals before falling to Neumann-Goretti in the District 12 title game, will hope to change that result.

This is the deepest run in program history for E&S, which had just one state playoff win in 2006 heading into this season. Senior 6-4 forward Tali Simpkins and classmates like Lut Young have been waiting for season like this. Sophomore 5-7 point guard Fareed Brown was a second team All-Public League selection and classmate and backcourt Matthew McField is another promising guard. However, it’s been others like sophomore Sahin Rodriguez, junior Aaron Williams and most recently junior reserve Teon Smith also stepping up during the state run.

A young Carroll squad made some waves late in the PCL season, showing signs of improvement, and that seems to be coming to fruition in the state playoffs. A 62-56 win over a talented and experienced Allentown Central Catholic squad was an eyeopener. Pick your poison with this group as sophomore guard Ian Williams and Nasir Ralls are the “vets” with wing Luca Foster an explosive scorer. Drew Corrao, a 6-foot-9 sophomore forward who could present a matchup problem, and freshman guard Darrell Davis and freshman wing Munir Greig are two more players on the Division I radar, looking to keep their run going.

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Boys 4A: 12-1 Neumann Goretti vs. 2-1 Scranton Prep (7:30 PM, Freedom HS)

The Saints and Cavaliers meet for the second time in three years, after Neumann-Goretti slipped past Scranton Prep 57-51 in the second round of the 2022 tournament. The Cavaliers were the third seed coming out of District 2 that year; this year they come in as district champs, on an eight-game winning streak after beating Overbrook 71-61 in the second round. Neumann-Goretti, the 2023 state runner-ups, have their eyes on Hershey as usual under head coach Carl Arrigale, who’s going for his 10th state title.

Scranton Prep’s under the direction of first-year head coach Larry Reagan, a 2006 graduate of the school who spent the previous 10 years as an assistant under Andrew Kettel. His group goes 10 deep, and he’ll use all of them, his leading scorers — junior Brycen Martin (6-0) and senior Daniel Santaniello (6-3) — both averaging around 12-13 ppg. But anybody can step up and produce, as evidenced by sophomore guard Packy Doherty’s 40-point outing in the opening round, which he did in 19 minutes off the bench, hitting nine 3-pointers; senior guards Kellen Casey (6-1), Roman Valvano (6-0) Jordan Odom (5-9) and Chase Scanlan (5-10) will also all cycle through the three perimeter spots. Up front, 6-6 junior Ambrose Ross, 6-6 senior Joe Ramey and 6-3 senior Nigel Gnall will all battle with Neumann-Goretti senior forward Larenzo Jerkins, the high-energy 6-6 West Chester commit a handful in the paint on both ends.

Neumann-Goretti’s been playing half the season without St. Joe’s-bound senior point guard Khaafiq Myers, who injured his knee back in January, and now are without Hofstra-bound senior wing Amir Williams, yet to play in the PIAA playoffs due to a shoulder injury. That’s left the burden on a bunch of young guards, who thus far have carried the torch. Sophomore Torrey Brooks has been putting up big numbers all season, and his classmate DeShawn Yates has stepped up during the state bracket along with senior guard Matt Guokas and others. Scranton Prep wants to play physical, which could be effective against a talented-but-skinny N-G backcourt, but that matchup in the frontcourt will go a long way.