Sellers gets Radnor jumping
RADNOR » There are many things about the 2024 version of Radnor boys basketball that are surprising. Not among them, though, is a coherent sense of identity.
So Saturday evening, in a Central League semifinal with Conestoga, a one-point edge at halftime surely felt insufficient. As did settling too often for jump shots, not getting the most out of trips to the rim and not always doing the things that have led to 18 wins this season.
Refocusing and recommitting quickly brought No. 19.
The Raptors were exemplary in sharing the ball in the second half, didn’t miss a field goal in the fourth and finally broke the shackles of a back-and-forth affair to beat Conestoga, 55-50.
The reward is a renewal of last year’s Central League final against Lower Merion, the first time Radnor (19-3) had won the league crown. The top-seeded Aces topped Marple Newtown, 80-64. The final is Tuesday night at Marple.
Radnor led 22-21 after a first half that featured six ties and seven lead changes. Once it refocused on its strengths, the seesawing stopped.
“I think we wanted to come out strong in the third quarter,” forward Elijah Sellers said. “We knew the third quarter was going to be crucial in the game.”
In Radnor’s style, that meant nine of 11 second-half baskets were assisted. It meant attempting only five 3-pointers, winning the board battle and shooting 5-for-5 from the field in the fourth quarter while calmly draining the clock. Only a few misses from the free throw line left the door slightly ajar for the third-seeded Pioneers.
Sellers led the way. He was 8-for-9 from the field for 18 points. In the first half, the lanky junior’s ability to hit 18-foot jumpers when afforded the space got Radnor’s offense flowing.
“It really gets me going,” he said. “I want to start shooting them more. It really helps my team, so I’m going to keep doing it.”
In the second, he used his movement off the ball, especially when Conestoga had to press high in the half-court, to find soft spots and be available for dump-offs from driving Raptors.
Kessy Cox, who scored 15 points, accounted for the 10th and final lead change, when he took a Henry Pierce feed and finished for two midway through the third quarter. It was part of a 10-1 run. Sellers hit three baskets in the quarter.
Radnor slowed the game to a crawl in the fourth, making sure each team only touched the ball four times in the first four minutes. The Raptors gleaned six points from four possessions, four from Sellers, off feeds from Pierce and Sawyer Smith to the short elbow.
“I just follow the ball and look to the ball movement,” Sellers said. “I just happen to get open. People just can’t find me.”
Conestoga, which took the regular-season meeting, was within one when Ben Robinson beat the firsthalf buzzer with a basket. But the Pioneers would get lulled into more jump-shooting than suited them.
Robinson made the Pioneers’ first look from beyond the arc, early in the second quarter. It would take seven misses until another make, courtesy of Westin Fryberger early in the fourth. The Pioneers were 3-for-14 from 3-point range.
“We all like to shoot, so we’re looking for our jumpers,” Robinson said. “They (Radnor defenders) seemed to be going under our handoffs. We tried to go to the rim as much as possible but we ended up with a lot of jumpers.”
Robinson scored nine of his 14 points in the first half. Fryberger had eight of his 13 in the fourth. Rowan Miller scored 11 points.
Behind Sellers and Cox, Smith scored nine points and Pierce had eight. Michael Savadove didn’t hit a field goal but had three points, six rebounds and four assists. Pierce and Smith had three dimes each.
Radnor’s deliberate offense in the fourth stretched the lead to 4535. The Raptors didn’t miss a field goal attempt in the stanza, Sellers hitting three and Smith two.
“It’s pretty frustrating, but there’s nothing you can really do,” Robinson said of the slowed pace. “You just have to keep working and try to get the ball back.”
Radnor went 9-for-14 at the line in the fourth, which allowed Conestoga to creep within three on Fryberger’s basket with 16.1 ticks left. Conestoga was close to having a shot to tie when Smith missed two at the line. But Cox went to the floor for a board, Smith came out of a scrum with it and laid it in off the backboard to set the final margin.
It sends a very different Radnor team to the same final as last year with only two regulars, Pierce and Savadove, back. A quick maturing core is relishing the chance to take their moment in the spotlight this year against a 21-1 Lower Merion team.
“It’s really exciting for me because it’s my first time actually playing in one of these,” Sellers said. “I’m really excited. I worked hard all summer for this.”
LOWER MERION 80, MARPLE NEWTOWN 64 » Adam Herrenkohl scored 24 points, including 13 in the second quarter, as the Aces won for the 17th time in 17 league games. Owen McCabe added 17 points.
P.J. Esposito led fifth-seeded Marple Newtown with 24 points. Matt Gardler scored 15, and Steven Tansey added 11.