The pre-game atmosphere was electric at Lower Merion High School’s Bryant Gym as the players from Radnor, and Lower Merion maneuvered through their pre-game drills – all wearing looks of grim determination. At the same time, fans from both schools streamed in and filled the bleachers almost to capacity.
This was a much-anticipated matchup between two of the top-rated teams in the state, one that pitted the unbeaten Radnor Raptors (17-0, 11-0 Central) against the previously once-beaten Lower Merion Aces (15-2, 9-2 ).
The game featured a faceoff between a pair of future Ivy Leaguers – Lower Merion’s Penn-bound Sam Brown against Radnor’s Princeton commit, Jackson Hicke.
For the first 16 minutes of the game, the crowd was treated to the kind of nailbiter that they might have anticipated it would be. At the half, the teams went to their locker rooms with Radnor clinging to a 24-23 lead.
If there was any doubt who the favorites were in the Central League, @radnorbball put them all to rest tonight. The Raptors were just terrific in the second half at Lower Merion.
— Josh Verlin (@jmverlin) January 25, 2023
My story: https://t.co/4ZxhgVnvaj
But in the third period, the Raptors got hot while the Aces went ice-cold.
At the end of the 8-minute quarter, having outscored Lower Merion 21-5, Radnor led 45-28. The Raptors then poured salt into Lower Merion’s wounds as their subs outscored the Aces’ in the final quarter, 19-13.
For what little consolation it might have been worth to him, Brown outscored Hicke 16-5, but by no means was Hicke a non-factor in the game. As Josh Verlin wrote in City of Basketball Love –
With the Aces’ sending bodies at the 6-foot-5 Princeton commit every time he attacked the paint, Hicke didn’t force shots but instead found his teammates cutting for open layups time and time again, racking up seven assists; he also grabbed 10 rebounds and came up with two third-quarter blocks while finishing with five points, taking only five shots.