Radnor readjusts focus on Lower Merion

RADNOR — The losses ultimately didn’t mean much, but the lessons were well-taken.

Radnor’s boys basketball team started the 2021-22 season 13-0. It stumbled twice in the regular season, reached the Central League and District 1 Class 5A finals and the second round of states before meeting the buzzsaw that is Imhotep Charter. By any measure, Radnor maxed out its talent.

But the rare setbacks in a 23-5 season left an impression, for a nine-strong senior class determined not to feel that sting again. And so a motto was born in the locker room, among a group in the rare position of being the favorite just about every time out this season.

The focus, forward Jackson Hicke says, is on trying to put together a one-game winning streak.

Twenty-three of them have led the Raptors back to the Central League final, against a familiar foe in Lower Merion, Monday night at Harriton (7:45 tipoff).

“We kind of forget the past games, focus on the one we have,” Hicke said after dispatching Springfield, 64-35, in the semifinals Saturday. “We really can’t take anything for granted. Last year, we lost a couple of bad ones when we weren’t really ready to play. We’re in the mindset now where we know we can’t take a game off, can’t take a play off, because there’s too much on the line.”

Radnor is 23-0, the wins by an average of 21.3 points per. Only two games have been decided by single digits – in overtime against Garnet Valley and a two-point win over North Worcester of Massachusetts in a Christmas tournament in Florida. Their next closest brushes against Pennsylvania opposition is a trio of 15-point wins, over Archbishop Ryan, Holy Ghost Prep and Harriton. The warnings about letdowns from coach Jamie Chadwin have been heeded.

Second-seeded Lower Merion (20-3) accounted for two of last year’s losses: A 60-48 humbling at home in the regular season, then a 59-49 handling in the final. That team had Penn State freshman Demetrius Lilley as its central focus. This one is talented if less star-driven. It has lost to three different Central League foes, a rarity for the league’s perennial presiding power.

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Radnor’s Charlie Thornton, left, and Jackson Hicke celebrate a second-half basket in a 65-34 win over Springfield in the Central League semifinals Saturday. (Pete Bannan – MediaNews Group)