Physical play delivers Blue Devils first win
by ED MAHON
Bodies flew as jerseys, legs and arms sprawled on Chestnut Hill Academy's gym floor. Fans screamed for and against foul calls. But besides bruises, it's clear what the CHA varsity basketball players received this weekend: their first win.
On Saturday, Dec. 3, thanks to their tough defense and aggressive offense, the Blue Devils beat the La Salle College High School Explorers 74-38 in the final game of the Chestnut Hill Tournament.
Perhaps players were more physical because they were coming off losses from the night before (La Salle to Abington Friends and CHA to St. Joe's Prep.), but CHA head coach Ed Aversa wasn't surprised.
"Every time you play La Salle it's gonna be physical," Aversa said.
CHA got off to a quick start in the first quarter, scoring 22 points to La Salle's one. The Explorers couldn't penetrate the three-point line. The only point came from sophomore Joe Sobocinski, who made a foul shot midway through the first quarter and would eventually lead Explorer's scoring with nine.
The Explorers came out more aggressive in the second quarter, starting things off with a full court press. But CHA's Julian McFadden, who scored 21 points and had 6 assists, didn't have much trouble breaking it with his quick dashes and crisp passes. Even though McFadden didn't have much trouble breaking the press, the Blue Devils couldn't find offensive rhythm in the second quarter, scoring only 4 points to the Explorers' 11.
Aversa believed second quarter problems were caused by overconfident players coming down the court, making one pass and shooting.
"What we did in the first quarter, we made them play defensive," said Aversa, adding that some of his players might have become a little overconfident because of the lead and stopped making the Explorers work on defense. But you couldn't accuse Aversa of letting up. He didn't sit down the whole game. "I don't coach the scoreboard," he said.
That's not to say the Devils were letting up either. Even when the Devils' shots stopped falling, their defense kept up. The Explorers didn't score from the floor until there was less than five minutes in the first half.
Early in the second quarter, after point guard Julian McFadden stole the ball, the 5-foot-9 sophomore came flying down the court and collided straight into La Salle's 6-foot-7 Brian Carlin. Both smacked into the ground. And both teams' fans were calling for the foul. This time, it was on Carlin.
Even in the second quarter, when the Explorers outscored the Devils, the Explorers never captured the momentum. With four minutes left, and some slight momentum building for La Salle (the score was 22-5), McFadden stood between two Explorers charging down on a fast break. As the one tried to pass, McFadden leapt and stole it. The second half ended with the score 26-12 in favor of the Devils. McFadden had five points in the first half but would explode for more than three times that in the second.
In the third quarter, the Devils shot better. La Salle junior Tyrell Marshall fell trying to steal the ball from McFadden, who dribbled past him to the foul line where he arched a shot making the score 37-20 with three minutes left in the quarter.
An other example of solid shooting occurred when sophomore Malik Easterling came down on a fast break, and instead of forcing a pass to his teammate coming down with him, stopped just inside the three line and hit nothing but net to score two of his nine points.
The third quarter ended with McFadden bent over on the ground, almost in a backwards rollover after making a 3-pointer with seconds left. And before he could get up, Devils sophomore guard Dave Jennings scored two of his nine points after stealing the ball from the Explorers and scoring on an easy lay-up as time expired to let CHA outscore La Salle in the third, 25-15.
McFadden would start off the fourth quarter with another 3-pointer to all but end the game. With a little more than four minutes and the Devils up by more than 20, Aversa took the starters out, but remained focused on the game. Even after CHA students taunted a group of 20 La Salle students leaving the game, Aversa didn't let up on his players. Like he said, he doesn't coach the scoreboard.
The win against La Salle capped the Chestnut Hill Tournament weekend.
The previous night the Devils had lost 50-35 to St. Joseph's Prep. Aversa said playing against a "Speedy" Morris-coached team is "always tough."
"We matched their effort. We just weren't able to match their execution," he said.
And even though he was proud of his team's effort, he came into Saturday night's game looking for a win. "We need to start winning. As young as we are we need to start winning," he said of his team with two seniors. Aversa referred to the win as "a total team effort."
La Salle was also coming off a loss to Abington Friends School, losing 66-48. Earlier that day, St. Joe's beat Abington 62-42.
The team begins league play this week. Last year, in Aversa's first season, the team went 6-19 overall and 0-10 in their league. Two things the Devils will be missing are age (they only have two seniors) and Malik Easterling (he transferred from Roman Catholic, making him ineligible for the league games). But still, games like the one against La Salle leave Aversa hopeful.
"We're young. We're trying to be better tomorrow than we were today."