Boys Basketball: Charlie Thornton lights it up to lead Radnor to Central title

LOWER MERION – Charlie Thornton exited the locker room at Harriton High School Monday night wearing sunglasses. Given the blinding shooting night he and his Radnor teammates had just inflicted on Lower Merion, it was probably better safe than sorry.

Thornton hit six 3-pointers to tie a career-high with 26 points, the Raptors scorched the nets to a 20-for-30 shooting performance and Radnor ran away in the second half, winning the Central League title with a 60-46 decision.

“I told Jackson (Hicke) a few days ago, I haven’t felt like I couldn’t miss in a while,” Thornton said, his shades neatly tucked away. “And today was one of those days. My guys find me wherever I needed to be found. They know where I like my spots, and they put me in those positions to make plays.”

Accessories aside, Thornton is the first to defer credit. Which makes sense, because that’s how Radnor has gotten to 24-0, lifting what is believed to be its first title in the Central League, which dates to the mid-1960s. Radnor’s brilliance is predicated on that one extra pass – always selfless, always looking for the next man, always getting the ball to the player in the best position to help the team.

It’s how you get 13 assists on 20 made baskets, how you hit on your first nine attempts of the second half to break open a 23-23 game to a 41-28 margin, how you end up 8-for-14 from deep.

“This is one of the most unselfish teams ever,” Thornton said. “Everyone is willing to move the ball. Especially when teams scout and they see we have players like Jackson that can score the ball and Danny (Rosenblum) that can break down a press and get to the basket, having the ball movement and making them have to rotate and have to guard to however long we want to make them guard for is really important for us.”

There is, it should be said, one caveat to that share-the-ball dictum: When someone is on like Thornton was, the ball had better find him.

“Emotionally for me, it feels even better than when I’m making those shots,” point guard Danny Rosenblum said. “I make sure I get him the ball, and I’m just proud of him for having a game like that. We really needed it.”

Second-seeded Lower Merion (20-4) had an ideal gameplan early. They slowed the pace and forced Radnor to defend out to halfcourt, opening lanes to cut in behind and reducing Radnor’s help defense. They led by eight late in the first quarter, before a Thornton triple (what else?) cut the lead to five. The game was tied at 23 at half, thanks in large part to 11 first-half points from Jordan Meekins.

But Radnor, who had won its first 23 games by an average of 21.6 points per, were fine with that situation. With just two games decided by single digits this season, they haven’t been tested often. They relished a chance for that Monday.

“We said we wanted it to be interesting,” Rosenblum said. “These are the games we want to play in, and we want to display how we can play.”

Like in the regular-season meeting, where Radnor led by one at halftime before stampeding to a 64-41 win, the deluge started quickly after the break. Thornton laid in for two, then canned a 3-pointer from the wing. Cooper Mueller, who assisted on the first Thornton basket, laid in a Rosenblum feed, one of his seven assists.

Sam Wright stemmed the tide briefly with five straight points. But Jackson Hicke went to work. Lower Merion had held him to five points in the first meeting and to just one shot attempt in the first quarter, but he broke the shackles for nine points in the second quarter. He added eight in the third, including an and-1 in the lane to make it 34-28.

When he Euro-stepped and got a floater to fall, the margin was 41-28 and Radnor had one foot on the ladder to cut down the nets.

Lower Merion wouldn’t go quietly. They turned up the defense in the fourth, Wright jumping passing lanes, to get within 43-36. Thornton and Wright traded triples before a Rosenblum 3-pointer (assisted by Hicke) put Radnor up 10 again.

Hicke finished with 19 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Thornton added a pair of blocks in the fourth, one a from-behind swat of Justin Poles that might have taken the wind out of LM’s sails for good. Rosenblum added six points to the seven dimes.

Sam Brown and Meekins had 14 points each to lead the Aces. Brown was just 1-for-6 from 3-point range, the Aces 6-for-18 on the night. Wright added 10 points plus team-highs with three assists and four boards.

But that wasn’t enough to stop the ride Radnor has been on. Thornton made sure of it.

“We want to play the best we can,” he said. “If that means being tied at halftime, then so be it. But we need to make a decision of what kind of team we want to be. And we continuously make the decision to buckle down and finish the game and win it.”