NEWTOWN SQUARE — Noah Griffin has been there before, but then, so has his Sun Valley basketball team.
Wednesday wouldn’t be the first time the Vanguards have seen a reversal of fortune in the fourth quarter of a tight game, for or against. It wouldn’t be the first time Griffin would shoulder the responsibility of the ball in his hands in the final seconds. And it wouldn’t be the first January in which a Sun Valley team has borne little resemblance to its shaggier December version.
For it all, Griffin was ready Wednesday. The guard scored Sun Valley’s final nine points, all in the last two minutes, to pull out a 64-63 nonleague thriller over Delco Christian.
It extends for Sun Valley (13-7) a win streak to six games, while curtailing an eight-game run for Delco Christian (12-5).
Griffin made the difference in a pulsating final stretch. The Vanguards trailed by nine when Khamai Orange opened the fourth with a 3-point basket. But SV trimmed the gap with a 6-0 run from Blaize Eldridge midway through the quarter, then Eldridge’s power drive to the hoop with 2:39 left put Sun Valley up, 55-54. So began seven lead changes in the final three minutes.
Luke Bushra hit two at the line with 2:23 left. Griffin hit a right-handed floater at 1:48. Orange answered with an elbow jumper 12 seconds later. The teams traded empty possessions when Aaron Freeman picked off a pass and bounce-passed in transition to Griffin for an and-1. That made it 60-58 with 62 seconds left.
Reserve Bradford Berwick knotted the game by stroking home two free throws, his only points. Griffin went right back at it, with a crossover to lay in for a 62-60 edge with 33 seconds left. The Knights had an instant reply, Josiah Gaines hitting Caleb Jameson in the corner to bury his fourth triple of the game. It put Delco Christian up 63-62 with 23 seconds left.
Sun Valley didn’t call timeout, though, pushing the ball to Griffin. On his left hand, he got to the rack again and was fouled, then calmly hit two at the line for a 64-63 edge with 7.2 seconds left.
“It’s not the first time that we’ve had to run a play like that at the end of the game,” said Griffin, who scored a game-high 21 points. “Coach called my number and told me to go to the rack, and that’s what I did.”
Freeman beautifully executed two fouls to give, whittling the 7.2 seconds to 2.2. Orange, who led DC with 19 points, took the inbounds and two dribbles to attempt a 14-foot leader from the right wing. But it clanged side rim, and Bushra’s put back was well after the horn.
The boxscores look frighteningly and fittingly identical – Sun Valley 23-for-45 from the field, Delco Christian 23-for-46. The Vanguards were 7-for-17 from 3-point range, including 6-for-9 in the first half.
Long-distance shooting is Delco Christian’s specialty, and it went 9-for-22 from beyond, down from an average of nearly 11 makes per game. But both teams iterated off that central threat.
Sun Valley generated momentum with a high 1-3-1 zone, running shooters off the perimeter. They sagged in the third quarter, doubled up 20-10, but got back into it to start the fourth.
“We’re always moving,” Griffin said. “We’ve got to have good closeouts. The energy comes off deflections and pushing the ball.”
Delco Christian’s third-quarter run featured just one 3-pointer. The ball movement (15 assists) that makes them such dangerous shooters instead turned into making the extra pass, often slipping to bigs in the soft elbow.
“On our team, we have so many weapons and we can beat you in many ways,” Jameson said. “If a team wants to play zone and our 3s are hitting, we’ll rely on that. But that also allows the people who are really good at driving and getting in the lane, it allows them to do their thing because the defense has to pay attention to the shooters.”
Jameson scored 14 points, nine in the first quarter, to go with seven assists. Bushra had 10 points, four rebounds and five blocks. Gaines paired 12 points with eight boards.
Sun Valley got the looks it wanted for most of the first three quarters behind the aggression of Griffin, Eldridge and Kaiden Robinson (10 points). But Bushra’s shot alteration and a few misses in tight left Sun Valley behind.
Eldridge rectified that in the fourth, where eight of his 15 points came. After sitting in the third with foul trouble, he redoubled efforts to get to the rim.
“I have to get a few buckets to go before I get going,” Eldridge said. “My big Josh (Yannonis) helped me see what was open, so when I got back out there, I could execute. … They were able to contest the rim a lot. But I think after three quarters, we were able to get the ball to go in the basket.”
Neither team was lacking confidence late. For Delco Christian, which has a win over Marple Newtown already and entered as the top Class 2A team in District 1, there’s plenty to be gleaned even in the setback.
“These are really good experiences, win or lose,” Jameson said. “These are the games that really help you get better. Because if we get into a game like this in districts, it really helps us to learn from it and we can take what we learn and apply them.”
Sun Valley will take those lessons, too. But they’ll do so with an extra tick in in the win column.
“It happens like, every single year,” Eldridge said. “We always rally in the end. I don’t know what happens, but we came together as a group and have kept pushing.”
