PHILADELPHIA — By the final minute of Saturday night’s District 1 Class 6A final, the scoreboard rang true in a very specific way for Garnet Valley.
The 14th seed was trying to complete its fourth straight win over a top-six seed, and it had struggled, to put it mildly, against No. 1 Lower Merion. It was shooting south of 30 percent from the field. It had trailed by as many as 15 early in the second half. A tough climb against a 26-1 foe that had beaten them twice this season was steepening by the moment.
And yet, with 25.2 seconds showing on the clock at the Liacouras Center, Garnet Valley was … within five points. One LM mistake, one hot-shooting mini-spurt, one freak high school basketball series of bounces, and maybe things would get interesting.
They didn’t, Lower Merion completing a 57-49 win and lifting the trophy. But for Garnet Valley, in its first district final of this magnitude, had proven a point: Even in a defeat where it was downright displeased with the way it played, the Jaguars belonged.
“We definitely didn’t shoot well, but I’m proud of how we played and fought,” point guard Quinn O’Hara said. “We stayed into it until the very end.”
The asymmetry in histories is hard to miss. Lower Merion is the bluest of District 1 blue bloods, with seven PIAA titles. While Kobe Bryant was lighting up the Central League, Garnet Valley was a Class AA school kicking around in the Southern Chester County League.
Yet in short order, the Jaguars have become a perennial states qualifier under coach Mike Brown, one that can reach a district final not because of one or two stacked classes but with a program mentality that evens out those peaks and valleys.
The program Brown took over in 2012 was a long way from finals nights on North Broad. After two states appearances in the late 1990s, including the 1997 District 1 Class AA title under Stan Shepanski, the Jaguars’ move to the Central League in 2008 occasioned lean times. They won just seven times in their first 64 tries in the league. Brown took over after three straight one-win seasons; by 2016, Garnet Valley had won just two district playoff games in 19 seasons since its AA crown. (The 1998 team generated Garnet Valley’s last All-Delco, Joel Smith, before Carl Schaller in 2020.)
Brown has orchestrated a turnaround. It took three seasons to get on the winning side of the ledger. But the Jaguars haven’t had a losing season or one outside the district playoffs in the PIAA’s largest classification since. For nine seasons, they’ve played at a .675 clip (160-78). They’ve crossed the 20-win threshold twice and are one states win from doing so a third time this year, after one 20-win campaign in the program’s first five decades (with the caveat that many more games are played now). The Jaguars have made states four straight years, and it would’ve been five if not for the field being limited by COVID-19 in 2020, with two wins.
None of that makes them Lower Merion, flush with players who will play at the college level, if this season perhaps lacking one to reach the Division I heights as in the past.
Some nights, the talent disparity is tough to bridge. Saturday was one such night. Garnet Valley shot 17-for-56 from the field (30.4 percent). It hoisted 27 3-point attempts and made seven. Jake Sniras, a 1,000-point scorer as a junior, struggled mightily, shooting 4-for-21 from the field for 15 laborious points.
Yet for all those struggles, his first 3-point make, on his eighth attempt, at 5:46 of the fourth had the Jags in touch, down only 42-34.
O’Hara scored 12 points. Brady Krautzel added 14. A reliable scorer out of the starting five, Jack Krautzel had five points on 2-for-9 shooting before fouling out.
But none of the Jaguars came anything close to quitting. Not when they trailed by eight at half. Not when four points from Jayden Robinson and a John Mobley triple out of the break ballooned LM’s lead to 15. Not when Mobley turned a six-point lead into 10 after three quarters with a four-point possession, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
Instead, quietly, steadily, the Jags stayed close. And when O’Hara hit two at the line with 25.2 seconds left, it was just 52-47.
It fits the ethos that Brown has installed. Shots will fall, or they won’t. Talent will ebb and flow year to year. But something quintessentially Garnet Valley has remained.
“He preaches working hard, rebounding,” O’Hara said. “He’ll never get mad at us for missed shots. He’ll get mad at us for lack of hustle. Just controlling what you can control, hustle as hard as you can. Coach Brown is building a great culture by preaching things like that.”
O’Hara has a unique viewpoint. He started his career at Salesianum before transferring back to his home district. He played last year before sitting out the postseason in accordance with the PIAA transfer rule.
He’s come to understand that things at Garnet Valley are different these days – different maybe even than when he contemplated what he wanted in a high school four years ago. And they’re trending in a definite direction.
“This program is only going to get better and better,” O’Hara said. “We put our name out there this year, and Coach Brown is going to keep bringing the guys back better and better, and I see us winning this sometime soon.”
Contact Matthew De George at mdegeorge@delcotimes.com.
