Penncrest forces Radnor to hold on tight before getting win

MIDDLETOWN — Radnor senior Kate Gallagher would preferred to have an easy win Thursday at Penncrest.

“I think it was good we had that right now,” Gallagher said, “because it’s going to prepare us for the playoffs.”

That was a close call, a 38-33 Central League victory for Radnor.

After playing a near-perfect first half of basketball, holding a comfortable (or so everyone thought) 14-point cushion at the break, the Raptors allowed a very good Penncrest squad to fight back and make it a game. Both teams entered the game with 12-4 records, so they are even in a lot of ways. And both were jockeying for a higher seed in next month’s Central League tournament.

Penncrest stormed out of the locker room after halftime, forced five Radnor turnovers, and made the game mighty interesting. Radnor led 30-13, but found itself in a 32-all deadlock when Alex Bruce drilled a 3-pointer with under four minutes to go.

“We tried to give it away,” Radnor coach Rob Baxter said, “It’s a mirror image of my three years as head coach. Start off really well, but we have problems finishing games. Credit to Penncrest, they changed things up and we panicked a little bit.”

Indeed, allowing other teams to come back from big deficits has been an ongoing issue for the Raptors, who certainly have the talent to make a deep run in next month’s District 1 Class 5A tournament.

“Better to have a game like this now than in a couple of weeks,” said Gallagher, who scored a game-high 18 points. “I shouldn’t say it’s good, but we did win. There’s a lot to learn from this.”

Senior forward Blayse Jennings hit a short jumper with two minutes left to give the Raptors a 34-32 advantage. Jennings had six big rebounds in the fourth quarter, including two on the offensive end, to help the Raptors seal the victory at the free-throw line.

“We had a lot of pressure coming at us,” said Jennings, a first-year Radnor starter after transfering from Harrison High in New York. “We knew we could be in a good place if we did win this. Even though we did have a little hiccup in the second half, we kept our composure. We were able to stick together.”

Click HERE to read the full article.

Radnor's Kate Gallagher, center, drives down the lane in a game against Ridley last season. (PETE BANNAN-DAILY TIMES)