SCH junior Jared Sprague-Lott works through a stable of PC defenders for a layup. Though he scored only six points Friday, his work in other facets of the game (defense, passing, rebounding) helped the Blue Devils pull away from a pesky Quaker team. (Photo by Jonathan Vander Lugt)

by Jonathan Vander Lugt

After two and a half weeks of league play, the seasons for Springside Chestnut Hill and Penn Charter basketball are roughly sketched out.

The two teams, located a scant few miles from one another and the Inter-Ac’s only within the borders of Philadelphia, met on Friday night. Julian McFadden is leading his Blue Devils in year three of a complete program overhaul, while new Quaker coach John Owens has freshly embarked on his own.

The Blue Devils won, 58-47 in a game that was close throughout, but rarely tense. SCH (10-10, 2-3) has an outside shot at a league title, but would need to win out and receive a lot of help from the rest of the league to even tie the Haverford School or Malvern Prep for a league crown. Penn Charter (10-8, 1-4) is all but eliminated from league contention.

Nonetheless, each team is still finding reasons to play, because it’s what most teams have to do every year. League champions have meaning thrust upon their seasons by virtue of their titles, but teams further down the standings have to do that work themselves.

“I’m learning something new every game,” Owens said. “The biggest thing for me right now is patience. That’s always the hardest thing – every coach, including me, wants to win now.”

“We’re young,” he went on. “Even though we have six seniors, they’re not all getting a lot of minutes. We’ve got guys that haven’t been in a position like they’re in this year.”

The most significant, perhaps, are eighth-grader Mark Butler and junior Ryan Holmes. Butler’s role as the varsity team’s starting point guard as a middle-schooler is almost unprecedented in Inter-Ac play, and – having started his own varsity career in the eighth grade – Holmes is learning how to be ‘the guy’ for the first time.

“(Mark is) our first piece – our first real building block,” Butler said. “Hopefully we can get two or three more like him.”

“It’s his pace,” Owens said, of what gives him the confidence to run an offense through someone who is barely even a teenager. “He’s very mature for his age, and he plays with great patience. He knows how to play the game.”

Butler finished with 10 points, while Holmes led the team with 17. Holmes has a good shot to reach 1,000 points at the end of the year – needing only 76 more (an average of roughly 10 per game) to reach what’s known as the standard of high-school excellence.

Most 1,000-point scorers are seniors, and have been in their roles for a handful of years. It’s strange to think of someone whose name will be on a banner as still developing during what will be seen as his crowning achievement, but that’s the reality as Holmes learns to lead his Quakers teammates.

“The goal for us is to continue to help him learn,” Owens said. “He’s very athletic and very skilled, but the more he can soak in, the higher the ceiling will be for him.”

“It’s time for him to learn the game behind the game,” Owens went on. “How to watch and dissect film, how to adjust and how to beat the guys around you, not just the one in front of you.”

“The other team’s scouting report is based on him, and they’re sending their best defenders to guard him,” Owens said. “It’s less about skill because everyone around him has skill. He’s at a point where it’s more of a mental game.”

Penn Charter guard Mark Butler works against SCH freshman Darius Isaac. Butler, still in middle school, scored 10 against the Blue Devils Friday. (Photo by Jonathan Vander Lugt)

That point is one that McFadden has been trying to strike all season with his entire team. His roster relies on a stable of talented juniors – Ke’Shawn Williams, Delonce Hines, Jared Sprague-Lott and David Robinson – and has looked equal parts brilliant and frustrating throughout the season.

“There were moments in the game (Friday) where we could have stretched it out and we didn’t take advantage,” McFadden said, of the game Friday night. For example, SCH botched a handful of breakaway layups and went 5-for-11 from the free throw line in the game’s first three quarters.

“That makes a big difference – we could have easily been up by 12 early on,” he said. “It’s just a mental toughness thing, and we’ve been talking about it all season.”

That said, SCH found enough to pull through. They did it without senior Zyon Grant, one of the team’s better shooters and a player who McFadden relies on for quality defense and his ability to stretch the floor on the other end. A nagging ankle injury has had him bouncing in and out of the lineup for about a month and a half.

In his place, Sprague-Lott has seen his role elevate from sixth man to starter. He struggled at times Friday night – missing a couple of the aforementioned layups – but made his presence felt everywhere else on the court.

“He gets deflections, plays defense and is always in the right spot,” McFadden said. “He’s a great rebounder, considering he’s only six-foot-two. He just does all the right things.”

“He’s the ultimate glue guy, and is one of the guys you want to start to attack more because he can actually do it,” McFadden went on. “He’s just much more comfortable finding guys around the floor.”

Elsewhere, Williams led the gym with 19, while Jack McDonald notched 12 and Robinson chipped in with another 10.

“I feel pretty good. I think there have been a few moments in games where things could have been different,” McFadden said. “But we’re in a good space.”

“If we can come out of this season better than we have been the last two years,” he went on, “we’re making strides toward where we want to go.”

Around the Area:

La Salle remained perfect, setting up a tense three-week showdown for Philadelphia Catholic League supremacy, Germantown Academy split its week and Germantown Friends lost its only league game of the week.

The Explorers dispatched Devon Prep without much effort last Monday, 55-24 before beating Father Judge 58-46 in its closest league game since beating Cardinal O’Hara by six in their opener. Zach Crisler led with 15 against Devon Prep, while Allen Robinson paced La Salle with 18 against the Crusaders. The Explorers (15-0, 8-0) will now go into what should be their toughest stretch; this week, they have a Monday matchup against Neumann-Goretti (9-3, 5-1) and host Bonner-Prendergast (12-1, 6-1) Thursday. In the coming weeks, they’ll also face Archbishop Carroll, Roman Catholic, Archbishop Wood and archrival St. Joe’s Prep – all teams with legitimate title aspirations – to close the year. Should be fun.

It’s likely no coincidence that since Jim Fenerty announced his intention to retire on Jan. 10, his Patriots have played with a new sense of urgency. Since then, GA won its first league game (a 65-51 win over Penn Charter Tuesday), and hasn’t lost by more than single digits. Aside from the blowout dealt them by Malvern Prep in their first league game, the Patriots actually have outscored their conference opponents by a point, indicating that they may have run into some bad luck throughout their three losses. Jordan Longino led the Pats in their win over PC with 20, and again in their 58-53 loss to the Episcopal Academy with 16. GA heads to Malvern Prep for a rematch Tuesday before hosting the Haverford School next Friday.

GFS (9-10, 1-4) lost Tuesday to Moorestown Friends. Ben Istvan led the Tigers with 12, while Matt Johnson and Tyson Maddox added 11 each. Istvan continues to be a pleasant surprise for Werdt – the sophomore is shooting over 40 percent from deep, and is averaging a shade under seven points per game in limited playing time. If you extrapolate his minutes to three full quarters of basketball (which he’s earned lately) his scoring balloons 11.9 points every 24 minutes, a rough translation of the NBA’s per-36-minute metrics. Germantown Friends has a busy week coming up, with conference games Tuesday against the George School and Shipley Friday.

Information from TedSilary.com was used in this report.