FEB. 20
PA. INDY TOURNAMENT (PAISAA)
QUARTERFINAL
Germantown Academy 68, Penn Charter 46
  The Quakers concluded their 13-13 season by giving their archrivals close to half a scare. That wording is used because the score was 25-25 roughly two minutes prior to intermission and PC was hanging tough despite having posted NO steals and having snatched just THREE rebounds. Pretty much every person in the just-short-of-packed house undoubtedly figured GA would slap together an impressive stretch at some point and . . . uh, oh, here it comes. Three-point field goal by sr. SF Kyle McCloskey. Three-point play (off a recovery of a loose ball) by sr. WG Evan-Eric Longino. Left-wing trey by sr. F Josh Brownstein off a feed from McCloskey. (We interrupt this avalanche to give you a PC free throw.) Right-corner trey by McCloskey off a dish from sr. PG Cole Storm. Just like that the score was 37-26 and GA was flexing its muscles. The second half featured little in the way of drama. GA enjoyed domination thanks to hundreds (seemed like it, anyway) of second- and even third-chance opportunities. Brownstein was the primary beneficiary and sometimes did not even have to work too hard to get the ball off the glass. Hustle to a spot. Look up. Hey, no one boxed me out. There's the ball. Why, thank you. PC's first steal did not occur until 7:35 remained in the game. Sr. PF-C Justus Sanders made it an instant after GA had posted a pilfer. Sanders had a nice fourth quarter, also taking a charge and making a block in addition to grabbing two rebounds. GA coach Jim Fenerty removed his starters with 2:08 left and the score at 67-46, right after McCloskey made a layup for his final points in the Patriots' gym. A short time beforehand, he'd made a steal and capped an aggressive rush to the hoop with -- pow! -- a vintage throwdown. Kyle finished with 23 points and Longino added 21. Brownstein also reached double figures with 15. The other starters, Storm and sr. WG Andrew Towne, halved six points and two triples. Jr. WG Mason Williams (12), sr. PG Adam Holland (11, some terrific bulldog drives in the first half) and sr. F Dylan Burnett (eight) led in scoring and soph SF Ryan "Zingy" Maloney drained two fourth quarter treys for six points. The decent start was fueled by a pair of treys -- by Williams and sr. WG Mike "Neeko" Hnatkowsky -- off passes from frosh WG Ryan "Pooch" Holmes. The PAISAA semis will be held Friday night at Malvern: GA vs. Westtown at 6:30, Episcopal vs. Hill School at 8. The final (same site) will be played at 6:45 on Saturday. Six seniors were part of PC's varsity this season: Burnett, Alex Cohen, James Gabor, Hnatkowsky, Holland and Sanders. Here's hoping they'll remember the good times. Take a few deep breaths, guys, before immersing yourself in the spring sports. MANY legends in attendance. Here we go, in alphabetical order: Bill Armstrong, Tom Bachinger, John Burkhart, Jon Cross, Bill Gallagher Sr. and Jr., Chip Greenberg, Jerry Greenberg, Ed Holzer, Joe Magarity, Mike McCloskey, Ed McGettigan, John McVeigh, John Przybylinski, Gerry Sasse, Brett Storm, Larry Storm, Billy Travers, Eddie Turner . . .

FEB. 20
TEDBIT
  The 2016-17 season for Penn Charter's girls basketball team is over and so is the high school career of sr. sub Mary Jane McGlinchey. And you know what that means . . . Time to update the hoops numbers for what we like to call the Greater Loughery Family. In this century, eight members have played basketball for PC as a secondary sport. But all have played through senior year and many have been primary contributors. John Loughery's dad, also named John, was a quarterback for Penn Charter and Boston College. Like Mary Jane, who finished her career with nine points (three as a junior, six this year) and provided terrific support for her teammates, the other members are children of John Lock's sisters. Matt Ryan is the Atlanta Falcons' quarterback and this year led his team to the Super Bowl while winning league MVP honors. Mike McGlinchey is a starting offensive lineman for Notre Dame. John Loughery was a backup QB at Temple in 2016 and spent this past season as a graduate assistant with the Owls. John Ryan played QB at Brown. Pat McCain is a sophomore at Dickinson, Frank McGlinchey is a freshman at Franklin & Marshall (after a post-grad year) and Jake McCain is a freshman at Ursinus; all play football. Together, the eight hoops-playing members of TGLF have scored 2,316 points overall and 886 in Inter-Ac play. (The oldest Ryan brother, Mike, was a QB at Malvern in the late '90s. Sam McCain, brother of Pat and Jake, played football at Archbishop Wood.) In this century, as noted in a football Tedbit first posted in October 2015, the seven PC members of TGLF (and Sam) have accounted for 14,777 yards and 124 TDs. . . So, where do we go from here? Matt McGlinchey is a PC freshman. He is a lineman in football and has spent the winter giving wrestling a try. Mary Jane reports that her cousin, Michael Hartman (also from the Loughery side), will enter PC next year as a ninth-grader. Will he play basketball? We'll see. Seamus McCain, a seventh grader, might be headed to PC along the way and ditto for MJ's brother, Tom McGlinchey, currently a fourth grader. Oh, and other relatives might join the PC family in time. Let the fun continue!          

FEB. 15
PA. INDY TOURNAMENT (PAISAA)
First Round
Penn Charter 66, Shipley 54
  Let's start with some wacko and/or noteworthy nuggets: The teams' first meeting on Dec. 8, played at PC, yielded a 70-50 win for Shipley, so tonight's result produced a 32-point swing . . . PC led at halftime, 28-25, even though it owned NO steals . . . Sr. PF Justus Sanders wound up claiming 12 rebounds, the highest total this season by a PC player . . . The Quakers scored the final 14 points, in part because Shipley was hit with two techs . . . PC (13-12) is now assured of finishing with at least a .500 overall record . . . In the fourth quarter, the Gators scored all 15 of their points on three-pointers . . . Fifteen of the last 16 field goals notched by sr. WG Mike "Neeko" Hnatkowsky, a lefty, have been treys. He rained down three tonight . . . OK, on to the regular part of this report. One thing I absolutely knew heading into this game, played at Shipley with a 6 o'clock start: sr. PG Adam Holland would play VERY well. Going back decades, guys who miss out on all-league honors ALWAYS have something to prove in the playoffs and ALWAYS (well, almost -- smile) perform at a high level. I saw Adam yesterday at PC while the girls played Germantown Academy and happened to mention to him, with the all-league results in mind, "They sold you out." He responded with a smile, "It's all good." I said while wrapping up the quick exchange, "No, it was bad." Baseball is Adam's primary sport and he's bound for Rutgers to play it. But he's strong and aggressive and always BRINGS it in hoops and tonight he made the difference, finishing with 16 points (5-for-8, 6-for-9) and five assists. His pinpoint passes set up Neeko for two early treys and those buckets were part of a march to a 16-7 lead through eight minutes. He also contributed six points and two dimes in a 26-15 fourth quarter and made sure the ball was treasured. His basket came on an ever-hard drive that he capped with a lefthanded layup, handing PC a 52-51 lead with 2:40 left. Frosh G Khai Champion drained a right wing trey to put the Gators ahead, 54-52, but that would be it for their point total, folks. The first tech was called after Sanders made a steal near Shipley's basket. Jr. WG Mason Williams (20 points, four treys, 6-for-6 at line) hit both free throws and the Q's were on their way. The rest of the points also were posted from the charity stripe. Frosh WG Ryan "Pooch" Holmes finished with 11 points while sr. F Dylan Burnett mixed six points with five boards. There was one distressing moment. With three minutes left in the third quarter, PC jr. WG-SF Will Samuel made a dive for a loose ball in front of PC's bench. His body was flat on the floor, face down. Right after Will gained possession, a Shipley player fell on Will, butt first, on the upper part of his back. Will's forehead slammed into the floor. He was able to stand up, but he was in obvious agony and kept lightly tapping his forehead as if to indicate, "Man, something just happened in there. What's the deal?" Will then left the court area with PC trainer Jessica Rawlings and did not return until late in the fourth quarter. Not sure where things stand. Hang in there, Will. Best of luck! Jr. G Sam Sessoms (18), Champion (14) and sr. G Kiyon Hardy (13) scored in double digits for Shipley. Ray Somerville, a 6-9 soph (at least) and admittedly raw, took just two shots and hardly ever was offered an entry pass. Arcadia coach Justin Scott, scouting guru Allen Rubin and PA announcer Jake "The Voice" Schwartz topped the legends-in-attendance list. PC's quarterfinal opponent will be Germantown Academy. Details TBA. . . One last thing: This afternoon I went to PC to kill time by doing research on the boys lacrosse program in old student newspapers. Guess who won the 1980 Inter-Ac championship? EVERYBODY. There was a five-way tie for the crown. Only in the Int! Ha, ha.

FEB. 15
TEDBIT
  Germantown Academy's Evan-Eric Longino beat teammate Kyle McCloskey by two points for the Inter-Ac scoring title, then the latter edged out the former for league Most Outstanding Player honors. This is the ninth time in 50 years that one school has produced the top two vote-getters and the third time GA has pulled off the feat. Beyond that, this is the second time the double-dip combo has been part of a co-champion instead of an outright champ. In 1995, the top two guys were Malvern's Ben Davis, later a major league catcher, and Ryan Polley. Polley was also the first team All-Inter-Ac quarterback in 1994 and a lacrosse whiz. He starred in that sport at Merrimack and is now the head coach at Boston University. The Friars shared that title with GA. In '72, Penn Charter snared the top three spots thanks to Ed Enoch, Tim O'Rourke and Barnes Hauptfuhrer. That had happened only one other time. In '46, Friends' Central's Walt Armstrong, Jim Pooley and Don Huntzinger finished 1-2-3. Inter-Ac hoops began in the 1923-24 school year. 

FEB. 14
TEDBIT
  Given his choice, Wood's Seth Pinkney, a 6-10 junior, probably would prefer to average 25 points per game and reach that number thanks to numerous entry passes leading to dunks. Well, this is the 2016-17 season, folks, and basketball is mostly a perimeter game. Plus, Pinkney is still feeling his way and his body is nowhere close to being finished. As a result, he averaged just 5.9 points in the just-completed Catholic League regular season . . . but, hey, in one way that turned out to be a good thing. Since at least 1950, Seth owns the third-lowest average (in a tie) for someone who earned All-Catholic honors. So it's nice that the coaches, who are often accused of caring only about points at selection time, made sure to recognize his importance to the regular season champs. Wood coach John Mosco said Seth is averaging about six rebounds and four blocks per game and I can only imagine how many shots he alters or how often he forces opponents to rethink whether taking a close-in shot would even make sense. Most of the guys on the list below were point guards. Only one player, Ryan PG Chris Kozole in 2002, earned first team honors. In 1999, in the Northern Division, all five guys on third team averaged 10 points per game. They were, in order of selection, La Salle's Steve Erfle (9.6), Judge's Chris Roantree (8.2), Wood's Brian Riling (9.6) and Dougherty's Greg Mayo (9.9) and Robert Carter (7.9). Know what Roantree does now? He's an assistant to Mosco and interacts with Pinkney every day.  

FEB. 13
TEDBIT
  Wood sr. G Collin Gillespie, a Villanova commit, did not exactly come out of Nowhere to capture the Catholic League's 2017 scoring title. He did come out of Mediumwhere, though, because his point total in 2016 was 162 and this year's zoomed all the way up to 313. How common is such a rise? Wellllll . . . The list below shows all improvements of at least 100 points by senior overall scoring champs over the last 50 seasons. The No. 1 guy is Dougherty's Terry "Doc" Watson, who racked up 364 on the heels of 46. But look at the No. 2 guy, West Catholic's Kevin Smith. In 1988-89, he scored three points in a very early non-league game vs. La Salle and then became strictly a JV player (after getting cut from the JV as a soph). But in 1989-90, as a 6-1, 150-pound small forward, he exploded for 296 points in 14 Southern Division games for a 21.1 average. Keep in mind, some guys played in as many as 16 league games while others played in as few as 13. Boxscores don't list non-scorers, so that's why I went with total points for junior years instead of averages. . . Roman's Jim O'Brien, the overall Markward Club winner as the city's top senior in 1970, is now a 76ers assistant.     

FEB. 11
TEDBIT
  OK, Germantown Academy's baseball players. The pressure is on! (smile). Your school's football and basketball teams have claimed Inter-Ac League championships (shared) this school year. Will you do the same? Since the 1923-24 school year, when basketball became an official league sport, a hat trick in the three major sports has been posted seven times. Penn Charter owns the list below with six. Malvern did so in 2011-12. PC's 1963-64 squads stormed to a combined 28-1 mark (.966) and the combo mark in 1954-55 was 23-1 (.958).

FEB. 10
TEDBIT
  Two days ago, we posted a list that detailed close battles for Inter-Ac League scoring titles going back to 1967-68. Today it's the Catholic League's turn and we're doing it BEFORE league play ends because the top two guys, N-G's Quade Green (23.9) and Wood's Collin Gillespie (23.8), are only one-tenth of a point apart. Fire away, guys! (Within reason. Ha, ha.) Like the Inter-Ac list, this one highlights only duels where both guys averaged at least 18 points. Unlike that list, this one includes seasons back to 1949-50 thanks to Tom Taylor's dogged research. In the '72 season, third place went to O'Hara's Mike Arizin, son of NBA all-time Paul Arizin, and he was only two-tenths behind the second place guy, North Catholic's Barry Brodzinski. Same deal in '14: N-G's Ja'Quan Newton, now at Miami, was two-tenths behind runnerup Chris Clover (SJ Prep, Hawk Hill).