Boys Basketball: Radnor ready to take next step in district final

There’s a certain glee that Radnor’s boys basketball team radiates when teams push them. It was evident in the Central League final against Lower Merion, and it was there between the lines last Saturday against Unionville.

The lore is established: Radnor has won its first 26 games of the season, by an average of 20.6 points per game. They have more championships this season (three, if you include an in-season tournament in Florida) than games decided by single digits (two).

The group of nine seniors, many of whom have been playing together since elementary school, at the center of this historic team remain hungry to see what they can really do, when the challenges and stakes are raised.

“We want to be tested,” guard Charlie Thornton said, after he helped turn the Central League final from a would-be tight game into a laugher. “We want to play the best we can.”

The next chance to do that will come at Temple on Saturday, when the top-seeded Raptors take on Unionville in the District 1 Class 5A final at 2 p.m.

Though Radnor’s rigorous focus on one-game winning streaks wouldn’t allow them to look too far ahead all season, this game is the one circled in the boldest ink. Last year’s final was a heartbreaker, the Raptors slinking back to the Main Line with silver medals thanks to Chester. Guard Kyree Womack tied the game with a 3-pointer with 4.7 seconds left in regulation and won it with 11.1 left in overtime., a 66-65 decision for the Clippers. Radnor’s 17 missed free throws caused a sleepless night or two.

This year’s campaign – to a first ever Central League title, back to states, to topping the best of Radnor’s 1960s squads – has been about many things, rectifying the district disappointment chief among them. Five of the six players who scored in that game are back and, it’s no stretch to say, better. They’ve added a college prospect in Jackson Gaffney and bolstered the rotation with young players who’ve gotten copious minutes, Radnor able to sub liberally while bludgeoning teams.

They’ve been rarely pushed. North Worcester (Mass.) stayed within two points in Florida. Garnet Valley took them to overtime in January. Lower Merion was within one at halftime in the regular season and tied in the league final, games decided by 23 and 14 points, respectively. In the semifinal, Rustin applied pressure to lead after three quarters, before the exceedingly inevitable avalanche arrived.

Third-seeded Unionville (22-4) is no slouch. The Longhorns have improved as the season has worn on. Their four losses – Rustin, Garnet Valley, Coatesville, Downingtown West – are all to teams that qualified for states, three in Class 6A.

But Radnor will approach the latest installment of a special season focused less on their opponent than on themselves. The belief within the program is palpable that they can beat anyone if they play to their standards, and there’s also a suspicion that they may not have reached that full capability just yet.

“We need to make a decision of what kind of team we want to be,” Thornton said. “And we continuously make the decision to buckle down and finish the game and win it.”