In the 51st edition of Norwood Fontbonne Academy's annual Snowball Tournament, home team fans saw their own beloved Bears take a serious run at the 2025 championship. Almost midway through the fourth quarter of last Sunday's final, NFA held a six-point lead, but a late comeback by St. Alphonsus School earned the Maple Glen team a 51-43 victory.

In the semifinal round on Saturday, St. Alphonsus had beaten Penn Charter's middle school varsity, 48-33, while Norwood had advanced to the title bout by knocking out Roxborough's Green Woods Charter School, 48-31. The defending Snowball champion, St. Philip Neri of Lafayette Hill, lost in the first round this year, bowing to the PC Quakers, 31-23.

The varsity action got underway on Wednesday evening with a battle between St. Alphonsus and St. Helena School from Blue Bell. Recovering from an early deficit, St. Alph's pulled out a 63-56 victory to become the first team to reach the semifinals.

In the following contest, St. Philip Neri trailed Penn Charter much of the way last Wednesday, although with less than two minutes remaining, the Saints came back within one point of the leaders at 24-23. The Quakers pulled away again down the stretch, winning 31-23.

In a first-round game on Thursday, Roxborough's Green Woods Charter School jumped out ahead of Saints Colman-Neumann School at the outset, and were up 17-12 at halftime. The pace of the scoring picked up after that, and Sts. Colman-Neumann (which is located in Bryn Mawr) took the lead for the first time with a minute-and-a-half left in the third quarter. That's when when Nathan Hand bagged a three-point field goal from the left corner to put the Main Line ballclub up 26-24.

Green Woods reasserted itself after that, forging the first double-digit lead of the night at 44-33 late in the fourth quarter. At the final horn, the scoreboard came to rest at 51-38.

The boys from host Norwood swung into action on Friday afternoon, and it looked like they were going to steamroll neighborhood rival Our Mother of Consolation School when the first quarter ended with an 18-3 tally. OMC fought back after that, though, trailing 28-20 at the half.

Just past the midpoint of the third quarter, Norwood only led by four points, 33-29. Although the game had become much more competitive, the Bears would never surrender the lead. They were ahead 57-46 late in the fourth quarter, and in the final minute OMC closed up the final score to 57-50 by adding points from the foul line.

Norwood moved on to a Saturday evening semifinal against Green Woods Charter. Green Woods was missing its regular starting post player, who had participated on Thursday but then had left for an out-of-state AAU tournament.

The Bears ended the first quarter with a 19-12 margin, then really began to pull away. A little over five minutes into the second period, Norwood had gained a 20-point lead, 34-14. After three quarters, it was 48-19, and the bench players saw a lot of action in the late minutes. The final tally was closer, at 48-31.

Devin Tullis led the winners with 16 points, and Sam Smith added eight for NFA. Ren Perillo powered Green Woods with a 15-point performance.

In the other semifinal, St. Alphonsus outscored Penn Charter 13-5 in the first period, and would lead the rest of the way. The Quakers stopped their slide and trailed 36-28 at the three-quarter mark, but then St. Alph's deposited the first four field goals of the fourth frame to really take control.

They won 48-33, getting 10 points apiece from Carter Launer and Griffin White, and nine from Connor Githens. Freddie Master led Charter with a dozen points, followed by Colin Pelegrin, with nine, and Giovanni Leone, with eight.

In the championship game late on Sunday morning, St. Alphonsus did not score a field goal for more than four minutes as Norwood jumped out to a 6-2 lead. A lay-up and a few short jump shots by Richie Davoli got the Gators back in it, and at the end of the first quarter Davoli stole the ball and scored to give his team a 10-8 advantage.

The contest then became a series of streaks. St. Alph’s big man, Launer, displayed a nice touch around the basket, netting four field goals to help his squad attain a 10-point lead, 22-12, with two minutes left in the first half.

Jayden Brown drove for a pair of lay-ups and Tullis hooped two free throws to get the Bears back within four points by halftime, 22-18. Smith stuck a three-pointer from the left corner to start the second half, and after the Gators got one point back on a foul shot, an NFA steal led to a Brown lay-up that tied the game at 23-all.

Over the next few minutes, St. Alph's edged back ahead, 30-27, but Norwood then resumed its attack. Brown and Jabril Coleman got it going by converting rebounds for lay-up, Tullis scored on a breakaway, and a short jumper in the lane by Jalen Harris brought the Bears to the three-quarter mark with a 35-30 lead.

St. Alph's tried to claw some points back early in the fourth round, but when Smith bagged a baseline jump shot with under five minutes remaining in the game, the Gators called time-out to discuss a six-point deficit, at 41-35.

The peptalk had quite an effect, as St. Alph's would finish the game with a 16-2 flourish. Early in that final run, Norwood had Smith and Coleman foul out in a span of just 10 seconds.

The Bears were still only four points behind (47-43) as the time remaining dropped under one minute. Coming out of a Norwood time-out, St. Alph's stole the ball and Davoli scored. During the next two exchanges both teams had trouble finding the hoop; Norwood missed a three-point attempt and a shorter shot from the floor, while the Gators whiffed on four foul shots.

With 10 seconds remaining, Davoli rebounded the missed second free throw of one of his teammates and was fouled. St. Alph's was in the bonus, so Davoli went to the foul line and made two shots to set the final score at 51-43.

He finished with a game-high 21 points, and Launer scored 12. Brown and Tullis each scored 10 points for the Bears, Coleman had seven, and Jake Donovan added six points.