City of Basketball Love

Dan Arkans (@dan arkans) 

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It’s not how you start, but how you finish. That old sports cliche ran true on Friday night in an Inter-Academic League opener for The Haverford School, which saw the Fords outlast Springside Chestnut Hill 63-58 despite trailing most of the game.

Haverford was down 36-25 at halftime and still found themselves down by nine points entering the fourth quarter. The Fords though never backed down and finished on a furious 21-7 run to win the Inter-Ac battle.

“We try to have the guys be in the moment,” said Haverford coach Bernie Rogers. “Basketball is a game  of runs. We got on a pretty good run.”

SCH was on a tear the first three quarters, so the Fords turned to their full-court press to turn the game around in the fourth quarter. It worked to perfection as not only did it stop the Blue Devils’ momentum, but led to easy buckets on the other end. 

Manny Butts paced Haverford with 18 points, while Silas Graham added 16. Dillon Gamble also chipped in with 15 for the Fords in a balanced attack.

“We had such a good preseason we weren’t down much,” Rogers said. “It was a different experience to stay locked in and keep defending. We had to stay focused the whole 32 minutes.”

Penn Charter won big in its opener, but a thrilling comeback might just be another day in the Inter-AC this season. For what it’s worth this was another balanced team win for the Fords with Rogers pointing out the play off the bench from Owen Murphy, who provided much-needed energy.

“They made 10 3’s,” Rogers said of SCH. “They were switching defenses. They were tough to stop. The first league game is tough. Everyone is 0-0. To come out with a win hopefully gets you going.”

It was not a bad day for SCH, which had five different players hitting 3-pointers. Owen Kelly paced the offense with 23 points, while Alex Ormond added 16 points including four 3-pointers. 

Most of the damage was done in the first three quarters as the Blue Devils scored just seven in the final quarter.

“I think our league is really good,” Rogers said. “We were down most of the game. We had to find a way to come back. It’s a big one.” 

HS Boys: Roman Catholic 61, Archbishop Ryan 59: Roman made some key plays down the stretch and held off a determined Ryan squad in a PCL battle on Friday night. The Cahillites led 45-40 entering the fourth quarter and Ryan cut the deficit down to two points several times in the final minutes, but could never get closer. Semaj Robinson iced the game away with a layup in the closing moments. Roman shot 24-of-51 from the floor with Bryce Presley leading the way with 19 points. Sammy Jackson added 17. Malik Hughes paced Ryan with 19 points, while Isaiah Gore chipped in with 11. 

HS Boys Abington Friends 62, Shipley School 54: The Abington Friends boys basketball team opened up Friends League play with a 62-54 victory on Friday night behind 15 points from Jalyn Hopkins. Hopkins did most of his damage in the third quarter with eight points. Rob Spruill added 12 points, while Semaj Stone chipped in with 11. Jack Naegle scored 17 points to pace Shipley. AFS did trail the game 14-11 after one quarter before taking charge of the contest with a big second quarter where five Kangaroos found the scoring column.

HS Boys: Penn Charter 72, Episcopal Academy 57: PC jumped out to a 14-8 lead after one quarter and never looked back in a dominating Inter-Ac opener on Friday night. Carter Smith had it going from the start with eight of his game-high 19 points in the first half when the Quakers took a 32-20 lead into the break. It was more of the same high-octane offense in the second half as nine players reached the scoring column. Jackson Boyd also found double digits for Penn Charter with 12 points. Langston Foster scored 15 points to pace EA.

HS Boys: La Salle 70, Devon Prep 58, OT: The Explorers went 36-of-50 from the free-throw line and worked overtime to capture the PCL battle on Friday night after trailing 27-16 at the half. Tyler Branson led La Salle with 18 points, including shooting 9-of-11 from the line. Max Okebata was equally as dominant for the Explorers with 14 points, 10 rebounds and four steals. Jayden Carr chipped in with 11 points. Devon Prep was led by John Doogan with 13 points. 

HS Boys: CR North 55, Pennridge 53: Council Rock North won a barnburner in an SOL crossover game on Friday night. Danny Cuneo scored 18 points, while Owen Crowne added 14. Ryan Flood scored 16 points to pace Pennridge.

HS Boys: Neshaminy 64, CB East 53: Neshaminy ran away in the final quarter with a 24-11 spurt and took home the win on Friday night. Logan Gale led the way with 20 points for Neshaminy, while Marlon Yon added 15. The Patriots led 42-40 entering the fourth quarter with Keegan Marascio setting the tone with 17 points on the night. Henry Bartchuk added 10 points for CB East.

HS Girls: Plymouth Whitemarsh 34, Lower Moreland 20: Eliza Meersman scored 14 points and added nine rebounds as the Colonials clamped down on the Lions Friday night in an SOL crossover game. Grace Harvey added 13 points for the Colonials, who only allowed 12 points in the first three quarters combined. 

HS Girls: Neshaminy 51, North Penn 31: The halftime score resembled a football game with Neshaminy up 23-6 after the first 16 minutes as it rolled to the 20-point win on Friday night in an SOL crossover contest. Ashlyn Duffy had a big first half, scoring seven of her 12 points then and Hayley Kolk did the rest to finish with 17 points, seven rebounds and four blocks. Paityn Debro paced the Knights with seven points.

HS Boys: Malvern Prep 63, Germantown Academy 60: Malvern did just enough to get across the finish line in an Inter-AC opener on Friday night. Marvin Reed and Nick Harken both scored 20 points, while Logan Chwastyk added 16. James Brenner paced GA with 17 points.