The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Welch closes as Jenkintown tops Faith in semis
JENKINTOWN » As an underclassmen, Jadan Welch saw how much it meant to make the playoffs.
Now a senior, Welch and his Jenkintown boys’ basketball teammates are back in the postseason, guaranteed only the next game in front of them if they can keep winning. The Drakes started that path on Monday as they hosted Faith Christian Academy in the District 1 Class A semifinals.
A neck-and-neck game opened up in the No. 2 seed Drakes’ favor after halftime and 10 fourth quarter points from Welch pushed Jenkintown over the No. 3 seed Lions 49-39.
“To me, it means a lot and I know it means a lot to the rest of them,” Welch said. “When I was a freshman, all I wanted was to make the postseason and we ended up going but lost our first game. I wasn’t a senior, but in the locker room I saw all the seniors crying and I got emotional too just because I’ve been playing basketball for so long and really want to win a district title.”
Welch finished with a gamehigh 20 points but Drakes coach Wes Emme pointed out a charge the guard took in the fourth quarter as the senior’s standout play. Jenkintown hasn’t relied on guy to do everything and has had seven different players serve as leading scorer throughout the season.
Monday’s win puts Jenkintown in its first District 1 final since 2015, and was the Drakes’ first playoff win since that same postseason.
The only way to get to a final is to win in the semifinals and Jenkintown had to get past a Faith Christian team that had a size advantage, plenty of heart and that had tested the Drakes earlier this season. Early on, Lions big man Branco Sestanovich was giving Jenkintown the works down low with eight first quarter points.
“We had to make a concerted effort to make a change because that entire first quarter, I’m thinking the only way they’re going to beat us is if
*Today:
Vs. Toronto At Clearwater 1:05p.m., NBCSP+
team at the All-Star break, the question zooming Rivers’ way the other day was as fair as it was necessary as it was predictable.
The Sixers: Do they have that championship makeup, the kind that only a head coach of a championship team can sense?
“Oh, I don’t know,” Rivers said, just before the All-Star break. “I’ve been asked that, but haven’t thought that deeply about it. But we do have some similar things, like being able to come out of a timeout and run a post play, knowing we are going to get something out of that. It’s the greatest run-stopper of all time.
“We have a player like Joel (Embiid). Back then, we had K.G. (Kevin Garnett). Good things happen. Either one of them can get up a shot, and we end up with a great shot out of a timeout. So there’s that. But then, there’s our defense. We are fourth in the league now defensively. That team was No. 1 in the league by a long way. But I do think by the end of the year, we have a real chance to be No. 1 defensively. By improving our transition defense alone, I think we can get up to No. 1.”
That’s Rivers’ position, and has been since training camp, such as it was: The development will be season-long. But in springing to a 24-12 record, a half-game ahead of Brooklyn, the Sixers have shown plentiful championship characteristics. Embiid has been an MVP candidate. Tobias Harris should have been an All-Star. Ben Simmons is a Defensive Player of the Year candidate, with Rivers as his spokesman. “This is probably my last campaign,” he said. “Except for president.” It’s a reasonable issue. At his best, Simmons can change a game with his defense.
The Embiid-Harris-Simmons trio is on the level of Garnett, Pierce and Ray Allen of Rivers’ championship Celtics. So there is a foundation of talent. But championship teams require millionaires accepting roles. Daryl Morey has given Rivers just enough star players, just enough young players, and just enough end-of-career veterans that every role makes sense. The Sixers essentially have two units, both functioning well, with no player on one yelling that he belongs on the other. In the activistagent era, which has expanded even since 2008, such clubhouse peace is invaluable.
“We talked about it before the season, that without cooperation, you can’t be a good team,” Rivers said. “Our guys are buying into what we are asking them to do. I have an unbelievable staff with me in Dan (Burke) and David (Joerger) and Sam (Cassell). We get along. Everybody. And we are working together as a group. If we keep doing that, we’re going to get better.”
To win a championship in a league set up to draw the great players to the great teams around the trade deadline, which this season will arrive March 25, continuing growth is mandatory. The Nets just added Blake Griffin. The Sixers must counter, adding a point guard, another big body and one more veteran scorer. From there, Rivers will be challenged to maintain a winning chemistry. He’s good at that.
“Every single night, we know what we have to do,” Embiid said. “We take pride in that. And we go out and do our jobs.”
That was the situation in the final game before the break, a 131-123 overtime victory over the Western Conference-leading
Utah Jazz. Not that any particular game in any NBA season means much, but Rivers came out of that one with a greater sense that, yes, something special is happening this season at the Wells Fargo Center.
“I think we already know we can be good,” Rivers said. “But any time you win a game that you can possibly lose and you stay in and win, it says a lot about you and your mental toughness. We’re going to have games like this in the second half, where it looks like you may be out of it. But if you hang in there, you can still win it. So moving forward, I think it’s a big message for our team.”
The season resumes with a visit from the Bulls at 8 Thursday night, and the second-half schedule appears difficult. The Nets improved with Griffin. The Milwaukee Bucks lurk.
“We don’t get anything at halftime of a season,” Rivers said. “I look at it like we are playing good basketball. But there is a great team in us.”
Thirteen years later, it’s still just a matter of it all spilling out.