City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Gabe Alter has waited 14 years to make his mark on the Germantown Academy boys’ basketball team. The GA senior, who lives “about three minutes” from the school he’s attended since pre-kindergarten, has been a fan of the Patriots’ program as long as he can remember.

As a young boy in the 257-year-old Fort Washington school, he attended camps run by head coach Jim Fenerty. By the time he reached ninth grade, he was good enough to have earned a spot at the end of the varsity bench, though his playing time came on the JV level.

Then came the injuries. Two torn labrums led to hip surgery that cost him his sophomore year. A torn patella, and there went his junior season.

He’s not letting his senior season go to waste.

With one of GA’s top scorers sidelined, Alter stepped up in a big way, dropping a career-best 19 points as the Patriots downed The Haverford School, 60-50, to open Inter-Ac league play on Friday night.

“I can’t believe it’s my senior year, playing in the Inter-Ac,” he said afterwards. “It’s crazy, it’s awesome.”

Fenerty, who’s been at the school 27 years as its head coach--he also serves as athletics director--was excited about Alter’s potential each of the last three preseasons, waiting for the 6-foot-5, 210-pound wing forward to show off to the public what his coaches knew he could do if he ever saw the court.

Now that it’s happening, he couldn’t be happier.

“(Alter) never missed a practice and was always there, even if he was standing on the sideline walking like Coach Fenerty, he was still shooting fouls,” the 65-year-old coach said. “I am absolutely thrilled that this guy is doing what he’s doing as a senior.”

The Patriots (10-4, 1-0 Inter-Ac) needed Alter’s buckets big-time against the Fords with junior wing Evan-Eric Longino, the team’s second leading scorer (17.1 ppg), out for the game with a bruised leg.

(More Inter-Ac: Penn Charter stuns Episcopal in opener)

Penn commit Devon Goodman (16 points, four steals) and junior wing Kyle McCloskey (18 points) both enjoyed productive evenings as they’ve done all year, but without Alter’s production, they likely wouldn’t have been the ones feeling good at the end of the evening.

“I don’t consider myself a scorer, really. Devon, Evan-Eric and Kyle, especially this year, have proven they can score 20 points per game each,” Alter said. “Without Evan-Eric out there, it’s Devon and Kyle, so I knew I was going to have to take a few more shots, which is outside of my comfort zone, but that’s alright, it’s part of the game.”

A 3-point specialist, Alter got all of his production this evening from mid-range and closer; he was able to get to the line seven times, making all seven, and had a few second-chance buckets as well.

Though his high school varsity experience is only 14 games deep, Alter already has his college plans set for next fall. He’s headed up to Colgate University to join Matt Langel’s program as a preferred walk-on, joining GA alum Sam Lindgren, plus Penn Charter’s Sean O’Brien and David Krmpotich, as local products on the Raiders’ roster.

Just like playing for Germantown Academy, it’s another dream accomplished for Alter.

“It’s not to disrespect any Division III schools, I was talking to some amazing Division III schools but I’d always wanted to play Division I, no matter how the opportunity presented itself,” he said. “If I didn’t take it I felt I’d be cheating myself a little bit, especially coming back from the injuries.”

The Inter-Ac debut for Haverford School Bernie Rogers, in his first year at The Haverford School after 15 seasons at Archbishop Ryan, came against a program he once coached for, back in 1996-97 in his first year out of a standout career at Ursinus College.

“They’ve been one of the better programs in the Inter-Ac for the last 25 years--so that’s a tough first game, welcome to the league,” Rogers said. “And it was exciting for the guys, to see where we’re at, and I think we’re getting better.”

Rogers has the Fords (5-7, 0-1) playing at a high level despite suffering heavy graduation/transfer losses from a year ago, and relying on several underclassmen to provide big minutes and take key shots in a new system.

Sophomore guard Kharon Randolph is one such player, and he led the Fords with 24 points; freshman Gavin Burke chipped in eight.

Despite the wealth of experience weighing against them, Haverford had it tied 10-10 after one quarter and, after falling behind as many as a dozen in the third quarter, rallied to make it 48-43 early in the fourth before GA pulled away for the win.

“I don’t want to play Haverford again, so I’m going to drop them off the schedule,” Fenerty deadpanned. “I’ll tell the league we don’t have to play them again.”

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Game Two: Malvern Prep vs. Springside-Chestnut Hill
The run-and-gun Friars had little trouble with a young Blue Devils squad, as Malvern senior Will Powers led the way in a 70-37 win.

Prep jumped out to a 23-8 lead after one quarter and never looked back, leading by 45-20 at halftime and 62-30 after three.

“League play, you start really upping your scouting reports and your game plans and anything can happen,” Malvern coach John Harmatuk said. “I’m glad we did what we needed to do.”

Powers paced the Friars (9-6, 1-0) with 18 points, 16 of which came during the first half. Another senior, center Mike Hollingsworth, added 14; after that, the Friars showed off their youth with sophomores Brady Devereaux, O’Shaan Allison, Billy Corcoran and Quinn McCahon all chipping in with buckets, rebounds and steals.

“Like I said at the beginning of the year, I thought what our strength was was depth, and on any given night somebody can add some stuff to it,” Harmatuk said. “With that whole group...those guys give us a lot of depth, and I like what they’re bringing.”

Springside-Chestnut Hill (5-6, 0-1) was led by junior Zuri Peyton’s 15 points.