Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Westtown, Malvern Prep to battle for PAISAA title
Westtown, Malvern Prep win to set up all-Chesco state final
WHITPAIN >> A couple of strong fourth quarters helped top seed Westtown and No. 3 Malvern Prep each advance to Saturday evening’s Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association state championship. In a PAISAA semifinal doubleheader Friday evening at Montgomery County Community College, Westtown (22-7) defeated No. 4 Perkiomen School in the opener, 71-54, exploding for 23 points in the final quarter.
In the nightcap, Malvern Prep (27-4) beat No. 7 Phelps, 72-56, holding the Lions to just seven fourth-quarter points.
The Moose outscored Perkiomen 23-11 in the final period, and Westtown junior Jalen Warley scored 12 of those points, breaking open what was a close game (48-43) at the end of the third quarter. Warley tallied 20 points after halftime.
“Jalen I think is arguably the most improved [high school] basketball player in the nation,” said Westtown head coach Seth Berger. “He can be a great passer, a great shooter, a great scorer – there’s nothing he can’t do on the court offensively, and he’s starting to set his mind to it defensively as well. So I’m not surprised by anything that Jalen does.”
The Moose suffered a temporary blow midway through the third quarter when 6-foot-11 junior Franck Kepnang dropped to the floor after injuring his ankle. He was taken to the sideline, and did not return to the game. Westtown held a 39-36 lead at that point.
Westtown 7-foot sophomore Dereck Lively replaced Kepnang, and did a solid job, blocking several shots and pulling down some key rebounds.
“Dereck just turned 16 years old, and for him to turn in that performance tonight in the state semifinal, with that kind of pressure, is amazing,” said Seth Berger. “He did a great job.”
With the score tied 4141 late in the third quarter, Moose 6-foot-8 senior Noah Collier put Westtown ahead for good when he scored from underneath to give the Moose a 43-41 lead. Collier finished the night with 20 points.
“I thought Noah Collier was fantastic tonight, both scoring and rebounding,” said Seth Berger.
A split-second before the buzzer sounded ending the third quarter, TJ Berger nailed a timely trey from the left corner to give the Moose a 48-43 lead.
“I thought that was a monstrous shot for us, it stretched the game by one possession,” said Seth Berger. “I’m not surprised when TJ makes big shots, but that was one of the biggest shots of his career.”
TJ Berger finished the night with four treys and 14 points.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Perkiomen cut Westtown’s lead to 4846 on a trey by senior Gilbert Otoo.
Westtown began to pull away. Warley scored inside, then Lively blocked a shot and TJ Berger hit a trey to make it 53-46.
With Westtown leading 59-48, the Moose fans stood and cheered as Kepnang rejoined his teammates on the bench.
“We’re going to get [Kepnang] an Xray, and hope for the best,” said Seth Berger after the game.
After a trey by Perkiomen 6-foot-10 junior Philip Byriel cut the Westtown lead to 59-51, the Moose went on a 7-0 run, punctuated by a Warley dunk following a Lively offensive rebound.
Perkiomen, trailing 66-51 with 2:36 left, had to keep pumping up three-point attempts, and only one of them fell in the final 2 ½ minutes.
The Panthers (21-7) tallied 10 treys Friday, five by Byriel, who scored 17 points. Ibrahima Bayu scored 10 points for Perkiomen.
Perkiomen head coach Thomas Baudinet said, “We were unable to contain the ball one-on-one in the fourth quarter, we guarded really poorly [then]. I thought we played OK in the first three quarters, and just could not guard the ball at all in the fourth quarter. We needed some stops then, and we couldn’t put any together.”
Seth Berger said, “I want to tip my hat to Thomas [Baudinet], they had a great season. Thomas does a great job and Perkiomen’s program gets better year after year. They’ll certainly win state titles in their future.”
*** In the nightcap, Malvern Prep used some strong defense, particularly in the fourth quarter, to earn a 72-56 win.
“We brought it up defensively tonight,” said Malvern Prep head coach John Harmatuk. “It’s tough for us to guard bigs, because we are not very big, we just have one big kid [6-foot-7 junior Fran Oschell], but if you put pressure on the ball and do some other things to make it hard for them to get into the post…I think we did a good job of that tonight. Phelps rushed and [missed] some deep threes late, and we converted on the other end.”
The biggest player on the Phelps roster, 6-foot-11 junior Sam Onu, tallied five field goals in the first half. He had none after halftime.
The Friars broke open a 16-16 first quarter tie with a strong second period, led by the scoring talents of their all-time scoring leader, Bucknell-bound Deuce Turner (19 first-half points, 29 points total) and a couple of well-timed treys from Lonnie White. The Friars led 39-29 at halftime.
Near the end of the third quarter, Phelps rallied briefly when senior Danny Dade hit back-to-back treys from the top of the key to cut Malvern’s lead to 54-48 with 48.5 seconds left in the third period.
Turner was scoreless in the third quarter, until he hit a trey from the left side just before the buzzer sounded to end the third period, giving the Friars a 5749 lead.
In the fourth quarter, Malvern was grabbing rebounds off Phelps’ missed shots, converting them into points, and gradually pulling away. Malvern senior Spencer Cochran tallied 14 points in the second half, and finished with 21 (including a trio of treys).
“I thought Spencer Cochran played really well, got us some big baskets tonight,” said Harmatuk. “Fran Oschell and Lonnie White did an unbelievable job in the post, battling. We switched some defenses up a couple of times, and they did a really good job with it. This was a good team effort.”
For No. 7 seed Phelps (16-11), the loss marked the end of the season. The Lions had four players in double scoring figures Friday, senior Devin Butler (15 points, including all seven of the Lions’ fourth-quarter points), Onu (12 points), Dade (11) and 6-foot-8 senior Jarnel Rancy (11).
It was a season of adjustments for the gritty Lions and their first-year head coach Trey Morin.
“When I moved to the Philadelphia area [last] June 20, I had two guys on the roster,” said Morin. “I’m happy that Phelps took a chance on me, and for a first-year head coach in July to ask a kid to come to the Phelps School is a little bit taxing and monumental, but our players did a great job. To have eight seniors who kind of had eight different high school careers for these kids to come together in six months the way they did, I think is impressive. They played hard, put up a fight. I’m proud of them.”
To get to Friday’s semifinal, Phelps upset No. 2 seed Hill School, 54-48, in the quarterfinal.
“We thought Hill was a good matchup for us,” said Morin. “They’re almost a polar opposite of Malvern – they’re big and they’re long and physical. Malvern plays very fast, they shoot a lot of threes, and if they get open space they’re going to knock it down. Malvern plays hard and scrappy, they don’t care how big you are, and they’re going to try to outrun you. My hat’s off to them.”