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Showdown in Havertown: Night 2 Notebook

05/30/2015, 1:00am EDT
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The 19th annual Showdown in Havertown continued into its second evening of action on the three courts of Haverford High School, Middle School and Manoa Elementary on Friday night.

Here are features on two of the participating teams, as well as some notes and thoughts on a few other squads:

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Episcopal sets baseline in first offseason appearance
Is this the year that Episcopal takes home its first Inter-Ac title since 2006, when a pair of future NBA guards named Wayne Ellington and Gerald Henderson led the Churchmen to an undefeated league record?

“I have no idea,” head coach Craig Conlin said with a laugh. “This is our first night. We haven’t done anything all spring, we’re not one of those public schools that’s been in open gym and working out all spring; we haven’t done a thing.”

Okay, so maybe it is a little early to go around anointing league champions for a 2015-16 season whose start is still half a year away.

But this is clearly the best team Conlin has had as he enters his sixth year at the school, despite the graduation of guards Mike Jolaoso (14.2 ppg) and Mike Hinckley (10.2 ppg), who will be continuing their careers at West Chester and Dickinson, respectfully.

And though last year’s squad was certainly very good, going 17-7 overall and 8-2 in Inter-Ac play--good enough for second place in the six-team league--there’s one main reason this year’s team has a good chance to surpass that win total.

“I love the depth that we’re beginning to have at EA,” Conlin said after his team downed Sun Valley in its first offseason action. “We have some guys, a lot of guys who have got to knock some rust off, which I think they did...this is a good baseline for us, this is where we’re going to begin, and we’re going to get better and better every time we’re together.”

It starts with Nick Alikakos, a 6-7 rising junior and the defending Inter-Ac MVP thanks to his 18.8 ppg average and strong rebounding and defensive abilities. But there’s also rising senior guards Matt Woods (11.3 ppg) and Kyle Sacchetta, plus rising juniors Connor Delaney (5.9 ppg), Jack O’Connell and Kyle Virbitsky, all of whom saw varsity minutes last year.

Delaney, a 6-foot-1 guard who’s the overwhelming favorite to replace Hinckley and Jolaoso as the team’s primary ballhandler in the fall, had a very strong game against Sun Valley, hitting a number of tough pull-up jumpers and burying a long 3-pointer or two as well. He’s likely to see the biggest uptick in production of any player on the roster as he enters his upperclassman seasons.

“He’s such a smart player, he’s so brilliant in the classroom and he brings it out here on the court,” Conlin said. “His court awareness and his decision-making is tremendous.”

All the pieces are certainly in place for Episcopal, especially considering Germantown Academy loses two very good seniors in Tim Guers (St. Anselm’s) and Sam Lindgren (Colgate), while Haverford graduated Levan Alston, Jr. (Temple) and will see its only other two Division I prospects, Lamar Stevens and Cam Reddish, both transfer out.

As long as the Churchmen are more than the sum of their parts, they stand a very good chance to win their first league title in 10 years.

“Our team togetherness, that’s our strength,” Conlin said. “Our strength is in the pack.”

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Ridley adjusting to life as the hunted
When Ridley took down Conestoga at Harriton High School on February 10, the Green Raiders underwent a slight uniform alteration.

It wasn’t noticeable to anybody on the court or in the stands that night, but there’s now a target right on their backs, thanks to their first Central League championship since 2008.

And already, through playing in Chichester’s summer league and now in Havertown, they’re noticing a change.

“It feels like teams play us a lot harder,” said Brett Foster, a rising senior guard and leading scorer a year ago. “They want to beat us just to say they beat the champs.”

Foster is one of three returning starters, along with fellow seniors Julian Wing and Ryan Bollinger, all of whom played huge roles in last year’s run to the District 1 AAAA semifinals and PIAA Class AAAA playoffs. It was Bollinger who hit six clutch free throws in the final minute of that Central League championship game, while Wing hit five 3-pointers and scored 21 points on his 17th birthday to get his team into the state tournament with a win over Great Valley in the District 1 second round.

Gone are starting forwards Ameer Stags and Justin Dawson, plus sixth man Nick Czechowicz and deep reserve Trey Hinchey. Ridley coach Mike Snyder leaned heavily on his top six last year, and it seems that’s about how deep he’s planning to go this year.

“We got our three starters back with Bollinger, Foster and Julian, these other guys hopefully will find a couple to fill in and play,” he said. “If we can get guys to fill in those two starting positions and that one reserve spot, we should be okay. We’re going to wait and see, we’re going to be working hard this summer to see what they do, but they’re the key spots.”

Snyder is going to have to count a lot on his three returning starters, especially early on in the season as his younger players adjust to bigger roles and the faster pace of the varsity level.

Led by Foster, a 6-1 guard with a scorers’ touch, these Green Raiders are built to push the tempo and score the basketball, and though they’ve now got a title to defend, don’t expect them to play any differently.

“We’re not going to be playing a defensive type of way where we’re just worried about holding,” Snyder said. “We’re going out to play how we played last year, be aggressive, take it to them and do the best we can.”

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Quick Hits
--Chichester has a solid backcourt in the works, between 2016 SG Derek Wells, 2017 PG Eric Montenez and 2018 SG Da’quan Granberry. All three look like they’ll be contributing at the college level at some point--Wells is a strong 6-1 scoring guard who bullies his way to the hoop and doesn’t give up on rebounds, Montenez is a 5-11 lefty with good court vision and a solid handle, and Granberry has a good outside shot and is already 6-1 (his older brother, Richard Granberry, was a forward at Chester and graduated in 2013).

--Marple Newtown has to try and replace one of the top scoring guards in the area in Nick Giordano, who’s going to be a freshman at D-II East Stroudsburg this fall. Giordano was one of the top scorers around at just over 26 ppg, and his importance to his team went well beyond just the impressive bucket-getting ability. It looks like the leader for Marple this year will be rising senior Mike Rutecki, another strong guard who can do a little bit of everything. In a loss to Chichester, Rutecki dropped 14 points and made a number of slick passes, and he’s a physical guard who rebounded well and played tough defensively.

--One more player on Episcopal to keep an eye on is 2018 PF Colin Phillips, who played very well in the Sun Valley win. The 6-6 post already has a very solid body and long arms and moves very well for his size and age, showing off a few nice post moves and grabbing almost every rebound in sight. If he can be a tough interior presence for the Churchmen, that will allow Nick Alikakos to become more of a face-up wing forward--which will certainly help the Division I prospect’s development--it only makes Conlin’s group that much better.


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