Sankofa Academy Seizes The Day As Warriors Bounce Lancaster Country Day From PIAA-1A Tournament In Semifinal Round, Prompting Cougars To Look Onward With ‘Really Good Basketball Ahead Of It’

Written by: Andy Herr on March 22, 2025

A week ago in this space, the question was outwardly posed as to whether or not this was the best iteration of a Lancaster Country Day boys’ basketball varsity team that had ever been assembled at any point during the tiny private school’s history. In short, that overarching question would be demonstrably answered over the course of 32 minutes of play last Friday evening at Coatesville when Country Day matched up with The Christian Academy for a state quarterfinal round matchup inside the boys’ version of the PIAA-1A bracket.

Or, in the Cougars’ case, just a smidge more than 32 minutes would be required of them.

Then again, that’s not exactly something that was unchartered territory when it came to this history-making LCD postseason run.

In that game exactly one week ago, this 2024-25 edition of the Lancaster Country Day Cougars would indeed plant their flag at the top of the program’s summit all-time come the end of the evening by tabulating their first win inside the state’s round of eight, a metaphorical hill they able to finally make it past after coming up short against the state’s eventual silver medalist, Berlin Brothersvalley, in the Elite Eight round a year ago while playing on the western side of the bracket.

And hey, when you find yourself advancing to the state semifinals for the first time in your program’s history, much less by doing so in winning your last two state playoff outings by way of an overtime session as Country Day was able to do in vanquishing Phil-Mont Christian and the aforementioned Christian Academy in extra time, perhaps it wasn’t so farfetched if the Cougars may have felt just a tinge of destiny riding alongside with them through their upending of the state tourney considering their 4^th-place seed awarded to them prior to entering the dance by way of District 3’s playback round.

That said, the challenge awaiting them on this Friday night was something altogether different from anything they had seen up until this point no doubt.

To some, seeing a team reach the penultimate game of the season while possessing a modest seven-game bulge above the .500 mark overall may not exactly pass the eye test. Fine. But try and underestimate the Warriors from Sankofa Freedom Academy at your absolute peril.

Sankofa Academy Bench Watching Their Offense Work In First Half Against Lancaster Country Day In 2025 PIAA-1A Semifinals

In terms of small-school powerhouse brands that the state of Pennsylvania has to offer — especially here in the smallest classification system of them all — there are very few who can pack a bigger punch with authority behind it more than that of Sankofa. Granted, while the 16-year-old school from the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia has now gone dry of winning state gold for five seasons now in years in which the state tournament has been able to conclude in full (Thanks, COVID), there’s more to the Warriors’ absence from the top of the medal stage in recent years than perhaps is initially laid out to bare.

You see, while Sankofa hasn’t been able to make it beyond the second round of the state playoffs in the last two seasons, the Warriors were admittedly punching above their true designated weight class, 1A, the same level in which they were able to lock up their first and only state title back in 2019, by playing amongst the 2A rank and file in 2023 and 2024 respectively before coming back down to swim amongst their true brethren in being considered a 1A outfit once again this year.

So yeah, maybe an 18-11 overall record doesn’t stick out to some. That’s fine. But when you’re a team from the city of Philly, one that always tests itself against far, far larger schools from all around the city limits of both private and public schools alike, this is an opponent in Sankofa Academy that demands (and deserves) nothing but your upmost attention.

For Lancaster Country Day, that was now their assignment turned prize following an oddity of a week off after posting their biggest win in school history once they ventured down to Plymouth Whitemarsh to tangle with Sankofa in an outing where the game’s eventual winner would have the opportunity of playing for 1A’s ultimate prize, the state championship, next Thursday afternoon.

Suffice to say, the further you get in the state tournament, there are no accidents. There are no flukes left standing with all four teams left from around the state remaining by this stage in the game. Yes, that’s even if you’re currently in the midst of making school history such as Lancaster Country Day was doing heading into Friday evening’s affair with assuredly their toughest of opponent yet to date waiting right there for them.

However, as is the case with most every memorable ride that eventually gets started somewhere along the way, there comes a time when that journey must come to an end. In the instance of Lancaster Country Day, the clock would strike midnight for the Cougars on Friday at Plymouth Whitemarsh around the 7 o’clock hour.

If ever there was some perceived fear factor or anything of the sort when it came to the Cougars’ collective psyche prior to this one, one would’ve been hard-pressed to show with irrefutable evidence that LCD was in fact intimidated by the Philadelphia-based squadron.

Sure, while Sankofa would jump out to a quick 4-0 lead following a strong put-back at the cup put home by way of senior big man, Sammad West, Country Day’s 2-3 zone had effectively coerced and begged the Warriors into hoisting a litany of shots from beyond the arc, none of which found the bottom of the well in the initial going despite their clear and emphatic size differential that could’ve been taken advantage of inside.

As a result, Sankofa was never truly able to run away and hide in the early minutes as seen by virtue of a Cam Harris bucket inside the paint at the 3:05 mark of the opening frame as the Cougars’ revelation of a sophomore talent as this season has gone along tallied LCD’s first field goal of the game, making it an 8-4 Sankofa lead at that point in time. Then, 58 seconds later to be exact, another of the Country Day underclassmen, Kane Kirby, finished off an old-fashioned three-point play following a nice cut en route to the hoop as the junior wing had sliced the Warriors’ lead down to its slimmest of margins, 8-7, with the game now careening towards the second stanza.

In fact, Country Day was able to reach level footing with their Philly counterparts not long afterwards as hoop amongst the tall Sankofa trees registered by way 5’10 sophomore guard, Adryan Cruz, made it a 9-9 stalemate as Cruz became the beneficiary of a sweet dime thrown in his direction by way of the aforementioned Harris.

However, as is the case with any great team, there is usually a timely rebuttal for when things start to turn against them. Well, in Sankofa’s case, that response would be written by junior guard, Jameel Brown, as Brown’s prompt trifecta on the Warriors’ ensuing trip down the floor not only pushed Sankofa back into the lead with the 12-9 count, but his triple would in turn help catapult the Warriors into the second period with the aid of the 13-12 lead serving as the wind pushing at their collective backs.

That said, the winds would shift directions in the early portions of the new quarter as fate would have it.

There, after being stymied following a first period in which he was held scoreless, Lancaster Country Day’s senior left-handed dynamo, Chris Dukes, responded in kind by going off on his own personal 5-0 rally, all of which helped allow the Cougars to claim their first lead of the day, 17-16, with a somewhat partisan crowd in Country Day’s favor rising to their feet with 5:40 left to play before the halftime intermission.

Yet that would prove to be their final and lone instance of playing with the advantage up on the scoreboard for the remainder of the contest.

Ironically, after largely having been held in check up until that point with their long-range shooting deceiving them, the time had come for Sankofa to effectively make LCD pay for their decision in sitting back in that zone defense that was being employed against them.

For those honors, following a pair of back-breaking triples sunk courtesy of the Warriors’ senior marksman, Kaden Stewart, Sankofa had not only regained control of the score as Stewart’s 5-0 response saw Sankofa climb back in front by a 22-17 count, but it effectively allowed the Warriors’ equally ardent fans to offer up their own vocal response as their team was now seen flirting with their largest lead of the day within the blink of an eye.

Sure enough, that would indeed come to fruition inside the waning stages of the opening half as yet another Sankofa triple in the waning stages that was nailed by, you guessed it, Kaden Stewart, the team’s leading scorer on the day following his 11-point outing against LCD, saw the Warriors race into the intermission with the 31-23 lead following a commanding and devastating 15-6 close to the second quarter over the final five minutes and change after surrendering the lead not long prior.

Now, come the start of the third quarter, while it wasn’t necessarily a case of Lancaster Country Day already having entered the metaphorical “danger zone” with a full 16 minutes still left out in front of them, there was however an underlying sense that the Cougars needed to conjure something up in a timely manner in order to help stem the tide with the Sankofa Academy machine already starting to possess all the signs of rolling downhill at an alarming rate of speed. Suffice to say, seeing the one who has arguably blossomed into their most critical of chess pieces as this season has taken shape, Cam Harris, battle his own foul trouble certainly didn’t help the task at hand from LCD’s perspective. As a result, once Harris would pick up his fourth personal foul at the 5:32 mark of the third quarter, it was rather obvious to all in attendance that Sankofa’s best opportunity to strike with unbridled venom was right here and now. And fortunately for the Warriors’ fans, their team wouldn’t disappoint them in fulfilling that assignment.

With Harris now sidelined while saddled with his own bout in suffering ill of the foul bug, Sankofa began to rely on their sheer size, muscle, and overall might when it came to helping pushing Country Day out to sea.

First up, an old-fashioned dose of “bully ball” employed by way of Sankofa sophomore big man, Donte Precha, upping the Warriors’ cushion out to a dozen at 35-23 with 5:08 left in the third. Then, after capping off his second marvelous bucket at the cup within the early portions of the third quarter, Sankofa’s Nasir Brown was able to finish through contact while helping to allow the Warriors of envisioning a world in which they would possess a 20-point bulge up on the scoreboard.

Later, those same aspirations were certainly not diminished in the slightest once Sammad West, one of two Sankofa Academy Warriors who would finish this state semifinal round game in double figures in terms of personal scoring honors with West netting 10 to aid in the collective cause, finished off another hoop plus the harm to then make it a 41-27 Sankofa advantage with 2:04 left in the quarter by that point before the curtain would lower on a third period in which it felt as if the final stanza would effectively serve as a Sankofa Freedom Academy coronation.

In short, it would.

As far as reaching that desired 20-point hill was concerned, the Warriors would get darn close to it inside the first two minutes of the final quarter as a pair of hard-nosed buckets found inside the painted area by way of West and junior talent, Nafis Dubose, helped to make it a 50-31 Sankofa cushion.

Yet while Country Day would try to continue to demonstrate that same level of fervor, fight, and overall vigor that has largely come to personify their season at large as encapsulated by a pair of trifectas cashed in by Kane Kirby and Chris Dukes respectively which helped to whittle it down to a 55-39 margin with 3:30 left to play, the Cougars would get no closer for the remainder of the evening.

And so, once the dust eventually settled on what would conclude in a somewhat decisive 63-41 Sankofa Academy victory over Lancaster Country Day on this evening, rest assured that the Cougars went out firing all their basketball bullets.

“We had two really good practices this week,” Lancaster Country Day head man, Jon Shultz, said during Friday’s postmortem in the days leading up to what would become his team’s finale. “Our guys weren’t phased by any of this coming into today,” he remarked. “We’ve been outsized. We’ve been outquicked…I don’t know what it is. Whether it’s being young, being naïve, I don’t know what it is, but our guys never back down from a fight. And they shouldn’t.” Shultz said proudly of his bunch. “They play all year-round. They play pickup. They are just constantly playing basketball,” he continued. “None of this is anything new that they haven’t seen before. They’re just absolutely fearless. They have so much confidence.”

“I really do think they understand the situation we were in, and they savored it,” Shultz mentioned. “It’s not lost on them what this last month has been and what it means. That’s neat. That shows a really mature attitude. At the end of the day, they’re just 16, 17-year-old kids going against other 16, 17-year-old kids, right? It’s not like it’s the Sixers or anything,” Shultz joked with a smile.

Now, after concluding back-to-back campaigns which saw the Cougars reach their highest levels of success ever achieved in the form of a state quarterfinal and now a state semifinal round showing in two successive seasons, it’s clear that Lancaster Country Day’s program is situated on nothing but solid footing long-term. Yes, while LCD will have to see the key losses experienced in lieu of graduation heading into next season witnessed in the departures of senior starters Chris Dukes, Ben Sponaugle, and Jermey Ouilikin in particular, the cupboard for the Lancaster-Lebanon League’s smallest school is anything but bare.

“We never felt that way,” Shultz said without hesitation when questioned if he came into this year with his entire roster back in tow with some sort of perception as to whether this was essentially viewed as the program’s one singular shot at glory if you will. “Adryan Cruz for example got in there tonight and had some really good minutes for us. We think Adryan Cruz is a heckuva good basketball player. We just have like nine 5’10 guys, right? It’s a matter of getting those rotations squared away with guys like Chris Tucker, Chase Leed, Adryan Cruz. Those guys are always raring and ready to go,” said Shultz.

“One of the good things that has come out of this season has been that those returning guys now know how to watch film. They know how to scout teams. They just know how to really practice hard now,” he continued. “I know they’ll pick up that torch…I really think this program is going to have some really good basketball ahead of it for the next couple of years.”

But that right there, the continuation of this Lancaster Country Day program’s upward ascension on a steady incline with a clear positive shift in that beaten-to-death word of “culture” has been something not lost on anyone these last couple of years. That especially rings true considering a dynamic involved at this school that requires a student’s tuition for enrollment and the benefactors that come as a result of that. Namely, the oft-discussed annual class trip.

“You basically know a year ahead of time who’s going and who’s not,” Shultz said of the school’s ability to send its students on once-in-a-lifetime excursions over the spring break period, a time which usually conflicts with postseason basketball tournaments. “That’s just a part of the culture of the school. Like, if you if want to take Spanish IV, you go to Spain,” said Shultz. “It’s just going to happen, right?”

At times however, purely in terms of the basketball side of things, it has forced the program’s hand into not having much of a supporting bench, such as the case seen in their 2023 state tourney opening round game against Chester Charter. And while that never truly appears to a factor that will go away and never not be something lurking in the team’s background on a perennial basis, even this year, shortened bench and all due to said trip in their first-round game against North Penn-Liberty, Country Day nonetheless found key cogs littered all throughout their assembled roster.

“We had eight guys for that game, but only seven that could play,” Shultz highlighted of his squad’s game north of Williamsport now two weeks ago in the state lid-lifter. “We had Jordan (Ashby), we had Chris (Dukes), we had Cam (Harris), we had Jeremy (Ouilikin), but we were largely cobbled together,” he said. “Austin Zheng, he started for us that game. Nehemiah Smith, he’s never played basketball before this year, he played too. I joked with him, ‘You probably didn’t sign up for this, did you?’ But that’s who all we had. And you know what? It was fun.”

“That’s a lifetime experience right there,” Shultz said of two players in Zheng and Smith who averaged just northward of one-point-per-game combined between them the entire year, yet without whom this entire run would have been in no way be possible had it not been for their shared involvement. “That game was crazy because that was a three-hour trip for us and then the bus arrives 30 minutes late for us on campus. We got up there with just 29 minutes to go before the tip,” Shultz recalled of the trip to Tioga County. “(North Penn-Liberty) is a public school and the place is just packed with people. We had no time for a pregame talk. We had three guys that needed to get taped up…It was basically a case of getting off the bus, putting your stuff down, getting changed, then going right out there. But we were able to survive all of that where a lot of things could’ve gone wrong. We had about 15 built-in excuses for why we weren’t going to win that game. None of that ever crossed their minds though. They were like, ‘We’re here with who we got. We’re ready to go play.’ That’s just what happens here now. I don’t know what else to really say.”

Then again, winning also happens here at Lancaster Country Day School these days as well. So much so in fact based upon recent history that this two-year spurt shouldn’t be treated as some sort of anomaly.

There may be trips to distant foreign lands forthcoming that are built into the academic calendar. That much is to be expected it seems. Now however, there may also be spring trips to a far closer location to the school’s campus, Hershey’s Giant Center, that may also be found on Lancaster Country Day’s upcoming basketball slate as well. For if the Cougars can continue building on this similar trajectory, that adventure figures to come sooner rather than later.