Boys Basketball: Hicke chalks up double-double as Radnor reaches Central League final

RADNOR — In Jackson Hicke’s exemplary all-around game, defense may not be the first attribute that springs to mind. As an admitted opportunist whose Radnor team frees him to maraud into passing lanes, Hicke wouldn’t be offended by that.

But nights like Saturday make clear just how instrumental his defensive work is in generating the points he’s known for.

Hicke did everything for the Raptors in a 65-34 win over Springfield in the Central League semifinals. But among the 19 points, 13 rebounds and five assists were six steals, part of 15 Springfield turnovers to get the high-flying Raptors into the open court.

“At the end of the day, it’s really them,” Hicke said, about as quick to deflect credit as he is a post-entry pass. “I’m just jumping the passing lane because they’re smothering kids and they have nowhere to go. But I love it because it gets me in transition, which I think is one of the best parts of my game. When they’re swarming the ballhandler, making them go into spots they don’t want to, they’re forced to throw passes they don’t want to and then I can anticipate it.”

The difference in pace got Radnor (23-0) heading toward Monday night’s final, at Harriton against No. 2 Lower Merion, which downed Upper Darby, 61-52. No. 5 Springfield hung in early, leading early in the second quarter and trailing just 21-18 late in the frame. But Radnor blitzed them out of the break, broke through Springfield’s deliberate pace and turned up the speed.

From the time Jake Adams hit his third 3-pointer of the first half until the 1:03 mark of the third quarter, Radnor scored 20 straight points. Four steals (seven total Springfield turnovers) played a part. And when Radnor gets going, no team this season has been able to slow them.

“I think we want to pick our spots like on the run at the beginning of the third,” Hicke said. “You’ve got to play smart, you don’t want to force stuff because you know you’re not going to get the ball for another minute and a half, but you don’t want them to throw you off your game.”

Springfield (12-12) labored so hard to stay in contact. It got 11 points from Colin Treude and nine from Adams in the first half. That cushioned the blow of Radnor holding leading scorer Michael O’Donnell without a basket on the night, the senior scoring one point on 0-for-4 shooting from the field.

Treude’s three-point play on the first possession of the second quarter gave Springfield its last lead at 11-10. It would tie the game twice in the frame and headed into the locker room still in it.

“I knew that we could compete with this team,” Treude said. “But they just had a stronger second half than us. They came out, they made their shots and we didn’t necessarily make ours. At halftime, we thought we were in this game.”

As Radnor has with every opponent this season, it wore Springfield down. Danny Rosenblum and Hicke bottomed 3-pointers in the first 1:40 of the third, turning a seven-point bulge to 13. Hicke added two put-back baskets to the run – part of a 32-17 rebounding edge.

The Raptors had their usually egalitarian offense. Cooper Mueller scored 12 points, including a run-out lay-in off a steal in the third. Charlie Thornton scored 10 plus three assists. Rosenblum had nine. Jackson Gaffney provided seven off the bench.

All contributed to Springfield’s long drought. The tireless approach on both ends, incessantly moving without the ball on offense and swarming to the ball-handler defensively, is a product of depth, desire and next-level chemistry.

“We’ve got guys fresh off the bench, ready to play hard and give it all they’ve got,” Hicke said. “It’s playoffs, everybody wants it real bad. So when we’ve got eight sets of fresh legs and guys that want to play for each other and really want to win, it’s a nightmare for the other team.”

Treude finished with 15 points, Adams with 11. Mike Hoey had five points in the fourth, by which time it was too late. Springfield also appears to be on the outs for the District 1 Class 6A field, with Bensalem’s win over Penn Wood Friday allowing the Owls to nudge Springfield out of the 24th and final playoff spot. (Seeds aren’t official until after Sunday’s district meeting; league playoff games don’t count.)

“We just tried to control what we can control,” Treude said. “We weren’t worried about if we were going to make districts or what-not. We were just focused on the game in front of us, and we just wanted to win tonight.”

Radnor is a win away from a Central League crown. The top seed has 23 wins this season by an average of 21.3 points per. Hicke, though, is about keeping it simple: The motto in the locker room, he says, seeks a one-game winning streak each game. For the Princeton signee, the simpler the equation, the better.

That simplicity, at least Saturday, paid off for Hicke.

“I don’t really have to do much,” he said. “I’ve just got to get the ball and run.”

In the other semifinal:

Lower Merion 61, Upper Darby 52 >> Upper Darby got within five in the fourth quarter, but the Royals couldn’t hit enough shots to down the second-seeded Aces.

Nadir Myers and Yassir Joyner scored 18 points each for the third-seeded Royals (17-7). Niymire Brown added 11 points.

Sam Brown led Lower Merion with 20 points. Sam Wright added 18.