City of Basketball Love

Will Slover (@WillSlover31)
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For the first time in school history, the Westtown School has a Pennsylvania Independent School (PAISAA) state championship trophy to its name.

After losing to The Hill School in 2014 and The Phelps School in 2015, the Moose finally have a championship of their own.

The biggest win in school history came on Saturday afternoon at Penn Charter over Germantown Academy by a score of 73-65.

“Last year when we lost, I felt so bad for our fans and our community,” ninth-year head coach Seth Berger said. “This year, to win the state title for my kids, for my coaches, for these fans, who have been amazing to us, felt great.”

Westtown was led by junior standout Brandon Randolph, who is garnering a ton of Division I interest and offers after his spectacular season for the Moose.

Randolph scored 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting. Included in that was an emphatic one-handed dunk over two Germantown Academy players to put a stamp on the program’s most signature win.

“We did this for the seniors and our coach. After the last three years when we lost, I knew we had to win this game,” said Randolph.

Also coming up huge for the Moose, although it may not seem it in the box score, was senior guard Jair Bolden, who is headed to George Washington University next year.

“Jair has given everything to us, so I’m so happy for him to be able to go to GW with a state championship. (He) gave this team exactly what this team needed,” said Berger.  "He shared the ball, took care of the ball and he defended, so I’m so happy for him to go to GW with a state title, he deserves everything.”

Bolden and Randolph are just two of the many Division I prospects who are on the Moose roster, as five-star recruit junior Mohamed Bamba finished with 13 points and 16 rebounds and sophomore five-star Cameron Reddish added in 17 points, five rebounds and five assists.

“They’ve just got too many players.,” said Germantown Academy coach Jim Fenerty. “I’m really proud of my guys, we battled all the way through.”

Battle is exactly what his team did as the Inter-Ac champion Patriots held the lead for most of the first half and fought to the final buzzer.

Germantown Academy junior wing Kyle McCloskey, who was fresh off of guarding the Hill School’s 7-foot 1-inch Solomon Ruddell in their semifinal win, was given the daunting task of taking on Bamba.

McCloskey, who at 6-foot 5-inches was Germantown Academy’s tallest starter--Westtown’s shortest starter was 6-foot 4-inches--didn’t let the size disadvantage affect him as he finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds.

“He’s so tough. Kid plays so hard, and I don’t want to take away from his talent, because he’s also extremely talented--he shoots the ball, he drives the ball, he scores the ball,” Berger said. “He plays like he’s 6-10, and as hard as we want our kids to play, it doesn’t matter because he’s so tough.”

McCloskey wasn’t the only player who turned in a noteworthy effort for GA, as Penn signee and senior guard Devon Goodman finished with 25 points and junior Evan-Eric Longino added 15 of his own.

The effort from the GA big three fell just short, though, as the deep and talented Moose proved to be too much to handle.

After slowing building an advantage in the third quarter, Westtown came out in the fourth quarter on an 8-2 run to open up an 11-point lead. But the battling Patriots wouldn’t go away quietly.

“Yeah it gave us some confidence, I wouldn’t say comfort," Bolden said. “We knew that at any moment, any team can come back in the game.”

Germantown Academy certainly didn’t go away, as a 7-3 run out of a timeout cut the Westtown lead to five with just 1:05 remaining.

Although they fought hard for all 32 minutes, time was just not in the Patriots’ favor.

Westtown responded to the pressure GA put on them, hitting 11 free throws in the final quarter to seal the deal and give their school its first state title.

“When we were up seven with six seconds to go and they had no timeouts, then I knew it was over,” Berger said. “Until then, I did not.”