City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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ROSEMONT — The hair-raising, nausea-inducing, panic-causing fourth quarter was all in the past by the time Khamai Orange was ready to reflect on Delco Christian’s first district title win since 2019. All of that melted away the instant the clock hit zero, the Knights erasing two years of February frustrations to the tone of the buzzer horn. 

“This (was) our main focus,” the Knights’ senior guard said. “The BAL championship trophy is nice, but we wanted a banner.”

Delco Christian’s 61-59 win over Dock Mennonite in the District 1 2A championship game on Saturday was a measure of revenge. Dock beat Delco in that spot each of the last two seasons, Orange and his classmates in danger of graduating without a district title to their name. 

Orange made sure that wouldn’t be the case, the 6-foot-3 lead guard going for 33 points, seven rebounds, four steals and three assists to lead the way after a similar effort in the program's first Bicentennial League chamiponship six days before. Fellow senior Beau Lyren added 10, with junior forward Bradford Berwick (6 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks), junior wing Laverne Sambola (5 points, 4 rebounds) and sophomore guard Karter Freeman (5 points, 9 rebounds, 6 steals) all chipping in.

“Our mindset was really just to kill, that’s really all it is,” Orange said. “We’re not scared of no one, we want to play. Sure it got shaky at the end, but we beat this team already, so we know we can win.”

It seemed like Delco Christian was ready to raise the banner when they took a 20-point lead at the end of the third quarter, Freeman’s steal-and-layup leading to a large celebration with the sizable Delco Christian student section in attendance at what was a mostly-full gymnasium. 

But led by senior guard Robbie Sukaly, who scored 14 points in the fourth quarter, Dock clawed back. It was a 12-point game with four minutes to play, Dock’s pressure forcing turnover after turnover. A 3-pointer by Tim Weir got it down to seven with 2:20 to play. Sukaly took over at that point, with two and-ones in the next 100 seconds, the second tying it at 57 with 40 seconds to play.

“They’re a championship team, so we expected them to come back,” Orange said. “We expected them to come back early, not late [...] down 20, that’s a miraculous comeback.” 

Orange didn’t blink. He took a pass on the inbounds and immediately found sophomore Jake Matty alone down at the other end of the court, Matty’s layup putting Delco back up. Dock’s coaches, thinking they had one timeout remaining, tried to take it; the referees determined they didn’t have a timeout, and awarded a technical foul. Orange stepped to the line, and calmly hit both.

“I always make foul shots before I leave the gym,” he said. “Foul shots are the easiest points and the hardest points because it’s all mental, foul shots. Three-pointers are skill, layups [are] skill, foul shots are you [and] the basket. People around you, they’re all talking, they don’t matter, it’s just you and the basket. 

“Just calm down, breathe, pray. That’s all it is, to be honest.”

A pair of missed foul shots with 10 seconds left weren’t enough for Dock, who got down the court and got a layup from senior Tony Martin (16 points), but the Pioneers couldn’t stop the clock from running out of time. 

Delco’s win was the third of three District 1 small-school championships at Harriton High School on Saturday. The Chester Charter boys captured the 1A title, beating The Christian Academy, before Sacred Heart beat Delco Christian in the 1A girls game. All six teams that competed on Saturday had already qualified for the state tournament with their respective semifinal wins.

Last season, Delco Christian lost in the first round of states to District 12 champ Constitution. They’ll play against the No. 3 seed out of District 12 this time around, but that opponent has yet to be decided. Dock Mennonite will play the District 12 champs this time around. 

By Quarter
Delco Christian:  19  |  14  |  15  |  13  ||  61
Dock Mennonite: 11  |   9   |   8   |  31  ||  59

Shooting
Delco Christian: 21-51 FG (3-13 3PT), 16-19 FT
Dock Mennonite: 23-52 FG (6-20 3PT), 7-11 FT

Scoring
Delco Christian: Khamai Orange 33, Beau Lyren 10, Bradford Berwick 6, Laverne Sambola 5, Karter Freeman 5, Jake Matty 2

Dock Mennonite: Robbie Sukaly 23, Tony Martin 16, Justin Panaia 7, Timothy Weir 5, Koby Rollerson 4, Marques Brown 4

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Girls’ 1A Championship: Sacred Heart 49, Delco Christian 28

The girls’ 1A championship came down to one simple factor:

Sacred Heart had Keara McCaffrey, and Delco Christian did not. 

The 6-foot-1 forward and DeSales commit is coming to the end of an outstanding high school career and put together one of her best outings yet — a monster 16-point, 26-rebound, eight-block performance, which powered the Lions to a big district title win.

It’s the third district title in four years for McCaffrey, who was a reserve when Sacred Heart won it her freshman year, moving into the starting lineup as a sophomore. It wasn’t a defense, though, as they won the 2A title a year ago.

“It really is a full-circle moment to come back here where it all started and win as a senior,” McCaffrey said. “It almost brings a tear to my eye, I felt myself getting a little sentimental on that court.”

“Freshman (year), I got into foul trouble and I wasn’t much of a playmaker now so I was more passive, but this year I felt like I was the seniors that I looked up to freshman year. I was able to make the plays to help my teammates, and my teammates were able to help me get some plays, it’s such a full-circle moment, I just realized how grown-up I’ve gotten in this program.”

“To see her from freshman year grow to senior year and to see what she put up stat-wise is really amazing,” Sacred Heart coach Zach Shuler said. “I’m really proud of her, all that hard work that she put in and she’s made everybody else better because of it.”

McCaffrey was at her best on Saturday, scoring her team’s first six points and immediately grabbing rebound after rebound. She kept up all game long against a Delco Christian squad which was missing 5-10 senior Addie Smith, out with a broken arm, and didn’t have anybody who could handle the presence McCaffrey brought to the paint. 

One Knights layup after another got snuffed out or altered, McCaffrey’s rebound total not counting several she tapped to a teammate or grabbed for a tie-up. That came after she scored 30 points and surpassed the 1,000-point barrier in the semifinals. It was her career-best in rebounds, she said, but swore she wasn’t paying attention to how many she was reeling in that afternoon.

“I just keep on thinking next play, next play,” she said. “It’s more just, I have to get the ball back for my teammates, I have to get the possession so we can win this one and come back next one and get the (stop) on D.”

Junior guard Megan Donahue — who hit the shot two years ago to send Sacred Heart into the state quarterfinals, its deepest run in Shuler’s 20 years — led Sacred Heart with 19 points against Delco Christian, getting 11 of those in the fourth quarter. The Lions will face the fourth seed from District 3 in the first round of the state playoffs. 

A pair of freshman guards, Mary O’Donnell (11 points, 4 rebounds) and Ella Stinger (10 points) led Delco Christian in scoring. The Knights will travel to the second seed from District 3 in the opening round.

By Quarter
Delco Christian:  2   |   8   |  12  |   6   ||  28
Sacred Heart:    14  |   5   |  15  |  15  ||  49

Shooting
Delco Christian: 10-52 FG (2-16 3PT), 6-9 FT
Sacred Heart: 18-61 FG (2-13 3PT), 11-18 FT

Scoring
Delco Christian: Mary O’Donnell 11, Ella Stinger 10, Hallie Kees 7

Sacred Heart: Megan Donahue 19, Keara McCaffrey 16, Dani Jeffires 6, Maddie Campbell 6, Molly Mannion 2

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Boys’ 1A Championship: Chester Charter 70, The Christian Academy 65

The way Maurice Barnes was playing, you could call him Waldo.

No matter where he was, his teammates were finding him, time and time again. The 6-foot-4, 185-pound sophomore forward kept getting free around the rim, the Chester Charter rotation all chipping in to get him the ball and he kept finishing, one smooth catch-and-layup after another. With Barnes going for a career-high 21 points, the Sabres defended their Class 1A title, holding on for a 70-65 win over The Christian Academy. 

“They try to do that because I’m good at finishing, so they try to get me the ball down low in the paint,” Barnes said. “It makes me feel good because I know my team trusts me to make the layups, to do whatever I can do down there.”

Though it was Chester Charter’s fourth straight 1A title, it was still the start of a new dynasty. 

Lonnie Diggs and his staff took over the Sabres’ program this offseason, the former Math Civics & Sciences coach coming over following MCS’ closure and former CCSA head coach Daniel Spangler’s departure for Immaculata University’s staff. Several former Mighty Elephants came down to Chester; senior Josiah Hutson came in from Cheltenham; others, including Barnes were holdovers from before. 

“It was kind of trying to merge two different groups, the guys that had been here and the group of kids that came from MCS,” Diggs said, “so it was all season just trying to get that cohesion with a lot of new guys and a lot of guys that had been here. Now these guys are like a family.”

Barnes was an especially interesting case. Formerly a football player who only hooped for fun, a broken leg in eighth grade got him to change sports, so he tried out for the basketball team as a freshman. He swung between the varsity and JV roster as a freshman, but has moved into a much larger role as one of five sophomores who saw the court for CCSA on Saturday.

“He’s progressed a lot,” Diggs said. “He’s gotten a lot better since we got here, being a real student of the game, just trying to learn the game, he’s only been playing for a year. He’s like a sponge, he really wants to learn, he really wants to be good.”

Hutson, who had a game-high 22 points, also had five assists, a few of which were to Barnes. Sophomore Nieem Gregory, coming off the bench as he recovers from illness, was still a big energy spark with two points, six rebounds, two steals and four assists, most of which were to Barnes. Chester Charter had 17 assists on 25 buckets; of Barnes’ 10 buckets, at least seven or eight were off assists. 

Chester Charter built on a four-point lead after one quarter, going up 30-19 at half and 50-33 after three quarters. But the senior duo of Cam Harrop-Wison (32 points) and Sir Guy Epps Jr. (24 points) turned up the heat in the fourth quarter, the two forcing one turnover after another as they combined for 29 points in the fourth quarter alone. 

But the rally died after Epps fouled out with a little more than a minute left, Hutson going 4-of-6 from the foul line down the stretch to close out the win; Harrop-Wison hit a fifth and final 3-pointer to get the margin down to five in the closing seconds. 

By Quarter
Chester Charter:     15  |  15  |  20  |  20  ||  70
Christian Academy: 11  |   8   |  14  |  32  ||  65

Shooting
Chester Charter: 25-47 FG (6-17 3PT), 14-21 FT
Christian Academy: 23-48 FG (8-21 3PT), 11-19 FT

Scoring
Chester Charter: Josiah Hutson 22, Maurice Barnes 21, Dom Miller 9, Trey Caldwell 7, Jamar Grooms 3, Calvin Lewis 3, Nieem Gregory 2, Zion Robinson 2

Christian Academy: Cam Harrop-Wison 32, Sir Guy Epps Jr. 24, Judah Gray 9

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