City of Basketball Love

Jon Bodack (@JBodack92)
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Delco-Christian found itself in a different position going into this season’s District 1 Class A tournament.

Last year, as the No. 3 seed, the Knights took home the district championship. This year, as the No. 6 seed, a repeat wasn’t quite so obvious. To make things worse, they’re now without their second and third leading scorers on the team, senior forward Grant Fischer and junior guard Devin Hill, due to team infractions that have them off the team through the remainder of the season.

On Tuesday night at Cheltenham High School, the Knights were able to fight through the adversity and clinch a spot in the state tournament for the second straight year with a 63-54 win over Faith Christian.

“Just shows a ton of character, the grit and determination that we showed, things didn’t go our way, we didn’t play a great game,” Delco Christian head coach Don Davis said. “They stopped Wyatt [Harkins] from really touching the ball too much and we guys step up on offense and defense, I was really proud of them.”

Harkins, Delco Christian’s senior guard and team leader, was quiet for much of the first half putting up only five points through 16 minutes of play. The 6-foot-3 guard turned it around in the second half getting to the free throw line down the stretch to seal the victory and finish the game with 19 points.

“I can’t even put into words how this feels,” Harkins said. “For us to be able to make it back to the championship without our second and third leading scorers says so much about our team, and about the guys on this team being able to step up the way that they did.”

Delco Christian and Faith Christian Academy went back and forth for much of the first half, until Delco was able to pull away late in the second quarter to take a 26-19 lead going into halftime.

One of the key members for the Knights first half effort was 6-3 senior forward Bryce Shook. Shook finished the half with eight of the team's 26 points, and he ended the game with 16 points as well as six rebounds.

“He gave us everything he could, offensively he was calm and finished at the glass,” Harkins said. “I don’t even think he understands how big of a help he was tonight, that’s how much he did for us having Grant out.”

Shook wasn’t the only member of the Knights to step up in the absence of the two key players. Junior guard Jordan Parks finished the game with 16 points and fellow junior guard T.J. Tann added 10 points and five steals.

Faith Christian was led by senior guard Chris Clark's 17 points, while junior wing Zeke Snowden had 15 and 12 rebounds.

Tann was instrumental early on, helping Delco Christian overcome an early five-point deficit with three first-quarter steals, swinging the momentum back in the Knights’ direction--where it stayed for the majority of the final three quarters.

“In a word, it’s confidence for those guys. And all year, they’ve had, T.J.’s had ankle injuries, Jordan’s had a wrist injury and it came together for them,” Davis said. “It takes confidence, we’ve been breathing confidence into them all year and it came together on the same night for them, so I was proud of them.”

Throughout much of the game one of the biggest differences between the two teams was the ability to hit free throws. By the end of the first half Delco Christian was seven of eight from the charity stripe, while Faith Christian was only three of eight.

During several points in the game the Lions were able to pull within three or four points but missed free throws allowed the Knights to pull away. Faith Christian finished 9-of-22 from the foul line.

“When a team is able to make free throws and you’re not, any kind of run you create, if you’re not maximizing making free throws, your run kind of stops,” Faith Christian coach Tony DaCosta said. “So that was huge.”

On the flip side, Delco Christian couldn’t miss from the charity stripe. The Knights were 23-of-26 on their freebies, including 15-of-16 in the final quarter.

“I missed the one and one the other day to send us into overtime during league (playoffs) so that was still in the back of my mind,” he said. “I knew that that other day [in the district quarterfinals] I was able to go 20 for 20 from the line so that game really put a lot of confidence in my head that, I’ve been here before, I’m a senior it’s time to step up.”

The Knights will be squaring off against BAL opponent Phil-Mont Christian in the District one A championship game at noon this Saturday at Council Rock South High School. Phil-Mont Christian won the BAL title this season, so Delco Christian will look to play spoiler and reclaim their District 1 A crown.

No matter what, despite everything. Harkins and the Knights are headed to the state tournament.

“We’ve had different people step up every night throughout the year depending on who was out, so yes we’re going to miss those guys and we are not the same team without them, but we’re a very good team,” Davis said. “We might have a little different style, a little different strategy...but I think we’re as effective as we were before.”