Tues. Pa. boys’ roundup: North Penn upends Upper Darby

There is still some fight left in the North Penn boys' basketball team.

Finding themselves in the unenviable position of battling for the last of nine PIAA Class AAAA state playoff berths from District 1, the Knights pulled away from host and No. 4 seed Upper Darby and stunned the Royals, 59-43, Tuesday.

North Penn (21-5), the No. 8 seed, has already beaten Springfield (Delaware County) and Upper Darby, and will have to beat No. 11 seed Penn Wood Friday at Council Rock South for the honor of playing the District 2 runner-up in a play-in game on March 8.

North Penn took a 42-39 lead into the fourth quarter, then outscored Upper Darby (23-3), 17-4, to ice the game.

The Knights went 13 for 18 from the free-throw line down the stretch, including a perfect 6 for 6 from Janeus Somers, who finished with 10 points. Wes Brooks added 14 points for North Penn.

The Royals got 14 points from Brandon Hashim.

In the other ninth-place semifinal, Penn Wood held off visiting No. 15 seed Wissahickon in the fourth quarter and beat the Trojans, 63-57.

The Patriots (18-8) were led by West Virginia recruit Aaron Brown who scored 13 of his 23 points in the first half. He scored eight points in the first quarter and drained two of his trio of three pointers in the second quarter.

Wissahickon (15-10) got 24 points from Jordan Reed.

In a fifth-place semifinal game, Raheem Hall picked up a loose ball and went in for the game-winning layup with 15 seconds left to give visiting No. 13 seed Lower Merion a 45-44 win over No. 9 seed Bensalem.

In the other semifinal, Anthony Nash came through with 19 points and boosted No. 6 seed West Chester Rustin past visiting No. 7 seed Norristown, 57-50.

Rustin will host Lower Merion Friday for fifth place while Norristown will travel to Bensalem for the seventh-place game.

District 1 Class A. Howard Sellars dropped in seven of his 17 points in the third quarter and sparked top seed Church Farm to a 60-47 semifinal win over No. 4 seed Girard College at Cheltenham.

In the other semifinal at Cheltenham, No. 3 seed Faith Christian got 17 points from Greg Boyd and downed No. 2 seed Phil-Mont Christian, 57-53.

Faith Christian and Church Farm both qualified for the PIAA Class A state tournament and will play for the district title Saturday at Villanova.

Phil-Mont and Girard will meet in a consolation game to determine the final state playoff berth.

Rashaan Hale rolled a high game of 234 and a 635 series for Roman Catholic in a 4-0 win over Monsignor Bonner in a Catholic League quarterfinal match at High Spot Lanes in Roxborough.

In another quarterfinal match, Beau Fleming rolled a high game of 270 and a series of 730 to lead Conwell-Egan past Father Judge, 3,220-2,988.