Basketball teams from outside the area won the boys’ and girl’s championships at the 2025 Norwood Fontbonne Academy Snowball tournament, but at the 2026 event last week, the trophies stayed closer to home.

A year ago, Lafayette Hill’s St. Philip Neri fell in the girls’ finals to St. Katherine of Sienna School of Wayne, but this year, in the 52nd annual Snowball tourney, SPN defeated a short-staffed Norwood team, 45-11, in the championship game on Sunday morning.

The Norwood boys’ varsity “A” team was the runner-up in both the 2025 and 2026 tournaments. A year ago St. Alphonsus from Maple Glen took the title, but this year it went to Flourtown’s St. Genevieve School, who knocked off the NFA Bears, 56-42.

The 2026 Snowball featured a relatively small field of teams overall, with six schools each in the varsity boys’ A and B categories, and only three teams for the varsity girls.

For the varsity B boys, two of the six teams received a bye which put them directly into the semifinal round. The other four played in two first-round games, with the winners advancing to the semifinals. In the varsity A boys and the varsity girls’ groupings each team was scheduled for two games, and the teams with the best win/loss records after those contests moved on in the tournament.

On Feb. 25, the first night of the event, the varsity boys’ A team from St. Gen’s defeated St. Alphonsus, 49-43. In the first varsity boys’ B game, St. Philip Neri recorded a 43-28 victory over St. Alphonsus. This SPN team, coached by Chris Cavallaro, was one of two St. Philip teams entered in the “B” bracket. The other one, coached by Pete Moffatt, opened up on Feb. 26 with a 45-38 win against Mary, Mother of the Redeemer (MMR), from North Wales.

Norwood Fontbonne’s own varsity teams went into action on Feb. 27, starting with the boys’ B team defeating Chestnut Hill neighbor Our Mother of Consolation (OMC), 39-23. Ryan Meehan led the NFA Bears with 11 points, while Jack Falso scored 13 for OMC.

A much closer contest followed, as nine points from Jennie Murphy powered the Norwood girls to a 14-12 halftime lead over St. Genevieve’s. Late in the third period St. Gen’s was ahead 24-23. Then the Bears’ Soren Maybruck hit a three-pointer from the right wing and Peyton Barnes added a free throw to give the hosts a 27-24 edge going into round four.

The lead grew to seven points, and St. Gen’s rallied as Eme Fiorini netted a pair of three-point buckets during a 10-3 counterattack. The Flourtown team pulled even at 34-all with a lay-up by Brooklyn Eder with 1:41 on the clock. Norwood then scored the last five points of the game from the free throw line, where Maybruck went three-for-four.

Down the stretch, Barnes grabbed a key rebound and drew a fifth personal foul on St. Gen’s Maura Gary, who left the game with 10 points. Fiorini led the losing cause with 11 points (including three three-pointers), while Norwood received 18 points from Murphy and 17 from Maybruck.

In the boys’ game that came next, Jackson Overcash drained four three’s and posted a team-high 21 points for OMC. Scoring mostly on drives to the hoop, NFA’s Sam Smith had a game-high 24 points and the Bears pulled away late in the game to win 59-46.

OMC was actually ahead, 43-38, at the three-quarter mark, but they only managed a lone three-pointer by Owen Gary the rest of the way as five different Norwood players found the basket to break the game open. Julien Simola finished with nine points for the winners and Colin Bender and Sam Flaherty scored eight and seven, respectively. Gary and Peter Fontenot each deposited eight points for OMC.

St. Aloysius, of Bryn Mawr, played its two scheduled games on Saturday afternoon, losing to St. Alphonsus in close one, 56-54, and then getting overwhelmed by St. Gen’s, 59-35.

Green Woods Charter, from Roxborough, first took to the court at 6:00 PM on Saturday and quickly took command against OMC, getting out to a 19-1 lead before OMC scored its first field goal at the buzzer at the end of the first quarter.

That basket was a three-pointer by Gary that made it 19-4, and although the Chestnut Hill team recovered and played much better the rest of the way, Green Woods still led by 15 points at the end, 60-45. The victors received 11 points apiece from Dashel Henry, Carter Van Fossen, and Zyon Waters. Fontenot furnished OMC with five three-pointers and a game-high 20 points, while Gary added 17.

OMC’s varsity B then took on the Norwood B squad, and after Justin Harrigan gave the Bears a 4-2 edge with a pair of layups, NFA went on to lead 10-4 at the quarter and 20-15 at halftime. The tourney hosts kept pulling away to win 52-25, led by Jaxon Acosta, with 14 points, and Charles Eggington, with 12. OMC’s Tadhg Harbour shared game-high scoring honors with 14 points in the losing cause.

The Saturday nightcap was the varsity A boys game between Green Woods Charter and the Norwood Bears. Van Fossen helped lead Green Woods out to a 10-3 lead over the first four minutes, and then NFA seventh-grader Jake Smith spearheaded a Norwood rally, scoring on a drive and later netting two three-point baskets.

The Bears were leading late in the first half, and a trey at the buzzer by Van Fossen tied the contest at 24-24. NFA had a one-point edge at the three-quarter mark, but with two minutes remaining in the game the Roxborough ball club was up 42-38.

Green Woods would not score again, however, and three-pointers by Jake Smith and Colin Bender moved Norwood ahead, 44-42. Each of the two players hit one free throw in the final 20 seconds. Jake Snith led all scorers with 13 points while Bender and Sam Smith each finished with 10. Henry and Van Fossen registered 12 and 11 points, respectively, for Green Woods Charter.

The Sunday morning girls’ championship contest featured the teams with the best records in their previous games, St. Philip (2-0) and Norwood (1-1). Conflicts involving other basketball and volleyball events left the Bears with only one eighth-grade athlete, Maybruck. The rest were younger, including some pulled up from the JV team.

SPN’s Juliette Shafer started out by making a jump shot and then two free throws, and Norwood got on the board when Ginny Stachitas banked in a shot from the left wing. In the second period Barnes scored on a drive and Taylor Coleman hit a baseline shot for Norwood, but the Bears trailed the Saints at halftime, 17-6.

The NFA girls showed some grit and kept playing hard, but they were simply overmatched against the stronger, more experienced athletes from St. Philip’s, who prevailed 45-11. Ana McDivitt, netting 12 points, topped a list of nine different scorers for the Saints, with Stella McCarthy and Mallory Michener adding seven points each. Maybruck had the team high of seven points for Norwood.

Next came the boys’ varsity B final, and here St. Catherine of Sienna from Horsham faced Coach Pete Moffat’s St. Philip Neri squad. St. Catherine had a close game against the Norwood B’s, winning 51-47, but in the finals they overpowered the Saints following a tight first quarter. After trailing 35-21 midway through the third period, the Saints closed it up to 37-30 early in the fourth. St. Catherine finished with a blistering 19-2 run for a 56-32 victory.

Will Brennan gave St. Catherine a game-high 24 points, while five of his teammates hit at least one three-point field goal. Vince Ferri had 13 points for the Saints and Caden Morris ended up with 11.

In the “A” final against the Norwood boys, St. Gen’s scored more than half of its points from the three-point loop. Trey Lewis and Jack Mellor each scored 16 points and fired four three’s for the Flourtown franchise, while Brian Bucholz (13 points total) and Richard Paul (nine) put in one apiece. Colton Mienke would round out the team’s total with a layup.

Bobby Krandel scored from the paint for the Bears to begin the game and the numbers on the board turned over slowly at first.

It was only 6-6 with under 90 seconds remaining in the first quarter, but over the following minute St. Gen’s forged ahead, 14-10. Norwood’s Jake Smith stuck a trey at the end to get the Bears back within one. St. Gen’s separated more decisively early in round two, sandwiching two three-point buckets around two shots from the paint in a 10-0 run.

Norwood never fully recovered from this. It seemed like every time the home fans thought their Bears were making some headway, St. Gen’s stabbed them with another three. The leaders were disciplined and moved the ball well, and found ways to get their prolific shooters open. They led 32-21 at halftime and took a 45-27 advantage into the final quarter.

In the final frame Norwood cut down the lead here and there, but never got closer than a dozen points.

The reliable Sam Smith provided NFA with a game-high 19 points, and his brother Jake had eight. Bender scored five points, and four apiece came from Flaherty and Simola.

The trophy was presented, the renowned Snowball snack bar sold provisions for the trip home, and the 52nd annual tournament was in the books.