City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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MALVERN — What a difference a year has made for the Great Valley boys. 

Last season, the Patriots started off the season with just three wins in their first 12 games, not winning their fourth until January 12. Things turned around at that point, as they won eight of their final 10, though that wasn’t enough to qualify for the District 1 6A playoffs. 

Though that momentum had to hold for more than nine months, it hasn’t vanished. 

Great Valley’s 49-37 non-conference home win over Harriton on Monday night moved the Patriots to 7-1 on the season, a far cry from where an inexperienced squad was a year ago. 

“Last season, we didn’t do as well as we thought we should have,” senior Henry Person said after a 19-point outing. “Having a good year, to start out, has meant a lot.

“We’re feeling great,” the sharpshooting 6-foot-5 wing said. “Energy’s high, and that’s something we’ve focused on, keeping our energy high, and I think that’s what’s led to some of our success. And it’s great, the buzz around the school is that we’re winning some games.”

Person, like most of the Patriots’ roster, is much more settled into the varsity lifestyle after making their debuts a year ago. A West Chester resident up until last year, he was a junior varsity player as a sophomore at Henderson before his family moved up to Malvern. His varsity debut came with a still-unfamiliar group of players who were all adjusting to the new level together. 

“It took a little bit,” he admitted. “Obviously now I’m feeling very comfortable with the guys, but last year, it was still learning and I think this year really shows with our success early on.”

Person’s hoops acumen comes from his mom, Emily (Ryan) Eckley, who scored 1,000-points at Haverford High and was two-time Central League MVP, leading the Fords into the PIAA state playoffs as a senior. 

He showed off his smooth touch against Harriton by going 5-of-10 from deep, part of a 7-of-14 night from the floor. His size and ability to stretch the floor has a number of high-academic Division III schools involved; Person mentioned Bard College (N.Y.) and Hartwick College (N.Y.) as two that had been recruiting him, and said some of the local schools had reached out, as well.

“He’s made a huge jump,” head coach C.J. Savage said. “Last year he was just getting used to the system and the spacing and cutting, the second year you can tell he’s made a huge development. He’s much more comfortable, not just on the court but off the court making friends. He’s flowing well through our offense and is a big part of our offense this year.”

The Patriots won their first seven of the year before suffering their first setback to Phoenixville on Saturday After a day off Sunday, they got right back on the court Monday, which could explain the slow start against the Rams (2-4). 

Harriton led 14-3 a couple minutes into the second quarter before Garnet Valley found its rhythm, a couple Person triples helping them close the gap to three points by halftime. 

That shooting touch continued in the third quarter, as four consecutive possessions ended with a Great Valley triple — one by Person, one by junior guard Chris Woodard and two by senior wing Aaron Levine — to flip the lead. They ended the period with senior reserve Noah Metrick throwing up a one-handed trey off one foot ahead of the buzzer, hitting nothing but not.

Great Valley got its advantage up to 16 in the fourth quarter, its Central League visitors never threatening down the stretch. The Patriots shot 10-of-22 from 3-point range; Savage said they're shooting just shy of 40% from deep on the year.

Savage knows his team won’t be able to get away with similarly slow starts against its Ches-Mont opponents, with American Division rival Sun Valley coming to visit on Tuesday — especially not as his team’s profile continues to rise. 

On the District 1 page’s unofficial 6A rankings, with Monday night’s win already factored in, Great Valley was sitting third. It’s early — but eight games is more than a third of the season. 

“I know teams are coming in, they see our record right now, so teams are coming in ready to get wins against us,” Savage said. “We can’t match [other] teams’ energy; we have to make them match our energy coming out. Teams are coming out firing against us, and I expect that, but the kids have to expect that, too.”

Chipping in with a strong effort on the bench on Monday night was Metrick, who hit two 3-pointers as part of an eight-point, four-steal, two-assist outing. Levine finished with nine points and Woodard added seven with seven rebounds and two assists. 

Savage got good minutes from his bench, namely Metrick, senior forward Will Benson (4 points, 6 rebounds) and senior guard Will Mack, who gave them quality ball-handling and a couple fourth-quarter assists. Starting senior guard Tyler Markowski also didn’t find the scoring column but dished out four assists of his own. 

“I think we’re really hard to zero down on one guy,” Savage said. “Obviously we have a couple of shooters, but we’re rotating 10 guys and guys are coming off the bench making big impacts. I think with the multiple players we’ve got playing, everybody’s contributing, it’s hard to zero down to one or two guys like most teams are.”

Sun Valley’s visit is the only Ches-Mont game on the immediate horizon, with four non-league games following before a trip to Oxford on January 7. A big 6A test awaits with a trip to Conestoga on January 3, the Pioneers having recently knocked off Lower Merion. 

For Great Valley to get to the district playoffs, it’ll likely require at least another seven wins, with a few more than that needed to secure a first-round home game or even a potential top-eight seed and bye into the second round. 

It’s a long ways away, but as Great Valley learned last year, you can’t get there without a strong start.

“There’s a lot of goals, a lot of expectations this year,” Savage said, “but the higher the goals, the harder you’ve got to work.”

By Quarter
HHS:  12  |   9   |   7   |   9   ||  37
GV:      3   |  15  |  19  |  12  ||  49

Shooting
HHS: 11-34 FG (4-10 3PT), 11-14 FT
GV: 19-47 FG (10-22 3PT), 1-1 FT

Scoring
HHS: Henry Belcher 10, Billy Wurtzel 8, Theo Novick 5, Cole Chodkowski 4, Charlie Klein 4, Cam Spencer 4, Seth Shaw 2

GV: Henry Person 19, Aaron Levine 9, Noah Metrick 8, Chris Woodard 7, Will Benson 4, Avi Sharma 2

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