Radnor High School | Archive | February, 2022

RIDLEY TWP. — It’s been awhile since Radnor defeated Lower Merion in basketball.

The best guess right now according to modern historians is roughly 1984. That’s at least a lifetime and change ago for the current Raptor players, although the way they battled Monday, that’s certainly subject to change.

Two minutes into the third quarter of the Central League championship game between the teams at Ridley High, right around the time the concession stand was low on hot dogs, pizza and the latest rage, walking tacos, the Raptors scored eight straight points to erase what had been a 12-point deficit late in the first half.

Though it was still a one-point game early in the final frame, the Raptors couldn’t keep up, the Aces working hard for a 59-49 victory and yet another Central League title thanks largely to 6-10 senior Demetrius Lilley, who scored 10 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, including thundering back-to-back dunks.

“I think we could have got them,” said Raptors senior Pierce Justice, who contributed 12 points, including a couple of threes. “This team has been special all year. We’ve been clicking. And it showed. We were tied. We just had a little lapse in judgment a couple of times and let it slip away. I think if we would have taken a lead, we would have been better with our shot selection. Some of the possessions on offense we rushed to take shots because we were down two, down three and wanted to hit that go-ahead basket. And sometimes when we were on defense, we tried to pressure up on them a little bit to try to create a turnover. Ultimately those lapses in judgment and those lapses in concentration let them get ahead.”

The Aces burst out to an 8-2 lead behind explosive guard Jaylen Shippen and Lilley, who had a two-man game going. They led 17-8 after one frame and 26-14 with 2:49 left in the first half.

That’s when Justice, the senior guard, scored on a backdoor reverse layup and drained a three-pointer. Peter Gribbin tallied inside for the Aces but Jackson Hicke, who led the Raptors with 13 points drilled a three to get the Raptors within 28-22.

At that point, Lilley was cold and bloodied. He changed jerseys from 14 to 25 because there was blood on the 14, courtesy of a couple of slices in his right forearm that he said were part of the rugged game.

Charlie Thornton, who would foul out and senior Cliff Smith took turns playing defense on Lilley, who wasn’t getting any easy shots.

Lilley was quiet until Justice bombed another three that got the Raptors within 34-33 with 1:33 left in the third quarter.

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Radnor’s Danny Rosenblum shoots against the defense of Lower Merion’s Demetrius Lilley

in the second half of the Central League final Monday. Lower Merion won, 59-49.

(PETE BANNAN – DAILY TIMES)

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The Team Boys Varsity Basketball will play their next game against Lower Merion on 2/23/2022 at 12:00:00 AM Click HERE for event info.

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The Team Girls Varsity Basketball will play their next game against Interboro on 2/15/2022 at 3:45:00 PM Click HERE for event info.

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Radnor’s Sophia Hill broke her own county record in the pole vault with a vault of 12 feet, 6 inches to take second in the event at the Pennsylvania Track & Field Coaches Association Indoor Carnival. The Raptors earned the only Delco gold medal, in the 4 x 800.

Radnor earned gold in the 4 x 200 and DMR and silver in the 4 x 800. Quamere Cosby of Chester was fifth in the 200, and the Clippers were second in the 4 x 200. Tyler Klambara of Springfield took fourth in the shot put while teammate Billy Zane finished sixth in the high jump. Penn Wood placed fifth in the 4 x 400.

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Radnor’s Sophia Hill reacts after winning the pole vault at the Delco Championships Friday at Upper Darby High School.

(Pete Bannan/MediaNews Group)

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RADNOR – The mantra from the Radnor bench Saturday, as it has been most of the season, was getting to three. Three straight stops, the rallying cry goes, and you can create serious cushion on the scoreboard.

In a raucous first quarter of the Central League semifinal against Haverford Saturday afternoon, those stops eluded them. But once the Raptors dutifully ground out one, then two, then three stout defensive possessions in a row, the momentum snowballed … all the way into a Central League final.

Radnor put the clamps on Haverford over the final three quarters, riding 21 points and 14 rebounds from Jackson Hicke to a 53-38 win.

Second-seeded Radnor (20-2) advances to Monday night’s final against top-seeded Lower Merion. The game is at Ridley at 7:45. The Aces routed No. 4 Conestoga, 55-33, in the other semifinal.

Radnor led, 20-17, after an opening quarter in which both offenses had the run of the gym. But Radnor’s defense adjusted more quickly and more thoroughly to grab the advantage.

“I think we just have to keep talking together, staying together and committing,” point guard Danny Rosenblum said. “We always say, three stops in a row, because our offense really feeds from our defense, and just committing to it is our gameplan.”

The first quarter stood apart from the other three, Radnor up after eight sizzling minutes. The teams shot 4-for-10 from 3-point range in the first, then 1-for-15 the rest of the way. More than half of the game’s assists (eight of 15) were fired off in the first eight minutes, amid crisp cuts and ball-sharing on both sides.

The offensive execution wouldn’t last, and Radnor’s defensive pressure was a big reason why.

“It was high-scoring, it was intense,” Hicke said. “That’s what you’ve got to expect in a playoff game. You’ve got to give it your all and leave it all on the court. Both teams did a very good job, shot well and kept attacking. It was exciting.

“But we kind of slowed it down as the game went on, played a little better defense and that led us to the win.”

A jumper by Nick Colucci put Haverford up, 23-22, midway through the second quarter. But that’s when Radnor started piling up stops, creating room for a 9-0 run into halftime, Hicke supplying the last seven.

After scoring it first 17 points in eight minutes, it took Haverford another 23 minutes to get its next 17 points, not happening until a Colucci 3-pointer with 1:09 left to play. No. 3 Haverford (17-5) didn’t score its first points of the fourth until 2:41 remained and the deficit had stretched to 15.

The credit goes to Radnor for muting any chances to generate momentum, like when Colucci and Colin Reynolds, after stealing the inbounds pass, scored consecutive buckets in the final 4.7 seconds of the third quarter. (That was half of the eight points the Fords scored in that frame).

Rosenblum was one of the ringleaders, charged with muting Googie Seidman. Fresh off seven 3-pointers in the opening-round win over Penncrest on Thursday, Seidman scored seven points in the first quarter Saturday. But he was shut out the rest of the way, not attempting a shot in the second half with Rosenblum as his shadow.

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Haverford’s Nick Colucci, center, is swarmed by Radnor defenders in the first quarter of Saturday’s

Central League semifinal. (PETE BANNAN – DAILY TIMES

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The Team Boys Varsity Basketball will play their next game against Haverford High on 2/14/2022 at 7:45:00 PM Click HERE for event info.

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The Team Boys Varsity Basketball will play their next game against Ridley on 2/12/2022 at 4:00:00 PM Click HERE for event info.

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RADNOR — Mary Sareen was fouled on her way to the basket with less than 90 seconds to go in the fourth quarter Tuesday.

The junior made the shot and the free throw. The home crowd came alive. Sareen and her Radnor teammates started to believe they could pull this off. Springfield had led by as many as seven points in the fourth quarter, but suddenly Radnor trailed by a point.

This wasn’t just another regular season game for the Raptors. There was a lot of incentive that would come with winning it.

During the school day the team found out that senior forward Ellie Davis, one of the top bigs in the Central League, would not be available due to illness. If Radnor could beat first-place Springfield and Conestoga lost to Garnet Valley, the Raptors would get the sixth and final seed in the Central League tournament, which begins Thursday night.

Radnor went to a full-court press down a point and Springfield was whistled for a five-second violation on the inbounds pass. The Raptors made the Cougars pay.

On the Raptors’ next possession, Springfield point guard Mia Valerio forced Sareen to go baseline with her dribble. Sareen was able to get past Valerio and float a shot just out of the reach of forward Anabel Kreydt for a one-point lead. Springfield would have two more looks but shots were off the mark, leaving Sareen and the Raptors as 31-30 winners.

That’s when the questions came: “Do you know if Conestoga lost?”

Indeed, Garnet Valley did the honors with a 61-35 victory over the Pioneers, boosting Radnor into the Central League playoffs. The Raptors will travel to Marple Newtown Thursday for a first-round game.

“Everyone stepped up tonight,” said senior Ava Gummel, who had six points. “We even pulled JV players off the bench and they played great.”

Sareen was clutch down the stretch. She had seven of her team-high 12 points in the fourth quarter, including three foul shots. She also came up with a big steal in the final two minutes. Her game-winning basket, and how that play unfolded, surprised her to some extent.

“(Valerio) the whole game was forcing me inside, not baseline,” Sareen said. “The one time she forced me baseline, I don’t think that No. 42 (Kreydt) was ready for that and I was able to make the shot.”

Radnor (12-7) may also have clinched a top-six berth in the District 1 Class 5A tournament. After starting the season 4-5, the Raptors have gone 8-2 in their last 10 games.

“We had everyone show up and there was a good energy in the gym,” Gummel said.

Gummel ended a lengthy field goal drought with a basket from the wing in the fourth quarter, trimming Springfield’s lead to 26-21. On Radnor’s next possession, Maddie Bader drilled a 3-pointer to make it a two-point game.

“This was a team win,” Sareen said. “Everyone helped out and did what they needed to do.”

First-year Radnor coach Rob Baxter has been pleased with his squad’s development. Without Davis, the Raptors were at a disadvantage, but still found a way to grind out a tough win against the reigning Central League champions.

“They were all texting me today and said they were all watching film this afternoon. They were trying to figure out what they were going to do without Ellie,” Baxter said. “All year they’ve kind of stepped up. We had JV girls come in, like Megan Bole (two points, one assist, one steal), who really stepped up and made big plays for us tonight.”

Springfield shot 5-for-12 from the field in the first quarter, then struggled to make shots the rest of the way (5-for-23). Turnovers and missed foul shots in the fourth quarter proved costly. Even still, Anabel Kreydt scored a game-high 13 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Kaitlyn Kearney added 10 points and two steals. The Cougars will be the No. 2 seed in the league playoffs.

“Credit to Radnor because they did a great job tonight,” coach Ky McNichol said. “We made too many mistakes down the stretch to win the basketball game.”

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Springfield’s Mia Valerio, right, defends against Radnor’s Mary Sareen Tuesday in a game between

the teams. Sareen hit the winning basket as Radnor went on to a 31-30 victory.

(Pete Bannan – MediaNews Group).

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