City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Chuck Champion had not made a 3-pointer all game, but when he caught the ball in the corner with a minute left, he thought the same thing he usually does when he starts his shooting motion: This is going in.

The senior’s triple found the bottom of the net and gave Friends’ Central a two-point lead. The Phoenix narrowly held onto it in the game’s final minute, topping Academy New Church, 58-57 in Friends’ League action on Tuesday afternoon.

“I hadn’t been shooting well this game or the last game, but I shot it thinking it would go in, and it did,” said Champion, who scored all nine of his points in the second half. “…I try to have a short-term memory, and you have to when you’re a shooter sometimes. You have to think every shot is going in.”

DeAndre Hunter scored a game-high 28 points for the Phoenix, who moved to 12-8 overall and stayed undefeated in the Friends’ League at 5-0. ANC, meanwhile, dropped its first conference game and is now 11-5, 3-1. Big man Marcus Littles led the Lions with 20 points.

Hunter, a 6-foot-7 Virginia commit, had it going all game, especially early. He scored 12 points in the first quarter as Friends’ Central jumped out to a 20-11 advantage after the first eight minutes.

The Lions started playing Hunter tighter as the game went on, however, and gave the senior 15 trips to the foul line – a place where he thrives. Hunter knocked down 13 of his 15 free throw attempts and made his first 11.

“Since I was younger, that’s what I usually start my workouts with, shooting free throws,” Hunter said. “I’ve gotten better over time, and I’ve been a good free throw shooter for my career here.”

The Phoenix led by four at halftime and stretched that lead back to eight by the end of the third quarter, but Littles and the Lions wouldn’t leave without a fight. ANC made the eight-point deficit disappear in just more than four minutes, tying the game 51-51 with 3:55 left. Defense was a part of the comeback, as ANC went out of its 2-3 zone in the fourth quarter and got a little more aggressive in man-to-man.

“That forced a couple of turnovers and got them to take a few bad shots,” ANC coach Kevin Givens said. “The trouble was we got into foul trouble early, and put them on the line.”

After a Champion steal and coast-to-coast layup, Littles gave ANC a 54-53 lead at the 2:30 mark. The 6-8 sophomore was a force in the paint all game, and made four of his five field goal attempts in the second half.

Littles was also able to stay on the court after picking up his fourth foul early in the fourth quarter.

 “That’s maturity on his part, and he’s getting better at that every game,” Givens said. “I think sometimes he gets a raw deal in terms of some of the fouls that get called on him because he takes up a lot of space.”

For the Lions, Matt Cotton scored 14 points with Justin Anderson and Tim Spencer both adding 10 points. Friends’ Central also nine points from Antone Walker and Steve Folwell chipped in eight.

But none of the game’s points were more important than Champion’s triple, which made the Phoenix the only other unbeaten team in the league alongside Westtown.

“We’re feeling good right now,” Hunter said. “I think if we keep playing hard, we can play with anybody in the league. The way the last few weeks have gone have been really good for us.