City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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EXETER — As the sixth man as a sophomore and junior at Cedar Crest, Danny Speaks often ignited the Falcons off the bench.

In his senior campaign, Speaks has taken over one of the starting and starring roles on the team.

He’s still making sure he provides a spark.

Speaks made some key plays and scored a team-high 14 points in a 51-42 win over Chester on Saturday at the CoBL Winter Classic as the Falcons improved to 2-0 on the year.

“I just try at the start of the game to bring the energy and speed and just doing what I need to do to help the team for the first couple of buckets and keep it going and finish the game out,” Speaks said.

Entering the 2024-25 season, Cedar Crest had gone a combined 0-6 in its opening weekend slates since Speaks and his classmates arrived on campus. With just one starter back from last season’s 21-8 campaign, the goal was to make a statement early this year.

Speaks led his team in scoring for the second time in two games Saturday. He dropped in 15 points on Friday night in a 59-53 win over Exeter at the CoBL Winter Classic.

On Saturday, he scored 11 of his team-high 15 in the second half. Senior Isaac Wolfe followed with 10 and senior Jackson Custer had nine. Junior Paul Lindsay II led Chester with 12, going 4-for-4 from deep in the second half.

“We still have a long way to go, but this is what you want when you feel like you have a good team, which I think we do,” Cedar Crest coach Tommy Smith said. “Come in, play good teams early to see where you’re at. I definitely feel good about where we’re at. Have a long way to go.”

Cedar Crest led 13-10 after one and built that advantage to 28-16 at half with balanced scoring and tough defense.

Chester made its run late in the third when Lindsay II banged a pair of triples, helping the Clippers get to within four, 34-30, by the end of the quarter. The Clippers closed that gap to 35-34 early in the fourth, but Speaks helped his team answer.

He came right back down the other end and converted an and-one, which started a 9-1 run for the Falcons, capped by a Speaks three. When Lindsay II seemed to quell the run with another triple, Speaks found Wolfe for a three-point shot that made it 47-38 and kept the Clippers at a comfortable distance down the stretch.

“He’s very explosive. He adds an element to our game, a very tough defender and tough to defend him as well,” Smith said of Speaks. “He scored the ball very well and came up big in big moments. There’s not anyone who’s played more basketball than him and has worked harder than him, so he’s earned these moments and I’m glad to see him do really well with them.”

Senior forward RJ Young is the only starter back this season for Cedar Crest. Young stuffed the statsheet with six points, 11 rebounds, three blocks, three assists in Saturday’s win. He was one of the center pieces of last season’s run to the Lancaster-Lebanon League title and district and state playoffs.

There’s varied experience among the rest of the seniors but they are ready to make their mark.

“We’ve got a great group of seniors together and seniors win in early games like this against good programs,” Smith said.

Chester is in a similar position with senior guard Dallas Thompson (seven points) the only key cog back from last year’s team that won a Del-Val League title and went to the District 1-6A semifinals. The Clippers will look for guys to continue emerge alongside him throughout the season. Along with Lindsay II’s shooting, senior Ra’Shaad Dorsey was one of the bright spots with 11 points.

The win over a storied Clippers program was a nice feather in the cap for a Falcons team trying to establish itself early on in the season. With a strong start to the year for the first time in a long time, they'll look to keep things rolling through the rest of the winter.

“We’ve got a bunch of good players. Me, RJ, Ike (Wolfe), Dylan (Groff), Jack (Waranavage), Jackson and we’ve also got some sophomores,” Speaks said. “So I feel like this year, even though everybody thinks since we lost all our seniors, four starters, people think we’re not going to be as good as we were last year, but I feel like we’re going to be good and we’re going to make a run for playoffs and districts and try to get states as well.”

Chester 10 | 6 | 15 | 11 | | 42
Cedar Crest 13 | 15 | 7 | 16 | | 51

Chester: Paul Lindsay II 12, Ra'Shaad Dorsey 11, Dallas Thompson 7, Nyrell Pray 6, Nymeer Madison 2, Kris Chamber 2, Zahir Clayton 2.

Cedar Crest: Danny Speaks 15, Isaac Wolfe 10, Jackson Custer 9, RJ Young 6, Jack Waranavage 6, Owen Outman 4, Dylan Groff 1.