Missed free throws cost Faith Christian against Delco Christian in District 1-A semis
CHELTENHAM >> The foul line doesn’t seem imposing, a small white stripe on a basketball court.
But it certainly finds a way to have a big, big influence on a lot of basketball games. Teams that don’t make their free throws often find it difficult to win that game where teams that are hitting them find it much easier to close out a win.
Tuesday night at Cheltenham, Delco Christian made most of its foul shots and Faith Christian missed far too many of its attempts. No surprise, the Knights of Delco pulled off the win, topping the Lions 63-54 in a District 1 Class A semifinal.
“It was huge, we were 9-for-22 (at the line) and you won’t win basketball games shooting (40 percent),” Faith coach Tony DaCosta said. “They only missed three, so that’s a big issue when you’re up against a team that’s going to make its free throws and you’re not.”
The loss marked the third straight year that Delco has knocked Faith out of the District I tournament and ended the Lions’ season.
“It’s hard because we keep losing to the same team in the playoffs over and over again,” Faith senior Chris Clark said. “We beat them earlier in the season so that gave us confidence but if I’m Delco, I’d be thinking we’re the defending champions and they had to get back where they belonged.”
Faith wanted to exploit its size inside, pounding the ball to Landon Coyle and Zeke Snowden early in the first. After opening up a 5-0 lead, the Lions saw it cut to 5-4 but held a 7-6 lead midway through the first while hold Delco’s potent scorer Wyatt Harkins without a shot attempt.
But when Delco went to its bench and summoned TJ Tann, the game spun in the Knights favor quickly. Tann, a junior, provided an instant lift with four points, two steals and an assist as Delco closed the first on a 6-3 run and led 12-10. DC put a renewed emphasis on attacking Faith’s passes, rather than trying to hold off its bigs and the result was a number of deflected balls that the guards could feast on.
“They came out and did what they could do and what they could do was not let me score at all. They did a good job with that,” Snowden said. “I was trying to be available and get into position to rebound, but they weren’t having that.”
Harkins, who had made two foul shots in the first, got his first shot to go down with 5:57 left in the first half on a feed by Tann. Delco opened up a 20-13 lead, prompting a Faith timeout before back-to-back buckets by Chris Clark cut it to 20-17 with 2:57 left. And offensive put-back by Snowden cut it down to 22-19 but DC countered with hoops by Jalen Johns and Tann to take a 26-19 lead into the break.
Jordan Parks took over late in the third for Delco, scoring six straight from 3:52 to 2:35, putting the Knights up 35-28. Faith charged hard to get into the bonus but couldn’t capitalize on the chance to cut into the lead at the free throw line. The Lions missed the front end of their first two one-and-one chances, both of them coming with Faith behind.
“We just weren’t focusing, we were rushing,” Clark said. “We have 10 seconds (to shoot a free throw). We really needed them.”
Faith did close to 44-41 on a Clark put-back with 4:55 left but Delco kept coming up with answers. Most of those answers came at the line where the Knights were 15-of-16 in the final quarter.
“I wanted to try my mind, I knew that I had been there before,” Harkins, who went 8-of-8 at the line in the fourth, said. “I missed the one-and-one to send us into overtime in (the BAL tournament) so that was still in the back of my mind. I knew the other day I went 20-for-20 at the line, so that put a lot of confidence in my mind.”
The free throw shooting clearly hurt Faith but DaCosta also pointed out that his team missed a number of easy shots inside as well. Without much perimeter shooting, those attempts were absolutely necessary for a team trying to come back.
The loss ended Faith’s season at 18-7.
“It happens,” Snowden said. “You can’t win every game. You can only come back next year and be ready to go.”
