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Warwick Goes Down Swinging As Warriors Stare Down Unbeaten Radnor Before Relinquishing 20-0 Third Quarter Rally As Raptors Advance In PIAA-5A State Tournament
 

Warwick Goes Down Swinging As Warriors Stare Down Unbeaten Radnor Before Relinquishing 20-0 Third Quarter Rally As Raptors Advance In PIAA-5A State Tournament

Written by: Andy Herr on March 11, 2023

 

There’s no denying it. There is just something intrinsically special about the state basketball tournament. After all, while the Twitter debates, looking at unscientific polls and everything of the like are fun in the interim, having the opportunity to settle the score as for who and what pockets of the commonwealth are truly the best where it matters most –the actual playing surface—understandably makes this a hoop junkie’s two-week fever dream. Of course, if you happen to find yourself opposite of one of the best high school teams in Pennsylvania right out of the chute, you can either view it as a detriment, or rather the opportunity to make a statement that would spring the basketball equivalent of a seismograph into overdrive should you happen to pull off a gigantic upset on the opening night that would drop collective jaws to the ground both near and far. As far as the Warwick Warriors were concerned, they certainly would approach it with the mindset of the latter no doubt.  

First and foremost, while you never want to brush the magnificent achievement of making the state dance off to the side, it’d also be hard to find fault with Warwick had they felt that they were playing this 2023 PIAA tourney with nothing but house money. It’s easy to say that I suppose when your talented roster doesn’t even have a 12th grader listed on it, a rare feat of achievement that surely has the Warriors in some truly rarified air when it comes to evaluating their future prospects alongside anyone else found in this state field, whether it be boys’ or girls’. However, while this is undeniably a program that continues to be on the rise under the direction of seventh-year head coach Chris Christensen (Seriously? Seven years already? Jeez. Where does the time go?), something best evidenced by this being their second-consecutive trip to the state tourney for the first time in a generation, describing their opening round state game on Friday night as a “challenge” may not even come close to doing it justice. 

When the dust had finally settled from all the other playoff games both home and abroad, Warwick had to reconcile with the fact that they would receive nothing if not an extremely hard draw following their three straight losses in the District 3-5A tournament, something that awarded the Warriors the very last spot in the dance, District 3’s 8th and final seed. Their prize? Oh, just District 1’s champion, the unbeaten Radnor Raptors.

Simply put, if you can make it to the month of March with an unblemished record, rest assured you are doing something in the epitome of perfect. But even that too might not accurately describe the exploits of this 27-0 Radnor outfit. Just try this on for size. Their closest margin of victory this season? Not even against a team from Pennsylvania. No, for that would come courtesy of a two-point victory against Worcester North hailing from Massachusetts in a holiday tournament held in Florida. In fact, their lone overtime game this year proved to be an eventual five-point triumph against another PIAA-qualifier, 6A’s Garnet Valley, 56-51 back in the early days of January. But beyond that, the Raptors had barely been forced to sweat at any point this season, something best evidenced by virtue of their eye-popping 20-point margin of victory in games this season which essentially means that the only bit of drama by and large as far as Radnor is concerned on a nightly basis this season is whether or not they will end up mercy-ruling their opposition at some point along the way.  

So, suffice to say, Warwick had their work cut out for them and then some once they showed just a stone’s throw away from Villanova’s campus for their first-round game at Harriton in a late venue change enacted early Friday morning to try and account for the sheer ticket demand. Even still, as Radnor had to be aware, this wasn’t exactly a Warwick team devoid of experience, not the least of which includes tangible examples of success found on big stages locally. And for a team that largely figures to be on the other side of this experiment both next year and beyond when it comes to them perhaps being the ones on hosting duties as an eventual district champion or at the very least an extremely high seed, the sheer experience gained over the course of the ensuing 32 minutes would certainly figures to do wonders for this young crop of Warriors moving into the future. That said, the learning curve would certainly be lessened significantly should Warwick be able to roll into Radnor’s backyard and come away with a victory that would promptly send shockwaves sprawling outward across the state of Pennsylvania.

But yet somehow, even in eventual defeat as it turned out, Warwick was still able to make good on that very premonition.

Suffice to say, if there was a fear factor of sorts that Warwick was supposed to come into the game with, they either hid it extremely well from the naked eye, or they simply didn’t have it whatsoever. Case in point, following a 3-ball sunk by 6’0 junior wing Carter Horst that cut Radnor’s early lead down to a deuce at 5-3 just 1:10 into the contest, a put-back at the cup thanks to another Warwick junior, Trevor Evans, knotted things up at 5-apeice not long thereafter.

That said, teams don’t suddenly wander into the state tournament with an unblemished record by accident. And never more was that apparent than with what Radnor’s Jackson Hicke was about to demonstrate.

Along with his team not coming into the PIAA tournament unbeaten by fluke, neither do high-level scholarship offers get presented to players either. With that in mind, it was easy to see as to why the Princeton Tigers appear to have found a key cog in their rotation for years to come in Hicke, especially considering how the towering senior big was about to rip off his own personal 5-0 salvo over the next few minutes, highlighted by a triple which put the Raptors up by a 12-5 count with just 2:15 left to be played in the opening stanza.

That said, Warwick was warm to this fight all night long.

In fact, following Hicke’s trey, Warwick’s Thomas Jeanes had the timely rebuttal in his own right as the Warriors’ 6’5 junior big who can stretch the floor with the best of them promptly canned a much-needed trifecta to stem the tide in the Warriors’ behalf. Not only that, but following a personal 5-0 rally authored by Evans right behind the Jeanes’ bucket, Warwick found themselves down by just a point at 14-13 once the opening eight minutes finally came to a conclusion.

In the second frame, the back-and-forth nature which had enveloped the opening quarter was on display once more.

Sure enough, Warwick was able to claim ownership of their first lead of the evening at 16-14 thanks to a triple sunk by the rapidly improving efforts of Caleb Johnsen as the sophomore’s 3-ball on the Warriors’ initial offensive possession of the second quarter knocked the Raptors back on their heels somewhat.

Need to get back on your feet? Turn to Jackson Hicke.

Needless to say, the Warriors’ early lead was short-lived if the future Ivy Leaguer had anything to say about it. And with that in mind, a pair of buckets tallied from within the paint by the 6’5 senior made it a 18-16 Radnor cushion just 1:20 into the second. By now, if you’re figuring that Hicke had a big night in store for himself, you needn’t second guess yourself seeing how he would finish the evening with a commanding 30-point outing to pace all scorers.

Undeterred however, Warwick just kept coming.

There, thanks to another Johnsen trey, this serving as a three-point addition to what would end up being a 16-point effort posted by the Warwick 10th grader, things were knotted up once again at 22-22 with just inside of four minutes left to be played before the halftime intermission. Yet while Radnor would proceed to take ownership of the 27-25 advantage following a 3-ball of their own cashed in via the efforts of Jackson Gaffney with inside of a minute left to go, the Warriors surely raised eyebrows both near and far thanks to their 28-27 halftime lead, a feat that came following Carter Horst being left all alone after forcing two Radnor defenders to tumble to the floor in unison thanks to his maneuvering with the pill in his hands just mere moments before the halftime horn blared out.

But even right from the outset of the third quarter, it was readily apparent that this was a Warwick team who had arrived here to Bryn Mawr on a mission.

Granted, while the Warriors would spot a Jackson Hicke trifecta which began the third quarter proceedings, a pair of treys courtesy of Caleb Johnsen not only spun the tide back in Warwick’s favor, but it also more importantly propelled the red-clad guests out to a 34-30 advantage.

From there, the Warriors’ cushion would only continue to swell upward in size and stature as a 5-0 rally authored by Warwick’s youngest of players, freshman Ya’Majesty Washington, made it a 39-32 Warwick lead with 5:10 left to play in the third period with perhaps a bit of disbelief cascading over the capacity crowd.   

However, while it may have been hard to predict at the time given how much pretty much everything appeared to be going in the Warriors’ favor by that point, Radnor was about to put their collective foot down and squash any Warwick belief of a seismic upset once and for all from that moment onward.

Sure enough, over the course of the ensuing 1:50 of action, not only did the Raptors regain their footing, but they got themselves back on level-ground as an old-fashioned three-point play by you guessed it, Jackson Hicke, knotted things up at 39-39 with 3:20 left to go.

But they weren’t satisfied there.

No, surely not once Jackson Gaffney proceeded to knock down a triple on the Raptors’ ensuing offensive trip following Hicke’s earlier exploits as Radnor had surged back in front within a flash, 42-39, with just inside of three minutes left to tick off the third quarter clock by that point.

However, this wasn’t just a wave of momentum that came lapping up on the Warriors’ shores. This was the basketball equivalent of a tsunami.

In fact, after finding themselves by that touchdown-deficit what felt like just moments earlier at 39-32, Radnor suddenly found themselves sporting a ten-point lead at 49-39 following yet another Gaffney triple, good for three more en route to his very solid 17-point night at the office.

Finally, and surely not a moment too soon as far as they had to be concerned, a Caleb Johnsen take to the rack finally ceased what would end up being an incredible 20-0 Radnor run found inside the third quarter as the Raptors carried the sizable 52-41 lead with them into the final stanza.

And right from the initial stages of the fourth, Radnor appeared to be well on their way towards an eventual second-round date.

At least it was easy to see that coming to fruition once Charlie Thornton was able to leak out on a breakaway and come away with a powerful two-handed jam in transition that upped Radnor’s lead to a 59-41 difference with the fourth quarter still well in its infancy.

But as they had displayed countless times before on this night, Warwick wasn’t just here to look around at the scenery before heading home.

For proof of that, look to a pair of Carter Horst 3-balls splashed in with the fourth quarter winding right along as Horst not only finished his stellar night with team-high scoring honors in netting an 18-point outing to pace the Warwick effort, but he also more importantly helped whittle Radnor’s lead down to a much more modest 10-point gap, 67-57, with 1:27 left to be played.

That said, there would be no heroics heading down the final furlong here.

Never more did that seem so blunt than with Radnor’s Cooper Mueller coming away with the textbook definition of a rejection on a would-be Warwick shot that inevitably led to a Raptors’ runout that would then be punctuated with a Jackson Gaffney dunk on the break, effectively dumping cold water on any Warwick comeback effort. And once the dust had finally settled, even despite their best efforts at trying to slay one of the state’s most foremost giants, that aforementioned third quarter rally proved to be Warwick’s eventual demise by the end of it all as Radnor was able to fend off a pesky Warriors’ effort, 70-59, once the final gun sounded.

“We battled. We represented ourselves well,” Warwick head coach Chris Christensen said without hesitation after addressing this group for the final time this season. “That’s a 27-0 basketball team,” he continued of Radnor. “We wanted to make it scary for them. I think we accomplished that. Could we have won the game? There’s some things we could have done better, but we knew we had to be pretty close to perfect for us. That’s pretty hard to do, but I thought we played hard,” he added. “That was the goal.”

“Yeah, they made a bunch of shots,” Christensen said when referencing Radnor’s third quarter jaunt that eventually proved to be too steep for the Warriors to climb upward from. “They’re good. They’re really good…We just stuck to our gameplan. Our gameplan was to make them shooters. I think (Radnor) made four 3’s during that run. That’s going to happen. When you’re letting people shoot it, there’s going to be a run at some point and it was just a bigger run than what we could take on,” he added. “But credit to them. You don’t get lucky being 27-0.”

Even still, while this defeat ended up being the end of the line for the 2022-23 Warriors, make no mistake about it. With quite literally nothing but additions and no subtractions off this roster as far as it pertains to graduation losses moving forward into next season, if Warwick can make that critical incremental jump this offseason, this too may end up being a squad built in a similar image to the team which had just knocked them out on this night come this time 12 months from now.

“Normally in there, I’m a mess,” Christensen acknowledged of what is typically the case when giving his final postgame speech of the year. “We didn’t have to be, but I still got a little emotional just because of the way we showed up and played and didn’t shy away from the moment. We haven’t always done that this year, but tonight we did,” he candidly admitted.  “I’m not a big moral victory guy at all, but if there’s a close one to it, this is it.”

But as mentioned earlier, there surely aren’t many teams found in this state tournament who will bring back 100% of their scoring into the fold next season. And while this Warwick Warriors’ program has been on nothing but a rocket ship upward since Christensen and his staff took over the reigns in Lititz, it’s quite possible that the best is still yet to come. Something that not would not just be unwelcomed news to both Lancaster-Lebanon League and District 3 foes, but perhaps the those found residing in other parts of the state of Pennsylvania as well.

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