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Penncrest Shootout: Day One Notebook (June 3)

06/03/2017, 9:30pm EDT
By CoBL Staff

CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
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MEDIA, Pa. -- The Penncrest Shootout brought 24 teams to the Central League institution on Saturday, the first day of the weekend-long event.

Here’s a notebook from the day’s action:

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Matthew Dade (above) will be Episcopal's go-to scorer as a junior. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

New-look Episcopal makes spring debut

After graduating the senior duo of Nick Alikakos (Navy) and Conner Delaney (Johns Hopkins) as well as several other starters, head coach Craig Conlin and the rest of the Episcopal Academy basketball team will be looking for their new leader.  

Rising junior Matthew Dade is ready to take the reigns.

Dade, a 6-foot-3 wing, will be given the keys to the team as Episcopal will look to repeat as Inter-Ac champions.

Saturday’s event was the first time that the 2017-2018 Episcopal basketball team played together, and their first game was against defending Catholic League and PIAA class 5A state champs Archbishop Wood.

The Churchmen hung with the Vikings for the first half, but eventually Wood’s cadre of Division I talent was too much in a 51-39 win.

“So far, so good,” Dade said. “We’re starting to workout too and we’re just getting back into it, I think it’s been going pretty well. That was a good test for us, they’re a really good athletic team, if we just keep playing our style, we’ll be fine.”

The style of basketball that Dade was referring to was a “high-intensity and tough defense style of play that will lead to offensive opportunities.”

Along with Dade, Episcopal will be led by a pair of rising sophomores, Great Valley transfer wing Alex Capitano and point guard Jack Fitzpatrick.

“(Capitano) adds a really good scoring option, he’s a really good scorer, good shooter and he’s a good defender,” Dade said. “Fitzpatrick’s really good at moving the ball, he’s got a good shot and he moves really quickly on the defensive end.”

Dade is an athletic wing player but still has some things to work on this summer if he wants to land that coveted Division I offer by the time he finishes up high school; he’s currently on the radar of Patriot and Ivy programs.

“I’m working on my 3-point shot, pull-up jumper and lateral quickness,” he said.

Life post-Alikakos will surely be interesting for Episcopal Academy but luckily for Dade (8.8 ppg) and the rest of the returning players, they got a feel for what the offense was like while Alikakos (17 ppg) was out nine games with an injury this past year.

“Yeah seeing the offense without Nick definitely prepared me for this season,” Dade said. “But (Conlin) knows certain people need to step-up this season, like Alex and I.”

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Radnor looking to pick up the pace in ‘17-18

Entering into his first year, Jamie Chadwin, Radnor’s head coach, didn’t have a full offseason to work with his new team. Now, entering into his second year with the program, he is taking full advantage of the time he has, starting with working on tempo.

After playing more of a patient, half-court style the last few years, Chadwin wants to see his Raiders push the tempo this fall.

“Our best offense is going to be early offense, but one of the things we try to stress these guys is that there is a difference between applying offensive pressure and taking quick shots,” he said. “We don’t need quick shots but...we just need to understand when that’s there and when that’s not.”

The Penncrest shootout is the first time this group has played together. Having lost six of their seniors from last year, the Raiders are in the process of coming together and creating a new dynamic.

Many of the players have never been on the court together as several of the rising sophomores are seeing varsity action for the first time. That inexperienced showed on Saturday morning, as Radnor went 0-3 against the likes of Kennett, Sun Valley and West Chester East.

“We weren’t really sure how these pieces were going to fit,” Chadwin added. “We got a little better idea of kind of what’s sticking and what’s not, and what we have to go back to the drawing board with.”

One of the few varsity players returning with some experience is rising junior Vernon Harper, who will be counted on heavily this upcoming season.

“He plays at a high energy level... he impacts the game whether he rebounds extremely well, changes shots, defends well, shoots it okay, he’s developing that, and drives it very well,” Chadwin said. “There’s high risks and rewards so, we are trying to get that a little more consistent.”

Chadwin faces an obstacle he’s had before with his teams at Springside-Chestnut Hill, where he coached prior to taking the Radnor job last fall: many of his players are multi-sport athletes leaving them with less availability during the off-season.

Communication between the players as well as the coaching staff is something Chadwin is prioritizing, especially after losing the older players who really led the team.

“We don’t have that luxury this year, of having that same make up of the team,” he said. “So a lot more has to come from the coaching staff until we can have that more lateral leadership.”

For the upcoming season, Chadwin’s vision is focused on constant development of team chemistry and skill.

“That’s what’s ultimately going to help them even when they leave, is that process,” Chadwin said. “And I hate that that’s been so cliché here in the Philadelphia area, but it is about a process -- it’s about growing and coming together and seeing what you can do.”  

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Cardinal O'Hara's Jason Harrigan (above) has some young talent on the Lions' roster as he prepares for his second season. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Harrigan starting to shape O’Hara squad his way

When Jason Harrigan was hired as the head coach at Cardinal O’Hara last October, there was no time for him to really do anything but prepare for the 2016-17 season as quickly as possible. And considering he inherited a program that went 6-16 the three years prior and hadn’t made the Catholic League playoffs since 2012, short-term expectations weren’t exactly high when he took over.

So it’s not that Harrigan was looking past his first year in the PCL, but he knew that it wouldn’t be until this spring that he’d really get a chance to take ownership of this team.

“You need the offseason, that’s as important if not more important than the regular season,” Harrigan said, “to not only build skill and strength and those type of things, but also forge those relationships and understand the type of players that you have and what makes them go and how you can put them in better positions.”

The Lions went 5-17 this past season, going winless in the Catholic League. Now that that’s over and done with, Harrigan and his staff are focused on doing what they took over the Delaware County to do: turn it into a competitor in the top high school league around.

They’ll have to replace leading scorer Jaye’Lyn Peebles, who poured in 18.3 ppg last year before graduating, though Harrigan isn’t yet sure who exactly will step up.

“I don’t think that we will find that source from one person, I think we want to...be a more balanced attack,” Harrigan said. “We’re going to get these guys out here and see who’s developing and who’s putting in that work over the next three, four months.”

It’s clear from O’Hara’s turn at Penncrest on Saturday that the gears are certainly in motion, though it’s still a program very much at the beginning of that path. The Lions went 0-3 against a group that included three solid programs in Penncrest, C.B. West and Garnet Valley, playing a large number of underclassmen along the way; rising sophomore Trey Dinkins was their most impressive youngster on the day.

Harrigan is making sure his group takes full advantage of this offseason: they’re playing in the West Chester, Temple, St. Joe’s and Drexel camps over the remainder of the month.

“We’ll be playing like every weekend, just want to stay as active as possible because a lot of these guys don’t have a lot of varsity experience, if any at all,” he said. “Just getting them used to the intensity, size, strength, pace of the game, so that they’re going to be ready for this season.”

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Quick Hits

-- Tyler Norwood carried Penncrest to the District 1 5A championship last year, and if Saturday’s action was any indication, he’s going to have to shoulder an even bigger role next year. The 5-foot-10 rising senior is one of the area’s top-bucket getters, which he showcased by dropping 34 points in a 46-36 win over O’Hara, hitting seven 3-pointers along the way. D-II Chestnut Hill College recently became the first school to offer Norwood, and he enjoyed a visit to the college this week; he said he’s also hearing from D-IIs Philly U (soon-to-be Thomas Jefferson U) and Georgian Court as well as D-III Cairn University.

-- Upper Moreland struggled in the first half of a game against Delco Christian, but the Bears shook it off to come back for a nice 40-38 win in the second of three games. Rising senior Brett Brossman capped off a 12-point outing with a 3-pointer to put his team up with 15 seconds remaining, and the Bears held fast on the defensive end. Brossman and fellow Ryan Coyle (14 points) paced the comeback, though rising junior wing Rylan Bradley and Christian O’Donnell both made key 3-pointers as well.

-- At some point, consistency becomes a real strength, and Archbishop Wood 2018 G Andrew Funk is on some kind of a tear. The 6-4 combo guard has been playing at a high level since the midpoint of his junior season, and is turning into some kind of an offensive weapon for the defending PCL and PIAA 5A state champs; his terrific 3-point stroke is now complemented by a varied game off the bounce, with Funk slicing through defenses for layups with both hands, knocking down floaters from all around the hoop and generally causing problems whenever he had the ball in his hands. With high-major programs always checking out Wood and the Jersey Shore Warriors in the live periods, don’t be surprised to see him enter that territory next month.

-- Though the last four years of Episcopal basketball are rightly defined by the presence of Navy-bound big man and four-year starter Nick Alikakos, just as difficult for for the Churchmen to replace will be point guard Conner Delaney, who had a tremendous senior season. But head coach Craig Conlin will be able to breathe easier if rising sophomore Jack Fitzpatrick’s play on Saturday was any indication; though diminutive (5-9), Fitzpatrick has a steady on-ball presence, an impressive handle and ability to penetrate and dish, and he even hit several 3-pointers and contested layups as well. A growth spurt will determine his college level, but Fitzpatrick’s certainly got some talent on the ball. Having scorers like Dade and Capitano alongside him will help quite a bit.  


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