City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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RADNOR — It wasn’t until her eighth grade year that Nyah Yao made a call that would change her high school years — and most likely beyond — quite considerably. 

Though the Radnor middle schooler had been a swimmer growing up, she’d been interested in basketball, her father David playing it in his high school years out in California. Looking for a new athletics outlet, she asked her dad if she could join a fall basketball league and give hoops a shot.

“I loved it, I loved having a team,” she said. “Because in swimming, you’re by yourself. I remember that first fall team, God I loved it. So I came to play for school — and then going into high school, I started really starting to train right after freshman year, because I was like, I might be able to make something of this.”

As it turns out, Yao was right. 

Now a second-year starter for Radnor, the 5-foot-8 junior guard has become one of the best scorers in the Central League and a hot commodity amongst high-academic Division III coaches, basketball very much in her future. She kept her strong start to her season going on Tuesday night, pouring in 17 points and grabbing 11 rebounds as the Raptors won their Central League opener, 42-31 over Harriton on Tuesday night.

Not bad for someone who only began taking the sport seriously in that fall of her eighth grade season, three years ago.

Yao played sparingly as a freshman for Radnor under head coach Rob Baxter, but moved into the starting lineup full-time as a sophomore, where she instantly became a key part of the Raptors’ attack. 

“I was always a big believer in let’s let the freshmen learn a little bit and get their feet wet, and nowadays everybody just throws their freshmen in the mix,” Baxter said. “I probably held her back a little bit too much, but hopefully she doesn’t come up six points short of 1,000 and it’s on me because I didn’t play her as a freshman.”

With three starters gone from last year’s 19-win squad, which finished tied for third in the Central League with a 13-3 record, there was already going to be a lot of extra responsibility on Yao’s shoulders coming into this year, along with classmate Anna Reger, a Dartmouth lacrosse commit and the team’s other returning starter. 

Most of Radnor’s basketball program plays another fall sport, so the Raptors weren’t able to get too much action in the fall. There was one fall league at Upper Darby, a mix of varsity and JV players on any given weekend, but it wasn’t until right before the season began that the whole roster was finally able to take the court together. 

“Oh my God, it was so nice to be back together,” Yao said. “Being back together, it was like oh my God, everybody’s here. Going through plays is easier because you have people who know what they’re doing, and it’s good to see everybody again. It was nice to be back.” 

Yao was coming off an important summer of her own. Playing with her Philly Roots squad for the second summer in a row and in various camps around the area, she’s caught the attention of a number of high-academic Division III programs from across the Northeast — she named locals Bryn Mawr and Haverford College, along with the likes of Smith, Vassar, Babson and other New England colleges. 

A strong student, Yao said she took two AP courses as a sophomore and is taking three as a junior, including physics and economics. She’s not sure yet what exactly she wants to do with her career, but has ruled a few things out.

“I just know I’m not a history kid, figured that out pretty quick,” she said with a laugh. “Depending on what I find interesting the next few years, could be engineering, could be medical sciences, I really don’t know.”

Yao scored 12 points in a season-opening win over Shanahan last week and then a team-high 16 in a win over West Chester East over the weekend, bettering that by one point with an impressive showing against Harriton. Yao did a good job of attacking the rim, and though she ran into some stout opposition in the form of Rams’ senior forward Anna Chimento — the Ursinus commit racked up 16 points, seven blocks, and six rebounds — Yao got a few tough buckets of her own and also earned five trips to the foul line, where she went 8-of-10 from the stripe.

She said she wants to continue working on her shooting and ball-handling, areas where she feels she’s already made a significant improvement over the last 12 months. 

“Her strength and confidence has really [improved],” Baxter said. “She worked a lot in the weight room over the summer, plus she would get up here and shoot, she’d ask the janitors to open the gym early in the morning before school, so she really works at it.”

Reger, a 5-6 point guard, was all over the court against Harriton with nine points, eight rebounds, six steals, two assists and a block for good measure. Sophomore wing forward Bree Simpson, new to the varsity rotation this season, chippined in eight points and four of her five rebounds on the offensive end. 

It was neither team’s most efficient night from the floor, but a couple third-quarter 3-pointers from Reger and Sadie Boulden helped open things up, and good energy from senior Riley D’Entremont (seven rebounds, two assists) was big on the defensive end.

“We’re at our best when we can spread the ball around a little bit, and our first couple games we had three people in double figures,” Baxter said. “If we can get that every game, if we can get out and run. You saw when things got stagnant, we really slowed down. When we can get out and run, we’re pretty good.”

Radnor has a tough road ahead in the Central League, with Conestoga and Garnet Valley expected to be the main competitors for the title, Haverford High and St. Joe’s commit Rian Dotsey in the mix as well. Despite several new faces in the rotation Yao doesn’t want people to forgot about Radnor.

“We lost a lot of starters from last year, so I was a little iffy, but I think the first two games, after we played, I was like, oh this team’s going to be good,” Yao said. “Coming out and winning the first Central League game, it almost made a statement to the rest of the league that we’re still there.”

By Quarter
Radnor:   10  |  11  |  12  |   9   ||  42
Harriton:   4   |   5   |  12  |  10  ||  31

Shooting
Radnor: 14-55 FG (3-16 3PT), 11-19 FT
Harriton: 14-49 FG (0-12 3PT), 3-6 FT

Scoring
Radnor: Nyah Yao 17, Anna Reger 9, Bree Simpson 8, Sadie Boulden 3, Riley D’Entremont 2, Ally Krug 2

Harriton: Anna Chimento 16, Addi Levensten 7, Madie Bacine 4, Chelsea Poli 2, Julie Cognetti 2