January 24, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local Sports

Chestnut Hill College coaches return to roots
by TOM UTESCHER

Chestnut Hill College’s Brandon Williams scored 10 points against Philadelphia Uiversity. (Photo by Jimmy J. Pack Jr.)

Both Chestnut Hill College women’s coach Jackie deMarteleire and men’s coach Jesse Balcer are products of the basketball program at Philadelphia University, and they returned to their alma mater last Tuesday evening as the visiting Griffins played a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference doubleheader against the Rams.

They each faced their former mentors, deMarteliere working across the scoring table from Tom Shirley (who is also Director of Athletics at  Phila. U.), while Balcer was matched up against area coaching legend Herb Magee, who is approaching his 850th career victory.

With the Rams being longstanding members of NCAA Division II, and Chestnut Hill just moving up to that level and joining the CACC this year, the results were predictable. The Griffin women (2-11 overall, 0-5 CACC) stayed reasonably close to the Lady Rams throughout the game before succumbing, 68-56, but in the men’s contest the home team buried CHC (1-12, 1-4) with a flurry of three-pointers in the middle of the first half, and went on to win, 90-52.

Lady Tigers victorious against Kangaroos
by Justin Goldman

The Germantown Friends School girls basketball team got back on track with a 63-25 victory over defending league champion Abington Friends on Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 15. Though the Kangaroos are the defending champions, they are not the same team, due to graduation and transfers of star players.

Mount swimmers beat Irish
by TOM UTESCHER

Following a sobering Catholic Academies loss at Villa Maria on December 13, the Mount St. Joseph Academy swim team bounced back last Wednesday evening, Jan. 16, with a 99-69 non-league victory over the Academy of Notre Dame, which hosted the meet at Cabrini College.

Mount hoopsters outlast Rams in three OT’s
by TOM UTESCHER

Mount St. Joseph Academy junior Elle Hagedorn had 13 points and six rebounds.

Last winter, Spring Ford High School was responsible for one of just two losses suffered by Mount St. Joseph Academy during the regular season. Last Saturday at the Play-by-Play Girls Basketball Classic, the Mount Magic returned the favor, knocking off the Royersford franchise and dropping the Rams’ record to 18-2.

To simply comment that Spring Ford didn’t go down easy would be an understatement; it took Mount St. Joseph (16-1) three overtime periods to pull out a 62-58 victory. Although both teams are members of the PIAA, they won’t meet again in the postseason, since Spring Ford plays at the AAAA level and the Mount is a AAA ballclub.