Westtown wins 6th straight Friends League title despite scare from Academy New Church

PHILADELPHIA >> Minutes after Westtown School defeated Academy of the New Church, 52-48, in the Friends’ Schools League boys’ basketball championship final at Tom Gola Arena, Moose head coach Seth Berger reflected on the pack of Lions his team had to beat to capture its sixth consecutive FSL title.

“ANC is one of the best defensive teams in high school basketball that I’ve seen in years,” said Berger. “Coach [Kevin] Givens does a fantastic job — their kids play super hard, super-disciplined. Coming into this game, we did not underestimate ANC in any way — I’m not surprised this was a close game.”

Earlier this season, Academy of the New Church defeated Westtown, 48-47, in the Lions’ home gym Dec. 11.

Westtown senior guard Jalen Gaffney, who scored 20 points Friday, said, “Coming in, we knew ANC was going to give us a tough game. They play defense really hard.”

With the score tied at 48-48 and a minute to play, Gaffney stepped to the free throw line and calmly converted two shots to give the Moose a 50-48 lead that they never relinquished.

“When I walked to the line, I heard ANC’s crowd screaming, but I just blocked it out,” said Gaffney, “I knew my team needed those free throws, so I just locked in and made them.”

The lead changed hands numerous times Friday evening, and Westtown had to come back from deficits from the first quarter onward.

Academy New Church got out to a 10-6 lead late in the first quarter, as ANC junior guard Glenn Sabb scored eight first-quarter points, including a couple of dunks.

The Lions increased their lead to 19-13 in the second quarter, capitalizing on several Westtown turnovers.

The Moose then took advantage of a couple of ANC turnovers, and a Gaffney trey and a Noah Collier dunk gave Westtown a 20-19 lead.

Sabb, who had 16 first-half points, scored in heavy traffic inside to give ANC a 24-22 lead late in the second quarter, but Westtown  came back when freshman guard Quin Berger hit a trey just before the buzzer to give the Moose a 25-24 halftime lead.

In the third quarter, ANC slowly built a lead, and when the Lions’ Devin Bryant hit a trey after a bunch of patient ANC passes, Westtown trailed 38-31 with 2:07 left in the third period.

Westtown  sophomore guard Jalen Warley then hit a jumper after pulling down an offensive rebound; Gaffney nailed a three with 50 seconds left in the third period; then following an ANC miss from the outside, Warley hit a trey from the right corner just before the buzzer sounded to give the Moose a 39-38 lead.

Gaffney said, “When I saw his shot go in, I thought, ‘We’re going to win this game.’ In the fourth quarter, we stuck with our game plan, we didn’t back off. We knew we had to hustle to beat them, and I think we rebounded a lot better this time than when we last played ANC.”

Academy of New Church took a 48-44 lead with about three minutes left when Isaac Marshall hit a three from the top of the key. But Westtown came back again on Gaffney’s free throw shooting and an athletic, twisting layup by Warley that tied the score at 48-48 with two minutes to play.

Following Gaffney’s two free throws that gave Westtown a 50-48 lead, Academy of the New Church missed underneath and Noah Collier was fouled. Collier, who finished the night with 12 points, converted a free throw to make it 51-48 with 18.2 seconds left, then following an ANC missed attempt from three-point land, T.J. Berger was fouled and converted a free throw with 2.4 seconds left to ice the game.

“At the end of the day, our kids made a couple of key plays when it counted the most, and that’s why we won the game,” said Seth Berger. “Our key was keeping composure. We played a really difficult schedule all year – I think we’re something like 8-3 in close games. So we’ve been in close games before where we were trailing and had to come back. At the end of the game, our kids really executed on the defensive end, really rebounded, and then were smart when we got possessions.

“Jalen Gaffney and Noah Collier were absolutely fantastic tonight. Noah’s defense tonight was at a whole other level. Jalen and Noah are both superstars, so I’m not surprised at their performance, but still it was a great game by both of them.”

In the upcoming PAISAA tournament, Westtown is the No. 2 seed (behind Haverford School), Shipley is third and ANC is eighth.

Berger said, “The Friends’ League was tough this year. Coming into this season, I thought there were three teams who could win the FSL title — Westtown, Shipley and ANC. And ANC is the best No. 8 seed I’ve ever seen in the PAISAA tournament.”