City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Delco Christian doesn’t have enough girls to have an offseason basketball program.

With most of the roster playing fall and spring sports at the 700-student, K-through-12 private school nestled in between the Main Line and the more rural parts of the suburbs, the Knights coaches had to wait until the preseason begins in mid-November to even start to see what they had to work with. And despite coming off a sub-.500 season, with most of the starting lineup turning over, it didn’t take Jake Godino long this fall to sense he had something good brewing.

“The first three weeks of any season for me are very structured,” said the Knights’ head coach, a 2008 Delco Christian grad and former Temple walk-on. “You put in this offense, this defense, you do this, you do that. And then all of a sudden I started to see something coalesce, but I wasn’t sure how far we could take it.”

That answer is still to be determined, but it’s quite clear by this point that Godino has the pieces in place to be playing into March — not just this year, but for the next few. Despite starting two freshmen guards and a sophomore in his lineup, Delco Christian has nearly doubled its regular-season win total from a year ago, moving to 15-2 overall (7-1 Bicentennial) after a 49-34 win over Calvary Christian on Wednesday afternoon.

It’s been quite the turnaround for Delco Christian, especially through the eyes of senior Addie Smith. The four-year starter admitted she used to be “really shy,” but as the most experienced player on a young roster, she’s had to find her voice this year, and her assertiveness on the court. 

“This year is the first year where I had to step up, and — not boss people around, but take control,” she said. “It’s good for me because I’ve always been so closed off.”

With her and fellow senior Hallie Kees, who’s headed to Villanova for track and field, leading the way, Delco Christian got off to an 8-0 start, though only two of those wins were over BAL opponents. Their first loss came on Jan. 8 at Faith Christian, but they’ve bounced back to win five league games in a row and seven of their last eight overall, losing only to Marple Newtown last Saturday. 

Smith was all over the court in a good way in Delco Christian’s win, coming up a solitary steal shy of a triple double. The 5-foot-11 wing finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds and nine steals plus an assist and a block, showing her ability to step into a rhythm 3-pointer as well as finish around the rim. 

A three-sport athlete who plays tennis in the fall and lacrosse in the spring, Smith said she’s in her final year of competitive hoops, debating if she wants to play lacrosse in college or not. She certainly didn’t expect this coming after Delco Christian finished 11-15 last season (7-4 BAL), losing to MaST Charter in the BAL semifinals and to Sacred Heart in the District 1 Class A championship game. 

The arrival of a couple of impact newcomers has made a major difference.

Freshman guard Ella Stinger, as she’s been doing for much of the season, led the way with 22 points against Calvary Christian, knocking down five 3-pointers to sneak past her average of 18 per game. The 5-foot-8 guard, who plays her summer ball with the Lady’ Runnin Rebels, comes from a hoops family, her grandfather James Stinger playing at Villanova in the 1960s and her father (also James) suiting up for Monsignor Bonner.

She spent much of the summer getting ready for varsity hoops, determined to make an impact. It wasn’t until those weeks of practices, she said, that she had a feeling she might start from the jump — and not until the season began that she realized she’d be an invaluable part of the rotation.

“I definitely was somewhat expecting (to start) but I wasn’t expecting to play as much as I do,” she said. “I was coming in all summer, working out, weight lifting, so I think just putting that work in over the summer with the team like that, that really helped.”

Starting at point guard is another freshman, Mary O’Donnell, who contributed nine points, four assists and two rebounds against Calvary Christian. Kees’ eight points finished out the Knights’ scoring, as she added three assists, two rebounds and two blocks. 

Delco Christian opened up a 31-14 halftime lead, Stinger hitting three first-half 3-pointers and Smith scoring seven in the second quarter. Turnover issues plagued the Knights the second half, allowing Calvary Christian to make it a game down the stretch, but Delco Christian closed strong; a Stinger trey with three minutes left restored a 15-point edge and slammed the door shut.

The Knights have two BAL games left, at TCA on Thursday and then at home against Jenkintown on Friday, completing a run of four games in five days; win both, and they wrap up the top seed in the league playoffs. After a few non-league games to close out the season, they’ll play in the BAL tournament before the four-team District 1 tournament, needing to win two games to make it back to the state tournament for the first time since three straight district titles in 2010-12. 

Godino and Stinger were both excited as well about the impending addition of current Delco Christian eighth grader Dominique Good, a talented guard who plays with Comets Basketball and who should provide yet another boost to the Knights’ backcourt in the fall. With the three guards plus sophomore Anna Latchford, a defensive-minded wing and the team’s fifth starter, all back in the fold, Delco Christian won’t be taking people by surprise again.

“Yeah, I’m super-excited about the future of the team,” Stinger said. “I can see us going really far, this season and the next three seasons.”

By Quarter
DC:  18  |  13  |   9   |   9   ||  49
CC:   8   |   6   |  13  |   7   ||  34

Shooting
DC: 20-42 FG (7-19 3PT), 2-3 FT
CC: 14-46 FG (1-9 3PT), 5-12 FT

Scoring
DC: Ella Stinger 22, Addie Smith 10, Mary O’Donnell 9, Hallie Kees 8

CC: Laelle Feeley 14, Meg Gleason 8, Alexandra Chandler 5, Jamie Torressen 4, Leah Zweitzig 3