City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue
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HAVERTOWN — While the pieces may look different, the priorities remain the same.

A deep senior class at Garnet Valley that’s waited its turn is helping the Jaguars carry on their two biggest principles — defense and rebounding — as they chase another Central League title.

The Jaguars scrapped on the boards and clamped down defensively for a 45-26 win over Haverford on Thursday to stay in a tie with Conestoga atop the league standings with two regular season games to play, including one against the Pioneers.

“I knew coming into this year I needed to step up, and we all kind of did as a team together,” senior Reese Hunter said. “And our captains have been really helping us because Addie and Kylie (Adamski) from last year, they’re bringing the momentum we had from last year to this year.” 

Though the Jags are the defending league champs until someone knocks them off, the makeup of this Garnet Valley (16-3, 12-2 Central League) team is very different from the one that won the Central League and finished as the district runner-up and a state semifinalist last season. 

Coach Joe Woods had a top heavy rotation last season with Haylie Adamski (Lafayette) and Kylie Mulholland (Jefferson) making up the bulk of production for a lineup that didn’t often go past six deep. The Jaguars play as many as 10 players in games this season. Even in a low scoring affair on Thursday night, eight different Garnet Valley players scored.

Back in the starting lineup from the 2024-25 group are juniors Kylie and Addison Adamski, who led the team with 11 and nine points, respectively, on Thursday. Haverford sophomore Grace Maloney led all scorers with 13. 

It’s been a collection of others like Hunter stepping into new roles that has Garnet Valley back in contention once again.

“It’s a lot of fun. It’s different. It’s a challenge for the coaches somewhat,” Woods said. “I think we were spoiled a little bit the past four years with just the talent that we had. Not that we didn’t coach them or work hard, and they worked hard, but this was different because we’re rotating a lot of players in, (thinking about) what are the circumstances and what are the matchups even more than last year or the year before.”

Haverford went ahead 13-10 after the first quarter Thursday, led by seven points from Maloney. With senior Regan Leydig coming off the bench and locking down on Maloney, and senior Amanda Bilson and a host of others doing their best to neutralize Scranton commit Maura Gilroy (seven points) down low, Garnet Valley held the Fords to just three points in the second as they jumped ahead 21-16 at halftime.

Bilson, who scored seven points off the bench, was a JV player last season who’s had to rise to the occasion at times this winter. Leydig is another member of the senior class who’s carved out a role for herself: defensive stopper. Senior forwards Cassidy Zipperlen and Katie Dwyer, both first-year starters, are two more big pieces to the puzzle.

“We’ve got a pretty strong tradition in terms of doing well in the league, in districts and in states,” Woods said. “I think that helps with the players who know they have to work hard and it might not be automatic for them. … We work hard in practice, all the players. I think they know their roles and we communicate that to them.”

After allowing 13 points in the first quarter, Garnet Valley allowed just 13 combined in the last three periods. The Jaguars don’t have a ton of size as a group, but they fly around the floor defensively. 

That was most apparent Thursday when they went into their 1-3-1 zone with Dwyer, the first player off the bench last season, causing havoc at the top. That let Hunter (four steals) and others swarm to the ball.

“That just has been working really for us this season, and I think our energy and effort is really good when we play that (defense),” Hunter said.

Woods said matchups with Mulholland in practice throughout Hunter’s career helped prepare her to step into the starting point guard spot as a senior. Along with her scrappy defense, she hit two big shots Thursday that helped slam the door shut on Haverford.

Hunter drilled a key 3-point shot to extend the Jaguars’ lead to 33-22 with 2:32 left in the third. Leydig added another big shot to end the period before Hunter capped an 11-2 Garnet Valley run to put her team ahead 37-22 with 6:45 left in the game before they started churning down the clock.

“Sometimes you’ve gotta semi wait your turn, depending upon who the players are in front of you,” Woods said. “Reese has always been a very hard worker, extremely intelligent, great basketball IQ, and she’s really coming along this year for us.”

“I don’t really know," Hunter said of her role. "It’s energy and my team brings me up, so whatever I can do I’m going to do it.”

The Jaguars finished as the top seed in the Central League with a 15-1 mark last season. They now have a season sweep over third place Haverford and own a win over Conestoga, which means a victory Saturday over the Pioneers would wrap up the No. 1 seed once again.

“It all comes from practice and our coaches are kind of instilling the same thing in us as we learned last year," Hunter said. "Every practice counts. Every game counts. We know we can’t come out flat from the start.”

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By Quarter

Garnet Valley 10 | 11 | 14 | 10 || 45

Haverford 13 | 3 | 6 | 4 || 26

Scoring

Garnet Valley: Kylie Adamski 11, Addison Adamski 9, Amanda Bilson 7, Reese Hunter 5, Katie Dwyer 5, Regan Leydig 4, Ryann Razzano 2, Heaven Dada 2.

Haverford: Grace Maloney 13, Maura Gilroy 7, Keira Hanson 4, Janie Johnson