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Graham, Haverford School hold on to beat SCH in overtime

02/01/2025, 12:00am EST
By Josh Verlin

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)

HAVERFORD — Silas Graham would rather be in the favorite or contender role than play the spoiler. But the Haverford School sophomore will take what he can get. 

With the Fords taking four losses in their first six Inter-Academic League games after a stellar non-conference slate, they entered a Friday night home contest against Springside-Chestnut Hill Academy all but eliminated from the six-team league’s championship race. The Blue Devils, however, came in one game behind Penn Charter, perhaps the only team with a shot to prevent the Quakers from defending their title. 


Silas Graham (above) hit five 3-pointers as part of a 26-point outing. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“I think [it was] more us getting beat by them that really affected the mindset of why we wanted to beat them,” Graham said, referring to a 16-point SCH win exactly one week prior — but, he added, “spoiling someone’s season’s always fun.”

No matter the motivation, the Fords played spoiler indeed with a 70-64 overtime win over the Blue Devils. 

Graham, the Fords’ star sophomore and third-year starter, led the way with a 26-point, 10-rebound double-double for the Haverford School (17-4, 3-4 Inter-Ac), which opened the season with 13 straight wins before hitting some bumps during league play. 

Coming off a 17-10 (6-4) season, the Fords lost to Penn Charter by 21 in their league opener then lost by two at Malvern Prep; after a couple wins, they laid an egg at SCH Academy and then had a close call on Tuesday, losing by three at Penn Charter. That all but ended their league hopes; Penn Charter’s win over EA on Friday eliminated Haverford entirely.

“We were definitely struggling and we’re just trying to get back into our groove that we had before rolling into Inter-Acs,” Graham said. “We found it a little bit at Penn Charter, we just didn’t make as many shots. Tonight we came back alive — everybody was making shots, we were playing together, sharing the ball, I think it was a lot better than it had been for seven games.”

Aside from Graham’s standout evening, which saw him make five of his first six 3-point attempts, the Fords got balanced support. Senior guard KJ Carson, coming off the bench, scored 13 points with three 3-pointers; junior guard Dillon Gamble added nine points and five rebounds; senior guard Duke Cloran scored eight points with six rebounds and three blocks; junior forward Manny Butts had eight points with four rebounds and three assists. 

Haverford School led most of the way in an intense game, played in front of a full house at McBride Court, the Haverford School student section decked out in togas, an annual tradition for one of the Friday night league games. They were up 12 points early in the fourth after a couple Graham buckets, but SCH had a comeback in it. 


Kam Waters (above) hit the game-tying 3-pointer with four seconds left in regulation. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Junior wing Owen Kelley (14 points) hit a 3-pointer, classmate Jules Sanders (11 points) knocked one down from deep, and senior Kam Waters (team-high 16 points) had an and-one to cut the edge down to four with a minute to play. A couple free-throws from Gamble got the edge back to six at 64-58, but Kelly hit a triple from the corner to cut the gap in half. 

Instead of holding onto the ball, Haverford School tried to break the press with a layup but missed; SCH got the rebound and pushed it upcourt with 30 seconds to play. A couple missed 3-pointers got back to SCH hands, until Waters stepped into one and tied it with less than five seconds remaining in regulation. A Fords heave at the buzzer missed the mark. 

Haverford School clamped down defensively in overtime, holding SCH scoreless in the extra session on 0-for-10 shooting while Graham scored four of the six, including a pair of game-sealing free-throws with 10.7 to play.

“Obviously we were mad, that was their third shot on that possession [at the end of regulation] so we were just trying to put it in the past, and go win it in overtime,” Graham said. “We knew we were undefeated in overtime this year, so we knew what we had to do, and I don’t think they scored in overtime so I think we were really locked in and moved past that.”

Graham did point out that Haverford didn’t totally end SCH’s chances. The Blue Devils are tied with Malvern Prep, two games back of the Quakers with three games to play, and they’ll have a chance to get one of those games back on Tuesday at Penn Charter. PC won the first matchup between the two, 62-60 at SCH on Jan. 14. 

After that, SCH will need to take care of business against Episcopal and Malvern Prep while hoping that either Malvern or Germantown Academy can knock off the defending champs and force a split title in a league with no playoffs. 

“We talked about seizing another possible opportunity upcoming, and not hanging our heads, because stranger things have happened in this league,” SCH coach Julian McFadden said. “We’ve been in this situation before, they also have won 20 games, so these kids are pretty resilient, they’re a bunch of tough dudes. We were just not doing the things that we needed to do to win, but I’ve seen them do it before and I expect them to do it again.”

Both teams are also playing for seeding in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools (PAISAA) state tournament. The bracket is picked by a seeding committee, so every win to close out the season can help in a loaded bracket that also includes the Friends’ Schools League as well as Perkiomen, Phelps, Hill and other prep schools. 

By Quarter
THS:  16  |  11  |  18  |  19  |   6   ||  70
SCH: 12  |  14  |  13  |  25  |   0   ||  64

Shooting
THS: 22-48 FG (10-23 3PT), 16-21 FT
SCH: 22-59 FG (8-33 3PT), 12-18 FT

Scoring
THS: Silas Graham 26, KJ Carson 13, Dillon Gamble 9, Duke Cloran 8, Manny Butts 8, Leo Becker 4, Jacob Becker 2

SCH: Kam Waters 16, Keni Williams 15, Owen Kelly 14, Jules Sanders 11, Adrian Rascoe 4, Joe Flach 3, Stewart Greenleaf 2


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