Delco Girls Basketball Notebook: Emani Banks, Imani Dorsey leading a Del Val League rebirth
Academy Park’s Emani Banks and Chester’s Imani Dorsey are underclassmen with similar sounding first names, and two players from the Del Val League brimming with potential.
The Del Val lives in the shadow of the Central League and Catholic League, but there are talented players to be discovered. Banks, a rangy sophomore forward/center who doesn’t hesitate to shoot from long range, is one such player. Dorsey, a freshman point guard who possesses good court awareness and a nice jump shot, is another.
Banks was excellent in helping the Knights improve to 4-0 in league play last Thursday in a 53-50 win at Penn Wood, scoring 15 points to go with 12 rebounds and four blocks. She is averaging around 10 points per game.
“Imani is probably our most complete player,” AP coach Ron Bright said. “Defensively she can guard the wing and she can block shots. On offense she can shoot the 3, she can attack and she can shoot the mid-range.”
AP (7-8) has won six of its last eight games and sits in 14th place in the District 1 Class 5A standings, two off the pace for the final playoff berth.
Meanwhile, the Clippers are seeing flashes of what Dorsey can accomplish on a nightly basis. Although Chester (6-8) is unlikely to make the district tournament in Class 6A, coach Marvin Dukes is overseeing the growth of a program that has been devoid of success for years and Dorsey is a player the Clippers can hang their hopes on. Last Saturday, as Chester beat Executive Education Academy Charter for its sixth win of the season, Dorsey netted a career-high 21 points including four 3-point baskets. As she’s wont to do, Dorsey filled up the stat sheet with seven rebounds, four assists, five steals and two blocks.
“I keep telling Imani to have confidence, to drive and to dish the ball,” Dukes said after a win at Interboro last week. “She has the talent to do a lot. She’s getting better at doing a lot of the little things and being smarter with the ball.”
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Haverford High started the week fresh off a victory against Abington (14-3) at the Maggie Lucas Play-by-Play Classic.
With their 55-43 triumph, the 16-0 Fords rank No. 2 in the District 1 Class 6A standings, behind only Perkiomen Valley (14-1), whose only loss came against fifth-ranked Spring-Ford (16-2). Abington is in sixth place.
Senior forward Caroline Dotsey scored 12 of her game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter. Rian Dotsey, Caroline’s sophomore sister, had 15 points and senior power forward Mollie Carpenter provided 11 rebounds, four assists and four steals in the win.
Haverford has two big road games this week against Springfield (11-3) Tuesday and Conestoga (12-3) Saturday. Both teams are one game behind the Fords for the top spot in the Central League. The Fords edged Conestoga in overtime last month, 43-41.
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Radnor’s Mary Sareen is back to her old self after recovering from a serious knee injury that prevented her from playing in the state tournament last March. Sareen’s injury came during her team’s loss to Villa Maria in the District 1 Class 5A semifinal round.
“I fractured my kneecap. The ball wasn’t in play and I just took a bad fall,” said Sareen, the Raptors’ point guard, after a win at Ridley earlier this month. “I went through a lot of PT. I’m back and I’m good and I’m just having a lot of fun out there.”
With Sareen running the offense the Raptors are building off last year’s 17-win campaign. Despite recent losses to Garnet Valley, Haverford and Conestoga, the Raptors are 10-6 overall and ranked sixth in the district standings.
“I came back in June, I think, and I was able to finish off my club season. So I felt I was good for the high school season,” Sareen said. “We are having fun. We find a way to win, even though sometimes it isn’t pretty. Everyone plays a part.”
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Archbishop Carroll’s Taylor Wilson knows all about the pressure of freshman expectations. It’s a reason why the All-Delco and West Point commit scored her 1,000th career point in a loss to Archbishop Wood last Friday. Wilson is the 13th player in team history to hit the milestone.
Freshman guard Alexis Eberz has stepped into the Carroll starting lineup, filling a void left by Grace O’Neill (Villanova) and Maggie Grant (Villanova), and has provided a huge lift for a Patriots club still finding its way in late January. Carroll’s daunting schedule hasn’t deterred Eberz, who is averaging 9.5 points per game. She had a career-high 22 points in a win over Conwell-Egan earlier this month and tallied 19 in a loss to Life Center last Sunday. Eberz has been a nice complement to Wilson and her junior sister, Brooke, who are Carroll’s top scorers.
“She’s been great,” Wilson said of Eberz. “It’s so hard coming in as a freshman starting and to be the point guard starting is even harder. I have much confidence in her and she’s been doing so well. And she’s helped us a ton.”
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NOTES >> Episcopal Academy is enjoying its best stretch of basketball, going 4-2 in its last six games after beginning the season with eight straight defeats. Forwards Gaeli Keffer-Scharpf and Riley Thibodeau are the senior stalwarts. Junior guards Natalie Magnotta and Bella Notaro have both improved their scoring in recent weeks. … Academy of Notre Dame senior Katie Halligan recorded her 500th rebound in the Irish’s win over Peddie School last Friday. Two days later, sister Lizzie scored 19 points and earned game MVP honors in a win over Sanford at the Maggie Lucas Play-by- Play Classic. … Daily Times No. 1 Cardinal O’Hara faces Archbishop Wood Tuesday in a battle of Catholic League unbeatens. The Lions have won 10 in a row. O’Hara, Wood and Lansdale are all 4-0 in the league.
Contact Matt Smith at msmith@delcotimes.com
